Steph Curry never wanted to play for the Golden State Warriors. In fact, he wanted to play for the New York Knicks.
The three-point-scoring king recently revealed this to his teammate Draymond Green on “The Draymond Green Show.”
“The draft is always weird just because you have a plan. You think you know where the best fit is,” said Curry. “Especially in a lottery kind of situation, you know who you’re kind of slotted against from other counterparts at the same position. I always wanted to go to New York, that was it like I was trying to find my way there.”
Almost A Knick
“Mike D’Antoni was there, Danilo Gallinari, our future now past, but at the time future teammate David Lee. Like it was supposed to be like the run-and-gun-type Phoenix 2.0 offense, and I was supposed to be a point guard there, and they kind of sold me on that dream. But they had the eighth pick, so I wanted to go there. I didn’t work out for Golden State. I didn’t come out here before the draft.”
However, Curry would be drafted by the Warriors, which would change the course of history.
God’s Plan
“I talked to Larry Wright, the then-GM in Chicago at the pre-draft combine for dinner once, talked to Don Nelson once, but that was really it. Saying Minnesota, they had the five and sixth pick so I was like all right, if I can just get past five and six, cool, I’m going to be in New York.
“That’s going to be dope and everything I imagined the NBA to be in the fit it was going to be there, and then Larry Wright and Don Nelson had a plan. Seventh pick came around, called my name; I had like mixed emotions because, like I said, it was a dream come true in the draft it don’t matter where it is but I was like that was not on my radar,” Curry said, laughing.
“I was like careful what you wish for and you know God got a plan. So 13 years later I’m still out here.”
The Respect Of Titans
Steph also talked about LeBron James’ loose overture to Curry as an ideal fantasy teammate. He took the time to recount their friendship over the years.
“We talk about it all the time with ‘Bron, especially knowing our history and Finals runs and all that and playing against him,” said Curry. “There is no denying his greatness in terms of what he can do on the court. Sometimes even when you’re playing against him, you’re in awe because it’s like the way he can control the tempo of the game, the way he can dominate scoring, passing, just his overall just presence and his IQ, like all that stuff, we all talk about it.
“You have to appreciate your competition if you want to beat them because, as coach would call it, there has to be that appropriate fear.”
Fantasy Turned Reality?
“In terms of him picking out one player aside from his son that he would want to play with, and my name comes up, it is definitely surreal because I will never be so far removed from that time I was in Detroit playing in a Sweet Sixteen game and this dude was maybe in his fourth or fifth year in the league, and he’s coming to my game, like supporting and cheering and doing all that stuff, even at the place he was at in his career. You know, the future superstar, Hall of Famer, you know, potentially greatest of all time.
“The fact that we’re 13 years removed, and he’s saying that is still crazy. I don’t know if many people know this, but he gave me a jersey when I was in college at Davidson, and I still have it on the wall at my parents’ house back in Charlotte, and he wrote it to the king of basketball in North Carolina and signed it and all that. So I’ll never get too far removed from like where I came from in terms of this journey.”
Reality Check
But would Curry consider playing with LeBron? The answer is a glimpse into his realistic approach to sports.
“The other quick part is like OK, if you take a fantasy draft and you’re, like, building a team out, and you’ve got what LeBron can do and the way I can shoot the ball, like, obviously there’s like a curiosity, like, what would that look like? But also there’s realism of, like, that’s why I said I’m good now.
“You can never let your mind go from what you know is your situation, what is your moment, your time, and who I’ve been rocking with from Day One, so that’s my best answer at it because its fantasy, it’s wild but there’s a respect and appreciation. There’s a surrealness because of where I came from and how we first interacted back when I was in college but if this was 2K it’d be pretty lethal.”
