Steph Curry is, by all accounts, one of the most popular players in the NBA, which comes with being the two-time reigning MVP with a championship ring to his credit. However, there has been something of a backlash to Curry’s persona in recent months and it seems to coincide directly with the Golden State Warriors imploding after garnering a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Marcus Thompson, who penned the book entitled Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry recently appeared on radio with Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead and he had some (very) interesting things to say about a few players that have seemingly joined the party in resenting Curry’s ascent to stardom. In speaking of LeBron himself, Thompson referenced that James was a “mentor” to Curry at one point but that things have changed drastically:
He was a big fan of Steph, went to games at Davidson, and even when [Curry] got to the NBA, they had moments where LeBron was looking at him like, ‘wow’ and then Steph kind of challenged LeBron’s status. The part that’s odd for Steph – why does that mean there has to be beef between us? He loves LeBron and respects LeBron, and he’s like, ‘because the outside world is pitting us together, why do you and I have to now have this disdain between us, I thought we were cool? … that’s the question that’s in Curry’s mind and Curry’s camp. Why do you not like me when all I did was basically respect everything you did, and follow the model you carried out? … it’s not just with LeBron … Steph wants to be accepted by all these guys. this is what he worked for. For [them] to say, ‘you’re one of us.’ It seems like they don’t want to give that to him.
In addition, Thompson was prompted as to other players that specifically push back against Curry and he shed light on Chris Paul and the Clippers:
Everybody on the Clippers … Chris Paul was one of those guys. Chris Paul was somebody [Curry] looked up to. Chris Paul used to dominate that matchup. Chris Paul was supposed to be next in line to win a championship. Then, suddenly, it was Steph … that’s another relationship where [Curry] was like, ‘oh, I look up to you,’ and suddenly there is this disdain vs Steph. There’s a lot of those …
From there, the interview moved along to also include the fact that Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook “simply doesn’t like Curry,” which would add even more fuel to the fire that the potential MVP already has going with Kevin Durant’s team. None of this is terribly surprising, simply because Curry has never fit the ideal of a traditional NBA superstar and his seemingly impossible popularity with young people could produce jealousy and resentment.
In the same breath, this isn’t the type of chatter you hear about every superstar, especially from a writer that is as plugged in as Thompson is with everything surrounding the Warriors. Stephen Curry has been excellent again this season and it would be hard for anyone to dispute that but there is mounting evidence that his brethren at the top of the NBA don’t really want to acknowledge it.
