Stephen Curry was not expected to be a superstar in the NBA, let alone a history maker. When Curry was entering the league, there was a lot of skepticism towards him. After all, he was an undersized, jump-shooting point guard who had played in college for three years.
Most teams expected Curry to be a valuable player, but not a superstar at the level of his contemporaries such as LeBron James and Kevin Durant. But given how big a star Curry has gone on to become, it has made teams that passed on him look quite foolish.
But some former executives still don’t want to talk about it. As part of a recent piece done by Yaron Weitzman on Fox Sports, the author reached out to former Timberwolves GM David Kahn to ask how he felt about passing on Stephen Curry, twice, given how he turned out.
Kahn was slightly abrasive in his response, saying that he would discuss rejecting Stephen Curry as soon as teams like the LA Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, and Washington Wizards explain why they passed up on Curry and allowed him to fall to the 7th pick.
*On a related note: I reached out Tuesday to former Minnesota Timberwolves general manager David Kahn, who passed on Curry twice and used that draft’s fifth and sixth picks on point guards Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn. I wanted to know how Kahn has processed this week.
“I would be happy to talk to you just as soon as you talk to the Clippers (Blake Griffin), Memphis (Hasheem Thabeet), Sacramento (Tyreke Evans) and especially Washington, which traded the No. 5 pick to me straight up for Randy Foye and Mike Miller and could have drafted Curry fifth,” Khan texted back.
The Clippers selected Blake Griffin with the first overall pick of the 2009 draft, as he was the standout from the draft class. But looking at players who got selected above him like Hasheem Thabeet, Tyreke Evans, and Ricky Rubio, it is hard to understand what these teams were thinking.
Curry himself expected to go one pick lower, as his father Dell Curry confirmed that he and the entirety of Steph’s camp wanted him to play for the New York Knicks. But the Knicks missed out on him by one pick.
The only justifiable picks made before Stephen Curry were Blake Griffin and James Harden. While neither player has been able to match Steph in accomplishments, they both have been superstars in the NBA on their own. But it’s clear that Curry was one of the best sleeper picks in history, given how he revolutionized the Warriors and the NBA.
