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The Warriors Almost Traded Stephen Curry To The Suns For Amare Stoudemire
Most of you know that Stephen Curry was only the 7th pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. Most of you also know that the Timberwolves failed twice in drafting Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn ahead of Stephen Curry. But very few know, that Stephen almost ended up being traded to the Suns for Amare Stoudemire on Draft night.
The current Warriors coach Steve Kerr was the Suns general manager during that time. Kerr thought he had a deal with the Warriors on draft night involving Amare Stoudemire and the Warriors’ 7th pick (which ended up being Steph Curry).
The Suns already had eyes on Stephen Curry and really wanted him on their team. As you can imagine, they were pretty happy when the Timberwolves drafted Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn – meaning Stephen Curry was still available at 7.
The Warriors though, also liked Stephen Curry a lot prior to the draft. They didn’t think that he would still be available at position 7. Once they saw that he did slip to number 7, they instantly decided to not go through with the trade and keeping Stephen instead. This turned out to be the smartest decision the Franchise made in the last 30 years.
Dell Curry (Former NBA Star and Stephen Curry’s father) about the whole situation:
“We told Minnesota that Steph didn’t want to go there. We had no idea that they agreed to a trade. Obviously, they put that out. I remember Steve Kerr calling me (the following morning) and saying, ‘Don’t go to the press conference. We have a trade that they reneged on’ I’m like, ‘That’s between you guys. We’re going wherever they tell us. We can’t not go.”
The Warriors made a franchise-changing decision, as they initially didn’t think being able to draft Stephen Curry. What if the Warriors had accepted the trade nontheless? Probably no rings, and no dynasty. That is why every draft pick is crucial to a teams success.
