During a podcast appearance, Stephen Curry admitted that he wanted the New York Knicks to draft him back in 2009.
The New York Knicks will always have to wonder “what if” when it comes to Stephen Curry. The two-time MVP and three-time NBA champion was taken one spot before the Knicks picked Jordan Hill.
On Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s podcast—“All The Smoke”—Curry tells the story of how he wanted to be drafted by the Knicks. In fact, Curry expected to be heading to New York with the eighth pick before the Golden State Warriors swooped in to draft him.
“When I got drafted, it’s kind of funny thinking back, I wanted to go to New York and thought I was going to New York,” said Curry. “I was in the draft, I was in the green room like, ‘Oh, we’ll get to the eighth spot and New York will get me,’ and then I got the call from [then-general manager] Larry Riley and like, ‘Alright, we’re gonna pick you in the seventh spot.”
This is not new information. Curry didn’t work out for the Warriors during the pre-draft process and it was reported that the Davidson product wanted to play in Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system in New York. Unfortunately, for Knicks fans, the pressure put on by Curry’s camp didn’t dissuade the Warriors from taking a chance on the wiry combo guard from a mid-major school.
That decision by Riley ended up being the smartest basketball move he would ever make. The Warriors later added Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and a slew of complementary pieces and created an all-time great NBA dynasty.
The Knicks just missed out on one of the greatest players in history and the ironic part is he was doing everything in his power to come to New York.