What could have been?
Just when you think the New York Knicks couldn’t get any lower than rock bottom, injured Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry threw the MSG faithful a shovel and told them to keep digging.
The six-time All-Star and two-time MVP has revolutionized the game of basketball during his 11-year career by emphasizing the three-point shot and dazzling defenders with other-worldly ball-handling skills.
He led the league in made three-pointers for five years straight, including an NBA-record 402 in 2015-16, changing the way the game is played while becoming one of the faces of the league.
Golden State’s decision to pick him seventh overall in the 2009 NBA Draft changed the course of the franchise’s history. Helping them evolve from a Western Conference minnow to a juggernaut that won three championships in four years.
Waiting just behind the Warriors in that 2009 draft with the No. 8 pick? The Knicks; a team that Curry yearned for.
“I wanted to go to New York and thought I was going to New York,” Curry told Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes on Showtime’s All The Smoke. “At the draft—in the green room—like, ‘Oh, get to the eight spot and New York can get me.’ And then I got the call from Larry Riley, like ‘We’re going to pick you in the seventh spot.'”
With Curry off the board, the Knicks settled for forward Jordan Hill, who was traded to the Houston Rockets before his rookie season even ended.
And through all that time, the Knicks are still searching for their franchise point guard. Not to mention the fact that they haven’t had a winning season in eight years.
