Yaxel Lendeborg did not hide his feelings at the podium after Golden State selected him with the 11th pick in the NBA Draft on Tuesday.
According to ESPN, the Michigan wing told reporters at the draft, "I'm a big Kyrie guy. So I used to hate Steph Curry."
The admission drew attention because Lendeborg now plays for the franchise built around the player he once rooted against. The Warriors-Cavaliers rivalry defined much of the NBA in the mid-2010s, producing four consecutive Finals matchups between 2015 and 2018. Lendeborg would have been a child watching that rivalry unfold.
Kyrie Irving played for Cleveland during three of those Finals, winning a championship with the Cavaliers in 2016. Curry won three titles of his own during that stretch. The two players became symbols of competing basketball identities, and fan loyalties split sharply along those lines.
Lendeborg comes to Golden State as a wing out of Michigan. He was taken 11th overall, a first-round selection that puts him in position to contribute to a Warriors roster still centered on Curry.
