Warriors select Curry with No. 7 pick

OAKLAND — Stephen Curry was such a popular pick that they booed him. The Knicks fans assembled at Madison Square Garden on Thursday had been reading for weeks that their team would land the sweet-shooting guard who put Davidson College on the map.

But the Warriors thwarted them. They selected Curry with the seventh pick of the 2009 NBA draft, one spot before New York got its chance.

“He’s a guy we targeted, and we were hoping he’d be there for us,” Warriors general manager Larry Riley said in makeshift press headquarters assembled in the team’s practice gym. “We’re extremely pleased about it. We had a list on our board and had them in order, guys that we thought would be there, and he was at the top of our list.”

Riley admitted that for the Warriors, it came down to a choice between Curry and Arizona power forward Jordan Hill. The choice was Curry, and the Knicks took Hill at No. 8.

Even on a day he described as “a dream come true,” Curry had to share the spotlight with a trade that happened, and one that hasn’t yet.

The Warriors sent guard Jamal Crawford, who averaged 19.7 points last season after arriving in a trade from the Knicks, to Atlanta in exchange for guards Acie Law and Speedy Claxton.

“We explored that situation for quite some time, and it felt good for us, that, one, we could manage our cap, and then we could prepare for the 2010 season to be in a healthy position,” Riley said. “We were able to accomplish that.”

More intriguing, the day was filled with rumors that Golden State would trade Andris Biedrins and the No. 7 pick to Phoenix for high-scoring, high-leaping power forward Amare Stoudemire. Or would the price be Biedrins, Marco Belinelli, Kelenna Azubuike and Brandan Wright?

Riley would not comment on a potential trade, but the rumors lived even as the draft wound down, and there was speculation that Curry could be shipped out of Oakland before he ever got here.

“I passed a TV going through the media circuit and saw the proposed trade or the trade talks that were going,” Curry said. “I just spoke to Larry Riley, and he didn’t mention it, so I don’t know where I fit in with those talks. Right now I see myself as a Warrior. Hopefully I’ll go to sleep as a Warrior, and that will stay the same.”

If Curry wakes up a Sun, or something other than a Warrior, it would probably be a big disappointment to most Bay Area sports fans, who recognize Curry as the best pure shooter in college basketball over the past two seasons. He set a single-season NCAA Division I record by hitting 162 3-pointers as a sophomore, and led the nation with a 28.6-point scoring average as a junior last season. Curry leaves Davidson ranked fourth all-time among D-I players in 3-pointers (414) and 25th in scoring (2,635 points).

The world discovered Curry in the 2008 NCAA tournament, when he led the Wildcats to victories over higher-ranked Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin. Davidson came within two points of miraculously advancing to the Final Four, falling to eventual national champion Kansas, 59-57, in a regional final. Viewers were captivated by the lithe guard who attacked some of the most formidable defenses in college basketball — he averaged 32 points in the tournament — and seemed to have no visible limit to his shooting range.

Davidson failed to make the field of 64 this year despite a 27-8 record, though Curry was no less spectacular. He put up 44 points against both Oklahoma and North Carolina State, and only once scored fewer than 13 in a game.

Wardell Stephen Curry II comes by his shooting skills naturally. Wardell Stephen Curry the elder, better known as Dell, played 16 NBA seasons for five teams and was regarded as one of the league’s best 3-point shooters. Stephen’s younger brother Seth led all D-I freshmen in scoring last year, averaging 20.2 points at Liberty.

Curry had talked up the Knicks quite a bit over the past few weeks, and he declined to work out for the Warriors. New York clearly dwarfs the Bay Area when it comes to endorsement opportunities and media fervor. But Curry insisted he was happy to land in Golden State.

“A lot of people were blowing up the New York pick. They thought I’d be disappointed if I didn’t go there,” Curry said. “That’s not the case at all.”

If Curry remains with the Warriors, he will join a glut of backcourt players. Unloading Crawford seemed to help, but now Curry joins Monta Ellis, Azubuike, Belinelli, Anthony Morrow, C.J. Watson, Law and Claxton, and sometimes Stephen Jackson in competition for playing time.

“We did trade Crawford, and then we took back Stephen Curry,” Riley said. “You could say, ‘You’re right back where you were.’ We look at it that way as well.”

The Warriors want Curry to play point guard — he moved from shooting guard to the point before his junior season — and Riley intimated that the team would bring the rookie along slowly. Curry knows one thing. He’s seen the Warriors play, and he appreciates Don Nelson’s up-tempo style.

“The backcourt position they have right now, getting up and down the floor, a high-octane offense — it’s a style I’ve played in at Davidson,” Curry said. “I’m no stranger to taking the ball up and down the floor.”

You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.