Steve Kerr has been fond of Steph Curry long before his days coaching him on the Warriors.
The two go way back, and at one point, were close to forming a partnership with another organization.
Both Kerr and Curry joined Rachel Nichols on the latest episode of SHOWTIME's "Headliners with Rachel Nichols," where they detailed the early stages of their relationship, which predates their Warriors partnership.
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"My rookie year we played an outdoor game at the tennis stadium (in Palm Springs) against the Suns when he was a GM there and kind of crossed paths there," Curry said. "He talked a lot about my game and there was even some backstory around the draft that year and how things could have looked a little different."
It turns out, Kerr as general manager of the Phoenix Suns at the time, attempted and almost succeeded in trading for Curry during the 2009 NBA Draft. Phoenix had the No. 14 pick in the first round and anticipated the Warriors selecting Curry at No. 9 overall, as part of the deal, before trading his draft rights to Phoenix. The Warriors then nixed the deal and held on to Curry.
"Yeah I was the GM in Phoenix from '07-10 ... We were looking at Steph and seeing Steve Nash, the next version," Kerr said. "And they were so alike in so many ways and we had watched Steve become two-time MVP and so all of the concerns most of the people had in the league about Steph in terms of size and defense and athleticism, we saw everything we needed to see. Steve had done so much in the league and we thought he could be very similar.
"We tried to trade for him and we thought we had a deal the night before the draft. It wasn't completed but it was basically a discussion over the phone that we thought was done and so when he fell to seven our draft room erupted because we thought the deal was in place and Steph was going to be Phoenix Sun. It didn't happen, it fell though, but we knew how much we liked him. So that was part of the appeal when I was offered the job to come to the Warriors. Like, yeah I think I want to coach that guy."
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While Kerr and the Suns were unable to pull off a trade for Curry in the draft, the young Suns GM wouldn't have to wait long before teaming up with Curry on the Warriors.
Kerr replaced Mark Jackson as Warriors coach in 2014 ... and the rest was history.