It’s funny how a minor move has the potential to turn a franchise around forever. Striking gold in the NBA Draft isn’t easy. But every now and then, a once-in-a-lifetime player like Stephen Curry can fall right into your lap.
That’s what the New York Knicks hoped would happen back in 2009. They have set their sights on a tweener guard out of Davidson and always thought he’d be around by the time they were on the clock.
That never happened as the Warriors snatched him with the seventh-overall pick. Now, former Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni reveals that they could’ve traded up and had him, but they didn’t want to give up another player.
NBA News: Mike D’Antoni Says The Knicks ‘Wanted StephCurry So Bad’
“We were picking 8 in New York and man we wanted him so bad, I could taste it,” D’Antoni said in The Old Man And The Tree.“I didn’t know he was gonna be the Steph he is, obviously. But, for New York, he would have been on fire. He went 7 and that was one of the highlights of my disappointment — it’s like, that’s huge.”
“We could have, I think, moved up to 5 to get him but we had to give up a player,” D’Antoni explained. “I think the reasoning at the end of the day, with management, was that we were gonna get him at 8 anyway so why give up that player.”
Curry Also Wanted To Play For The Knicks
To make things even worse, Curry actually wanted to play for the Knicks. He always thought he was going to end up in the Big Apple and had even reached out to the team’s front office to sort things out:
“I absolutely was wanting to go to the Knicks,” Curry told GQ. “The draft was in New York, it was my dad’s birthday, June 25th 2009. Had a lot of conversations with the GM of New York at the time who said if I was on the board, they’d picked me. So there’s a lot of hype because being in New York, I thought I was going to be a New York Knick. But they always be careful what you wish for, everything happened the way it was supposed to be, so I’m a Warrior.”
Eventually, Curry led the Warriors to five trips to the NBA Finals, won three rings, two MVPs, and became the greatest shooter of all time. The Knicks, on the other hand, haven’t been that good lately.
