Stephen Curry isnt going to snatch a third-straight MVP Award, but hes still more popular than Russell Westbrook, James Harden and LeBron James. The Baby-faced assassin led the NBA for a second consecutive regular season in replica jersey sales on NBAStore.com.
Apparently, other star players including King James are jealous of Currys swift rise to stardom and fan popularity, as well as the way the media portrays him as a beyond reproach character guy.
Marcus Thompson, the author of The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry, was on a radio show this weekend breaking it down like a Shaolin Fantastic scratch, cut and loop.
Curry takes pride in welcoming all that. some players might say, LeBron shouldnt have done that Steph is the type to take pride in being the guy who doesnt complain. He wants you to say, at the end of his career, I never got involved with all that.
Theres a thing with he and LeBron thats a little weird. There was a time when LeBron and Steph were big brother and little brother and LeBron was like a mentor.
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 LeBrons status. The part thats odd for Steph why does that mean there has to be beef between us? He loves LeBron and respects LeBron, and hes 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? thats the question thats in Currys mind and Currys camp. Why do you not like me when all I did was basically respect everything you did, and follow the model you carried out? its not just with LeBron Steph wants to be accepted by all these guys. this is what he worked for. For [them] to say, youre one of us. It seems like they dont want to give that to him.
Thompson expanded on the subject via an interview with thebiglead.com:
Q: Why not? What more does Curry need to accomplish?
Generally, I think it was all so sudden. [Curry] leapfrogged a whole lot of people. Theres a whole lot of people who never got the adoration Steph gets they dont like that. Players who were probably Hall of Famers [were saying] nobody ever anointed me like this.
Q: Which players, specifically, feel this way?
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 thats another relationship where [Curry] was like, oh, I look up to you, and suddenly there is this disdain vs Steph. Theres a lot of those
Sounds like pure hate to me and thats too bad. At the same time, its good that somebody is there to motivate LeBron because he sure showed up to play Curry in last years Finals.
The rest of the top five features the Cavaliers LeBron James, the Warriors Kevin Durant, the Thunders Russell Westbrook and the Cavaliers Kyrie Irving.
The Knicks Kristaps Porzingis ranked seventh and his teammate, Derrick Rose, was 12th. Carmelo Anthony dropped out of the Top 15 while newcomers to the top tier include Isaiah Thomas of the Celtics, who debuted on the list at No. 14, and the Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo, who rose five spots, from No. 14 last year to No. 9.
The Warriors retained their top spot on the team merchandise list, followed by the Cavs, Bulls, Lakers and Knicks.
