Yaxel Lendeborg walked into his introductory press conference as a Golden State Warrior wearing the team's cap and an easy smile. Then he told reporters that, not too long ago, he couldn't stand the franchise's biggest star.

The Warriors selected the former Michigan forward with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday night, making him the newest teammate of four-time champion Stephen Curry. Moments later, at the podium, Lendeborg volunteered an old confession that quickly spread across social media. "It's a full-circle moment for me. I've been saying this every time I get asked this question, 2016, I'm a big Kyrie guy, so I used to hate Steph Curry," Lendeborg said.

Lendeborg was 13 years old in 2016, debating his friends about his favorite side of the increasingly contentious rivalry between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Warriors. It was the second year of a four-year stretch in which the two teams met in the NBA Finals, and Lendeborg was rooting for Kyrie Irving and the Cavaliers. That year, Irving hit one of the most memorable shots in NBA history, sinking a go-ahead three-pointer late in the deciding Game 7 of the Finals.

The Warriors and Cavaliers clashed in four consecutive NBA Finals from 2015 to 2018, and while Golden State won three championships during that span, Irving played a major role in lifting Cleveland to its only title in franchise history in 2016. For a teenage Lendeborg, that loyalty came at Curry's expense.

Whatever resentment Lendeborg held onto as a kid has clearly faded. "So now that I'm actually going to be able to be on the same team with........

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