In his new book, “Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry,” San Jose Mercury News columnist Marcus Thompson explained that a number of NBA stars including LeBron James, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook aren’t exactly the biggest fans of Stephen Curry. Thompson writes that Curry’s quick ascension to being considered the best player in the league bothered a numbe of established stars, and even created friction in the friendship of Curry and James.
“(Curry) leapfrogged a whole lot of people,” Thompson noted. “There’s a whole lot of people who never got the adoration Steph gets. … They don’t like that. Players who were probably Hall of Famers (were saying) ‘Nobody ever anointed me like this.’”
Curry’s teammate Draymond Green believes there are a number of different reasons why Curry is looked down upon and considered soft by some of his peers. Green told Thompson on their podcast Draymond Day that Steph’s light-skin tone, upbringing and size have also lead to prejudice against the two-time MVP.
Transcription via Yahoo Sports:
He’s way more than what everyone expected him to be or ever gave him a shot to be. I think most people looked at it like, ‘Ah man, this was a, in quotes, ‘privileged kid’ growing up. Like, how did he become this? He ain’t supposed to become this. It’s supposed to be the guy from the hood that had nothing and had to grind for everything.’
But when you look at Steph’s life. They had money, but Steph wasn’t treated like they had money. He couldn’t watch TV (all the time). He had chores. They didn’t raise them like they were just these privileged kids, which shows why they’ve got two sons in the NBA and a daughter who’s doing great in college. They weren’t raised like that.
People just automatically think that, ‘Man, this guy ain’t from the hood, he ain’t cut like that, he ain’t cut from a different cloth. He’s supposed to be soft and this, that.’ And of course, Steph is light-skinned, so they want to make him out to be soft. So everybody just wanted to make him out to be this soft, jump-shooting guy and he continued to get better and better and better.
