Don Nelson was reason Steph Curry ended up on Warriors

Stephen Curry, if you remember, was no sure thing.Six teams passed on him in the draft.There were questions about his size.About his playmaking ability.

About his ankles.But he had one big, boisterous, influential fan: Don Nelson.“One of the big reasons I was drafted by the Warriors was because of Don Nelson,” Curry said in a statement Sunday, remembering the life of the larger-than-life coach shortly after Nelson’s family announced his peaceful passing at the age of 86.Nelson, the second-winningest coach in NBA history, spent only 11 of his 31 seasons with the Warriors but oversaw the two most memorable eras of basketball in the Bay Area before Curry’s arrival in the “Run TMC” and “We Believe” teams.Then, he spent retirement growing pot in Maui with Willie Nelson.He was an iconoclast.

Somebody Steve Kerr described as a “true innovator” for the fast-paced, small-ball style that was unorthodox at the time but now is commonplace.But “Nellie ball” wasn’t the only way Nelson shaped the modern-day NBA.He helped lay the foundation of the Warriors’ dynasty.Before Kerr, before four championships and a glistening new arena, there was Curry. And before Curry, there was a long-forsaken franchise with a fledgling ownership group and an aging coach about to be nudged into retirement that possessed the No.7 pick in the 2009 draft.Curry was considered such a longshot that he refused to set up a workout or take a meeting with Golden State’s front office.

After all, the Warriors already had a star point guard, Monta Ellis.Curry has since said that he was all but certain he would be taken by the Knicks at No.

8.Despite his soon-to-be-lame-duck status, Nelson was a figure of stability in a draft room that featured first-year general manager Larry Riley.It wouldn’t have been very much like him to do the conventional thing or to not have his voice be heard.He urged the Warriors to take Curry with the No.

7 pick.The rest, as they say, is history.“...