Getty Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors takes a breather during a game.
Former Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers revealed that the Houston Rockets and Boston Celtics were the bold teams to inquire about a Stephen Curry trade during his tenure.
“One guy took a shot,” Myers initially told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on the January 18 episode of “The Woj Pod” podcast. “You know who.”
“I’m guessing he probably was in Houston then and now in Philadelphia,” Wojnarowski replied, referring to Daryl Morey, the current 76ers president.
“Oh yeah, him too,” Myers said. “Look, I never was upset at anybody asking [for Curry]. The GM’s job is to mine for trades. That’s a GM’s job. So, you know, but [Danny] Ainge was the one that was always asking.
Wojnarowski reminded Myers that it was Ainge who recommended him to Joe Lacob for the Warriors job.
“I owed my career to him,” Myers said of Ainge, who was the Celtics general manager for 18 years before moving to Utah as the Jazz CEO.
“I can’t be upset. So ‘Return the favor, give me Curry.’ We just laughed. Like I said we have a really good relationship. But you know, you got to ask. I mean, everybody knew that wasn’t happening. So, it was kind of a good laugh,” Myers said.
Author Claims Bob Myers Nearly Traded Stephen Curry
In 2020, Ethan Strauss, a former Warriors beat reporter for The Athletic, revealed in his book, “The Victory Machine: The Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty” that Myers tried to trade Curry years before their dynasty began.
“The Warriors attempted to trade Steph Curry and Klay Thompson for Chris Paul in 2011. It was far from the only time Curry was shopped, but in this instance, the deal was very close to completion. Myers made the offer and Hornets GM Dell Demps was receptive. The catch was Chris Paul, who wanted out of New Orleans but had no intention of playing for the woebegone Warriors. Paul told the Warriors they could do this trade, but he wouldn’t be staying when his contract was up at season’s end.
The Hornets weren’t the only organization to narrowly lose out on the deal of a lifetime. According to one GM, “The Warriors were blind lucky that they were unsuccessful in trading Steph and Klay together for the stars they offered them together for,” he said. “There were many, many people they tried to get and failed.”
Now Curry and Paul, who is in the twilight of his career, are Warriors teammates. If Strauss’ report is true, it will become one of the sliding door moments in NBA history for years to come.
NBA Postpones Warriors-Mavericks Game
The grieving Warriors are not playing under further notice.
The NBA is postponing the Warriors-Dallas Mavericks game on Friday, January 19, to a later date. It will be the second postponement in the Warriors’ schedule after the untimely passing of their assistant coach Dejan Milojević on Wednesday, January 17, in Salt Lake, Utah.
Milojević, 46, suffered a heart attack at a private team dinner ahead of their scheduled road game against the Utah Jazz.
The Serbian coach joined the Warriors coaching staff in 2021 following his Montenegrin League championship run earlier that year. The following year, he won an NBA championship with the Warriors.