In the 2009 NBA Draft, Stephen Curry was the seventh pick over the counter. The Minnesota Timberwolves spurned the chance of the eventual MVP twice – even though they were looking for a guard. Instead, a draft disaster followed.
Angry boos from Knicks fans on draft night when the commissioner has announced their own team’s decision have long been commonplace. Ask Kristaps Porzingis or Frank Ntilikina. In June 2009, the long-suffering supporters of the traditional franchise experienced a bitter disappointment.
This time, however, it wasn’t their own pick that triggered a collective groan of disappointment, followed by loud protestations in Madison Square Garden, where the draft took place. The Knicks were five minutes later, but that’s when the dog was buried.
With their eighth pick, they had no chance of a certain Wardell Stephen Curry II, whom the Golden State Warriors snatched from the Knicks in seventh place. That’s what Jordan Hill came to New York for – that was to follow many Knicks fans in their nightmares for a long time during Curry’s rise to one of the best basketball players of all time.
But how are the fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves supposed to fare afterwards? They had one chance at curry – wrong, they even had two chances. They were even desperate for a guard. But instead of curry, the Wolves fans got a historic draft disaster squared.
Timberwolves: Two top picks in the guard paradise
Responsible for this was a man who still bears the stigma of curry ignoring and will probably never get rid of it. In fact, this anecdote from the 2009 draft is anchored in the third sentence of the Wikipedia article on David Kahn.
The current president of the French EuroCup team Paris Basketball pulled the strings in the front office of the Minnesota Timberwolves for four years, succeeding Kevin McHale a few weeks before the 2009 draft and should the battered franchise after two seasons with 22 and 24 wins get back on the right track.
Two years after the trade of former franchise star Kevin Garnett, there were already promising cornerstones in the person of Kevin Love and Al Jefferson. Only: There was a lack of talent in the backcourt. “We didn’t have a single point guard in the squad,” Kahn later recalled Sports Illustrated.
That should change on draft night. In addition to his own number 6 pick, Kahn also secured the fifth pick in a trade with the Washington Wizards for Randy Foye and Mike Miller. Two top 6 picks in a draft with Curry, Ricky Rubio, Jrue Holiday or DeMar DeRozan should be enough to find a future point guard plus another talent. If you think so.
The Minnesota Timberwolves and “Point Guard Polygamy”
With Blake Griffin (Clippers), Hasheem Thabeet (Grizzlies), James Harden (Thunder) and Tyreke Evans (Kings) all leaving the board, the evening actually got off to a pretty good start for Wolves fans. Minnesota grabbed Rubio, who was previously considered the best passer of the year and one of the best talents in the class.
Bill Simmons himself attested to “good work” in his Draft Diary ESPN his eventual nemesis Kahn. But a few minutes later, the horror was great. “YOU JUST TAKEN TWO POINT GUARDS IN A ROW!!!!!! And why not curry?” Simmons wrote in his next entry, shortly after Jonny Flynn put on the Wolves cappie as the No. 6 pick and shook Commissioner David Stern’s hand.
Don’t get me wrong, Flynn and Rubio were considered by many observers at the time to be perhaps the two best point guards in the draft. In some mocks, Flynn was trading even higher after a strong season for Syracuse (at Bleacher Report Minnesota got curry for it AND James Harden – imagine that…). Nevertheless, the decision mainly caused a lack of understanding.
Bleacher Report gave the pick a 4, ESPN wrote in retrospect of a “point guard polygamy” that is difficult to imagine together on the court. Sniper Curry next to Rubio might work. “But Flynn on the two? Really?”
It wasn’t just the journalists who felt that way. “When they were picking two point guards, I was sitting in the Green Room and I was like, ‘This is weird,'” Curry recalled on teammate Draymond Green’s 2022 podcast. “What’s the plan? And why am I still sitting here?”
