Here’s the thing. If you took a few months off from the world and refused to watch this spring’s NBA Playoffs, what we’re about to tell you might be surprising. Stephen Curry is oh so very happy that he didn’t fall to the Knicks in the 2009 NBA Draft. With the No. 7 pick in that draft, Golden State selected the man who’d one day go on to become one of the most tantalizing and exciting playmakers in the NBA. One pick later, the Knicks selected Jordan Hill.
In an awesome profile on Curry from Will Leitch, the sharpshooter explained himself as not much of a Knicks hater, but more as someone who’s just fallen in love with the area that drafted him:
But mostly: It’s the fans. “No offense to New York, but I’m so, so happy I didn’t fall to them in the draft,” he says after I tell him I’m a Knicks fan. “No matter what they do with the new arena, they better not change the dynamics of the fanbase. If we have the same fans, in this new place … man, I’d want to play here forever. Wouldn’t you?”
Initially, Curry was disappointed he wasn’t going to the Big Apple. Yet now, who’d want to be anywhere else when his new home is literally giving him the keys to the city after making the second round of the playoffs. Think about that… we’re only talking about the second round.
“If we’d have won the title, they’d have put a statue of Coach Jackson on top of the bridge,” Curry told Leitch in the feature.
Yep, that’s how much they love their Warriors. Curry has always been a small-town guy, and in a way, everything seems like it worked out for the better even if his recent playoff explosion (23.4 points, 8.1 assists a night) has left him feeling a little too much like a celebrity. As for the Knicks, they’re doing okay. If Curry had fallen to them, they might’ve screwed it up anyway, leaving another bullet for this list.
What would’ve happened had the Knicks gotten Curry?
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