On a Wednesday evening in mid-November at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, with the hometown Pacers about 90 minutes from hosting the Charlotte Hornets, Larry Riley strolled onto the court and spotted Donnie Walsh in his familiar station, a sideline seat, watching players go through warm-up rituals.

Riley, scouting for the Golden State Warriors after being shifted in 2012 from his previous role as general manager, sat down alongside Walsh, the longtime Pacers executive, who in 2008 detoured to his native New York in a tumultuous three-year effort to fix the downtrodden Knicks.

One year later, in June 2009, the career intersection of Walsh and Riley — through their mutual desire to draft point guard Stephen Curry — set in motion events that turned the long-lackluster Warriors into a rising N.B.A. power while denying the Knicks perhaps the one addition most likely to lift them from a decade of misery.

Inevitably, the subject of the Curry draft arose. Riley was mindful of Walsh’s misfortune and careful to keep the conversation casual.