Somebody might need to ask for a mulligan.
Stephen Curry recently welcomed The Ringer's Bill Simmons to the Bay Area for a podcast interview that covered quite a number of topics, including the three-time NBA champion and two-time MVP's interest in finishing his career with the Golden State Warriors, the team that drafted him with the seventh overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.
But Curry's career could've gone a different route had he not been on the board at No. 7 -- which was considered a distinct possibility at the time, with the Minnesota Timberwolves holding the fifth and sixth selections and entering the draft in need of a point guard.
That's not the way things shook out, of course. Minnesota general manager David Kahn infamously used the fifth and sixth picks on Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio and Syracuse point guard Jonny Flynn, leaving Curry available for the Warriors at No. 7.
Make sure to buy any Timberwolves fans a beer before bringing that decision up.
It's a topic that Simmons broached with Curry, leading him to offer a bit of scuttlebutt that might explain why Kahn chose to pass on him.
Simmons: "When you go to Minnesota, do you have a little something extra for them? Or do you not have any bitterness anymore?"
Curry (laughing): "My guy David Kahn. I don't know where he's at right now. I don't know if that ever came out, but he -- there's a story around. Everybody knows how much I love golf, and play it in my spare time and whatnot. He, I think the word on the street was that he didn't draft me because in Minnesota it's cold, and I wouldn't have been able to play as much golf, so I would've been miserable."
Simmons: "Is that true?"
Curry: "I hope it's true, because that's hilarious. [laughs] That's hilarious."
Either way, Kahn was fired by Minnesota in May 2013 and hasn't been heard of in the NBA since. Let's hope he is somewhere warmer than Minnesota so he can work on his golf game.
Reds still sore
Sometimes, the physical pain of getting hit by a pitch is not the only thing that takes a while to get over.
Two weeks after Joey Votto was hit on the knee by a pitch from Washington Nationals reliever Ryan Madson, the Cincinnati Reds All-Star was still feeling the effects Friday. Enough so that Cincinnati pulled Votto off the field and placed him on the disabled list for the first time since 2014.
Reds Manager Jim Riggleman was very clear before Friday's game he is not over the situation, noting that his clubhouse feels the pitch that plunked Votto was intentional. Riggleman then went a step further, expressing disappointment that Madson was not punished by the league and anger that the Reds wouldn't be able to police the situation themselves during a future game.
"Madson could easily make a case, 'I didn't hit him on purpose.' We know very well he did," Riggleman said via MLB.com. "It infuriates me that he will never have to go to the plate to be thrown at. He never will. He'll be in relief. Probably doesn't have an at-bat this year. Probably won't get one next year, so one of his teammates will have to take it. That's the way it is."
Purpose pitches in particular have made headlines after the Jose Urena first-pitch 97-mph fastball that struck and shook up hot-hitting Braves rookie Ronald Acuña on Wednesday night in Atlanta. That incident followed a bench-clearing brawl in Tuesday's San Francisco Giants-Los Angeles Dodgers game.
SPORTS TRIVIA
Who was the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft?
ANSWER
Blake Griffin was chosen by the Los Angeles Clippers
Sports on 08/19/2018