Marcus Thompson, a columnist for the Bay Area News Group, authored a book that was released on Tuesday called Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry. We're sure there are some interesting tidbits in there, and the one that really grabbed people's attention suggests Curry's NBA success and popularity has pissed off a number of his very talented colleagues, including Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, and LeBron James.
When you got a book out you got to hype it, and this past weekend Thompson was doing just that on The Big Lead's radio show where he explained the reasoning behind the animosity towards the two-time MVP. As transcribed by The Sporting News, here's what Thompson had to say:
"I think if you ask them and they're being honest, they don't like all the hype he gets, and they have to direct it that way. I think, out of all of them, if somebody doesn't like Steph Curry, I think it's probably Westbrook. He just shows no sign of ... this ain't really about Steph, it's bigger. His seems to be, 'I don't like that dude.' But LeBron and them, I think they will say, 'Man, I like Steph. We can have a conversation.' But there's something that burns them about the fact that Steph is the one that is exalted and because of that they want to go at him and demean his hype. They want to take him down."
Thompson also brought up this block from Game 6 of the 2016 Finals, before mentioning that you "never see" LeBron talk trash like that to anyone else:
He said part of what elicited that reaction was that players yearn to "go the extra mile to disprove [Curry's] hype." He also brought up a more innocent time, when Curry was playing college ball for Davidson, and LeBron would "mentor" the youngster who is, like, three years younger than him. Perhaps you remember those days?
On that subject, Thompson said:
"[LeBron] was a big fan of Curry, he would go to Curry's games at Davidson, and even when they got to the NBA, they had moments where LeBron was looking at him like, ‘wow’ and then Steph kind of like challenged LeBron’s status. The part that’s odd for Steph – why does that mean there has to be some beef between us? He loves LeBron, he 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 kind of follow the model you carried out? So there's an interesting dynamic there, and it’s not just with LeBron, Steph wants to be accepted by all these guys. This is what he worked for. For you to say, ‘you're one of us.’ It seems like they don’t want to give that to him. Not yet anyway."
He also had this to say about Chris Paul:
"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 …"
Finally, Thompson added that many players who were/are Hall of Famers have wondered why they weren't as beloved as Curry. If you want to hear what he had to say more in-depth, you can listen to it hear.
