Warriors’ Steph Curry admits he almost played for the New York Knicks

Speaking ahead of the NBA Finals, the Warriors star shed light on a piece of the past that many might not have known.

Was Steph Curry close to joining the New York Knicks?

With the 2022 NBA Finals set to tip off on Thursday night, all eyes will be on the defensive experts Boston Celtics and highly favored winning machine that is the Golden State Warriors. Of course if there is one player who will attract attention more than just about anyone else, it will be the Warriors’ Steph Curry. Speaking on Wednesday the man himself was asked about his time in San Francisco and how the present compares with what he thought when he first arrived. Curry of course was neither here nor there in his response, but he did drop one little anecdote that probably surprised quite a few.

Indeed, the Western Conference Finals MVP disclosed that back in 2009 when he was preparing to be drafted he actually thought he would be going to the New York Knicks. ”I didn’t think much about [the Warriors],” Curry said. “I was growing up on the East Coast. I watched games but really all I knew was the ‘We Believe’ team, Baron Davis dunk, them beating Dallas. I knew about ‘Run TMC’ but didn’t really understand the history as much. When I got drafted I thought I was going to New York and didn’t really have Golden State on the radar at all.” If you didn’t know, it was common knowledge back then that the Knicks did in fact want to select Curry. That notion was given further weight when Mike D’Antoni - New York’s coach at the time - admitted “we wanted [Curry] so bad, I could taste it.”

Why didn’t the Knicks get Steph Curry?

As we have known now for some time, the Knicks desire never did pan out. The Warriors took Curry as the No. 7 overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft while the Knicks took Jordan Hill as the No. 8 pick. Incidentally, Hill would go on to play a meager 24 games with the Knicks before he was offloaded to the Houston Rockets in a trade that brought Tracy McGrady in the opposite direction. Interestingly, Curry’s comments weren’t being made for the first time. There was in fact an interview earlier this year in which the Warriors’ talisman also made a reference to the story involving the Knicks.

“I absolutely was wanting to go to the Knicks,” Curry said. “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 say be careful what you wish for. Everything happened the way it was supposed to be, so I’m a Warrior.”

Does Steph Curry’s story add insult to the Knicks’ injury?

While the three point king may have been in a nostalgic mood, he was by no means expressing regret. How could he in reality, when the Warriors have been to five of the last seven NBA Finals and won three of them. With the upcoming Finals being his sixth appearance in eight years, one has to imagine that Curry is very happy with where he is. Even more so when considering that in his time in the league, he has been to the Finals of the NBA playoffs almost as many times as the Knicks have playoff wins - they have eight in case you’re wondering.