For years the Timberwolves, and then-president of basketball operations David Kahn, have been heavily criticized publicly over the decision to pass on Steph Curry, who turned into an all-world guard for Golden State, in favor of selecting Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn.

Rubio has worked out, for the most part. Flynn? Not so much. But, as Kahn explains, the Wolves never had much of a decision to make on Curry.

Curry had no intentions of coming to Minnesota.

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Jace Frederick: Timberwolves’ No. 1 pick likely not enough to trade for established star Kahn wrote a story for Sports Illustrated’s The Crossover that explained as much. He went into the history of agents telling teams essentially not to take a certain player and leveraging their clients into specific draft slots.

Kahn said that situation only occurred once during his four-year tenure with the Timberwolves: with Curry.

In 2009, just days after my May 22 hiring as President of Basketball Operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves, the agent for Steph Curry told me that Steph’s father, Dell, did not want his son to be drafted by Minnesota—”No offense,” as I recall Jeff Austin, his agent saying to me at the Chicago draft combine.

“I really need your help on this,” Jeff said, explaining why there would be no visit and perhaps even hell-to-pay.

There’s a corroborating witness for Kahn’s story.

“We told Minnesota that Steph didn’t want to go there,” Dell Curry, Steph’s father, told the Arizona Republic’s Paul Coro last year.

Kahn said that message weighed “heavily” on him during the decision-making process. He said he heard countless team business partners and season-ticket holders discuss how Minnesota wouldn’t be able to land free agents because no one wants to play in the cold of Minnesota. Revealing that Curry didn’t want to play for the Timberwolves only would have perpetuated that belief.

Then, of course, there was Ricky Rubio, the 18-year-old Spaniard who Kahn simply fell in love with. There was plenty of belief that Rubio didn’t want to play in Minnesota, but Kahn felt, with Rubio, that was a risk worth taking.

Taking not one, but two players who might not want to play in Minnesota? That would have taken real cojones. We took Rubio and Jonny Flynn, a ready-to-play point guard who started 81 games for us as a rookie and then fell victim to a terrible hip injury. At the time, drafting Flynn made a lot of sense: we didn’t have a single point guard on the roster and our staff had ranked him No. 1 among all point-guard prospects for not only his on-court play, but also his strong leadership qualities, a significant team need.

Flynn made his final move to the top of our charts based on his impressive visit and workout with Tyreke Evans and Brandon Jennings, among others. Curry’s absence was duly noted. Rubio wasn’t there, either, but I thought his passing ability and defense were extraordinary for an 18-year-old and was willing to take the risk I could ultimately recruit him to come. That was the player I wanted.

So, maybe not all of the blame should be placed on Kahn’s shoulders. He certainly isn’t the first decision-maker to pass on a player who doesn’t want to be selected for fear of push back.

But, clearly Kahn thought it was worth the risk to take a player he truly wanted, despite potential risk. That player just happened to be Rubio. If Kahn fell in love with Curry the way he did with Rubio, maybe he would have taken the sharpshooter from Davidson.