The revisionist history has been revisited so many times that the pain for Wolves fans is mostly gone. They know their favorite franchise made what turned out to be, in hindsight, a colossal blunder during the 2009 NBA Draft. What more is left to say?
And yet I must bring it up briefly because of two occasions:
1) Steph Curry, the point guard the Wolves passed on in that draft in favor of Ricky Rubio (No. 5) and Jonny Flynn (No. 6), just became the NBA's all-time three-point leader — adding to a career that has him among the greatest, period, of all-time.
2) A reporter successfully queried former Wolves boss David Kahn for thoughts on Curry and the 2009 draft, something that I have tried (unsuccessfully) to do in the past, as have many others.
Fox Sports writer Yaron Weitzman reached out to Kahn via text and relayed their exchange here:
I reached out Tuesday to former Minnesota Timberwolves general manager David Kahn, who passed on Curry twice and used that draft's fifth and sixth picks on point guards Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn. I wanted to know how Kahn has processed this week.
"I would be happy to talk to you just as soon as you talk to the Clippers (Blake Griffin), Memphis (Hasheem Thabeet), Sacramento (Tyreke Evans) and especially Washington, which traded the No. 5 pick to me straight up for Randy Foye and Mike Miller and could have drafted Curry fifth," Kahn texted back.
Now, I often tell my young children that someone else doing something bad doesn't make it OK for them to do it. But I also understand that this is probably the only line of defense that seems justifiable 12 years, nearly 3,000 three-pointers and multiple Warriors titles later.
And it is true: Those aforementioned teams could have had Curry (Kahn left out Oklahoma State at No. 3, which picked another future Hall of Famer in James Harden).
The trouble is this: Griffin and Thabeet were pretty close to consensus 1-2 picks at the top of the draft. Sacramento could have taken Curry at No. 4, but most mocks at the time had Curry going somewhere in the 5-7 range. The Wizards surely messed up with that trade, but by doing so they gave Kahn TWO shots at trading Curry, both of which he passed on right in the range where Curry was projected to be picked.
(Bleacher Report's final mock, by the way, is particularly depressing: It has the Wolves picking Harden and Curry at 5-6, which would have altered the course of basketball history).
I'm impressed that Kahn answered the question, at least. But he should be smart enough to realize that any attempt at hindsight will be even less favorable to his decisions on that fateful night.
