Former Suns GM: Team thought it had a draft night deal with Warriors for Stephen Curry
Mar 1, 2013, 7:02 PM | Updated: 7:21 pm
The Golden State Warriors have themselves quite a player in point guard Stephen Curry, who just dropped 54 points on the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden.
And he was almost a Phoenix Sun.
Back on draft night 2009, when the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Syracuse point guard Johnny Flynn at No. 6, an audible cheer could be heard coming from the Suns’ war room at the US Airways Center.
Curry, a point guard from Davidson, was available, and the rumor was the Suns had a deal with the Warriors that would net them that pick.
Except the Warriors ended up keeping Curry and the deal, which involved Amare Stoudemire and other players, never happened.
“The deal was contingent, on our end, on Curry being there,” former Suns GM Steve Kerr told Arizona Sports 620’s Burns and Gambo Friday. “And when he was still there, we were under the impression that we had a deal and unfortunately in the NBA, and I’m sure in every sport, nothing’s done until the trade call is made so it fell through after that,” he said. “We looked at him as our next Steve Nash.”
Kerr, who is now an analyst for TNT, said he did not want to divulge all the details of that night, but said they viewed Curry as a player who had a similar skill set and similar personality to Nash.
Ahh well.
The Suns ended up being alright that season, as Stoudemire helped lead the team to the Western Conference Finals, but he left for New York in the offseason and the Suns have not made the playoffs since.
Now Curry, at just 24, has turned into one of the game’s best guards. He’s averaging 21.9 points, 6.5 assists and 4.1 rebounds per night while shooting .447 from the field and .460 from three point range.
But that game against the Knicks left an impression on many people, including Kerr. Curry made 18 of 28 shots — including 11 of 13 threes — while dishing out seven assists and grabbing six rebounds.
“That was maybe the most impressive shooting performance in one game that I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.
