Six NBA teams and I were wrong about Steph Curry
Curry went No. 7 in the draft. Here’s how it happened and what we said at the time
On Tuesday, Stephen Curry broke Ray Allen’s NBA record for most career 3-pointers, punctuating an incredible career that might still have multiple years and honors ahead for the two-time MVP and three-time NBA champ.
Curry is the greatest shooter that has ever lived. He broke the record in just 789 games — 511 fewer than Allen. With 2,977 made 3s, he appears well on his way to 4,000 and perhaps 5,000 before he’s done.
And as we’ve seen, Curry is so much more than a shooter. He’s an incredibly creative passer, ball-handler and finisher; an athlete who moves, cuts and curls nonstop; a fierce competitor; and a lethal closer. He’s an unselfish point guard and a leader respected throughout basketball. And he’s changed the game in dramatic ways.
But his NBA career began in skepticism about what kind of impact he would make.
Five teams decided not to take him on draft night, and another team (the Wizards) traded away the chance to draft him.
How did so many talent evaluators, myself included, miss on one of the greatest to ever play the game?
To try to understand how we got it wrong, I dug into my personal notes as well as columns I published on the 2009 NBA Draft for ESPN.com.
(Note to readers: This is an excerpt of my retrospective on Steph Curry and the 2009 NBA Draft. To read the entire 4000 word column on how I and six NBA Teams got it wrong… you need to be a paid subscriber.
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