Remembering how Stephen Curry became a Warrior 10 years ago

It was 10 years ago Tuesday when the Warriors’ fortunes finally changed as Stephen Curry somehow dropped into their laps on draft night.

Now and even years from now, all anyone will remember is that the 2009 NBA Draft brought us the greatest shooter in basketball history.

Oh, they may also remember June 25, 2009 as a somber night for much of the world because of Michael Jackson’s stunning death. But they may not recall Curry’s family and agent imploring the Warriors, perhaps the league’s most dysfunctional franchise, to please not draft him.

They likely wouldn’t know how the Warriors, assuming Curry wouldn’t be available to them, were resigned to having to draft Arizona forward Jordan Hill with the No. 7 pick that night. For a team that had been to the playoffs just once the previous 15 seasons, dealing with defeat was what it did best.

Back then there were seemingly no bigger fans of the skinny kid from Davidson College than Warriors coach Don Nelson and GM Larry Riley. Many raised an eyebrow when Nelson said Curry could be another Steve Nash.

Curry’s father, Dell, talked with Nelson before the draft and tried to set the Warriors coach straight.

“I remember Don Nelson calling me and saying, ‘Hey, what’s your feelings toward us drafting your son?’ ” Dell Curry told NBCSBA recently. “I said, ‘Don’t. You ask me the question, I’m going to tell you the truth. Don’t.’

“Conversation went on and he said, ‘Well if we get the opportunity we’re going to do it.’ Dell Curry said, ‘Coach, that’s your decision.’ ”

Actually, it was more the Minnesota Timberwolves’ decision as they had back-to-back picks at No. 5 and No. 6 and a huge need at point guard. But Curry’s camp also warned the T’Wolves not to draft him. After Blake Griffin was taken No. 1 overall by the Clippers, then Hasheem Thabeet (Grizzlies), James Harden (Thunder) and Tyreke Evans (Kings) were chosen, Minnesota picked Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn.

Riley told NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper he couldn’t believe his luck when Curry was taken by Minnesota.

“The first pick, Ricky Rubio. OK. No big deal. That’s what you expect,” Riley said. “The next pick is the one where you’re either going to breath a sigh of relief and really be happy that you have Curry or you’re going to say, “Oh, (shoot).” When they picked Jonny Flynn it was just an absolute sigh of relief for all of us.”

Riley hadn’t been enthralled with the prospect of taking Hill, a solid but not spectacular forward. In fact, Riley had been plotting to trade the No. 7 pick to either the Suns or Hawks if he couldn’t get Curry.

“Atlanta wouldn’t have made the deal with us for Jordan Hill, for example,” Riley told NBA.com. “They were only interested if it was Curry. As it turns out, it was the same discussion with Phoenix. I was hopeful that if he was gone that I could get Phoenix to say, ‘OK, well we’ll take the No. 7 pick and we’ll take Jordan Hill’ or whoever they wanted. But that was very, very doubtful because their target was Curry all along.

“I think what would have happened was we would have taken Jordan Hill and dealt with the issue that he wasn’t filling a particular need at that time,” Riley said. “But we would have probably taken him and then we would have gone forward with trying to trade him or we would have just said, ‘OK, we’ve got a rookie, let’s see what we’ve got’ without the same level of confidence, of course.”

Riley and Nelson may have been enjoying themselves after the way the draft unfolded that night, but the Curry family, however, wasn’t entirely thrilled. Oh, Steph and his dad said all the right things that night. But it’s a good thing they didn’t ask his mom what she thought.

“(There’s) the dad answer and the professional athlete answer,” Sonya Curry told NBCSBA. “Mine was, ‘Golden State was too far away. Where is my baby going? I don’t know where Golden State is.’ ”

A couple of years and a few Steph Curry ankle injury scares later, most everyone was beginning to know where her son and the Warriors were headed.

To this day, Nelson and Riley remain amazed at how things turned out 10 years ago Tuesday night.

“We were so happy to have him at Golden State,” Nelson told NBCSBA. “I’m just so proud we drafted him. He’s there and everything worked out just like we had hoped.”

“Here’s a young kid that came out of Davidson and he’s really changed what the NBA is all about,” Riley said. “The NBA is tremendously lucky, as are the Warriors, to have someone of his personality and his skill level that you can market. What greater thing can you have going on than to have a guy like him as a dominant player in the league?

“The great thing (is) that he’s doing it for the Warriors.”