There are few things the sports fans love more than the humble superstar. They are the primary reason professional athletes get labeled heroes and role models for our youth, examples of both greatness and down-to-earth wholesomeness. If we haven’t learned by now, however, maybe we, the public-at-large, never will. But the truth of the matter is that we should approach the “humble” superstar with as much suspicion as we would if Barry Bonds came out of retirement and started hitting 500-foot home runs again. We want our superstars to be humble, like us, the commoners, even though that line of thinking probably gives the collective us too much credit in the humble category.
Steph Curry is Not Who We Thought (and that’s Awesome)
Oftentimes, the attribute of humbleness in superstar athletes is an assigned quality more than an acquired one. We want so badly for our superstars to be humble that we tend to forget that humbleness would actually be a detriment to their career(s). The opposite of humbleness is arrogance and ego, and it takes a fair amount of both to become one of the greatest at whatever you do, even if nobody likes to admit it. It’s the dark underbelly of getting to the top. But this is not to say superstar athletes can’t be humble people, but rather to say that if they are actually humble, then they almost always have to create a professional persona that allows them to have an arrogant side when in the heat of competition. Russell Wilson is an athlete that gets assigned “humble” qualities, but if one listens closely, there’s arrogance sprouting through some of the cracks of humbleness when he speaks about football matters. Likewise, Steph Curry also falls into this category. Nobody would say Michael Jordan is humble by any means, but Jordan was the master at convincing himself he had more to prove. Even if he had to manufacture it himself, fear of being just another player was the fuel that kept Jordan going, and that same quality is found in Wilson and Curry. Because of this, Curry is not who we thought he was (and that’s awesome). The way Curry dances and taunts his opponents on the court is almost as if he’s daring us not to like him, but we can’t help ourselves.
On the court, Curry is the NBA’s version of Cam Newton and/or Bryce Harper. But when it comes to Curry, as opposed to the other two, the narrative changes (or simply doesn’t exist). Here’s an example of how this works: Cam Newton’s celebrations are not that much more outrageous than those of a young Brett Favre sprinting down the field to tackle his teammate who just scored a touchdown. With Newton, it’s in bad taste. With Favre, he was playing the game with the joy of a child. It’s pretty much the same action, but the perception is completely opposite. The only difference being how we choose to look at it. But they’re all swaggering alpha-males with a healthy ego. The narrative around Curry rarely includes the word “ego,” unless it is touting how little of it he has (which is kind of a half-truth). The fact of the matter is that nobody reaches the levels of athletic perfection Curry has without ego or arrogance. Since his rookie year, Curry’s per game scoring has gone from 17.5 points to 30.1, and those numbers could double as a rough measurement for the amount of swagger he carries himself with while playing now compared to his entry into the NBA out of little-known Davidson.
For the most part, ego is confidence that shows through in one’s speech and actions. Confidence builds ego, and ego fuels confidence. Curry has no shortage of either, nor should he. He should not be held up to some moral superior level just because we want him to. Doing so would just set the stage for a build-him-up-just-to-tear-him-down scenario that is all too common in society’s relationship with today’s celebrities. Steph Curry should act like he’s the WWE wrestler currently holding the belt, daring all challengers to try and stop him, because that’s who he is, on both an individual and team level. Curry is The Rock or Hulk Hogan at the height of their powers. There’s little reason for him not to carry himself during games with more swagger than Leonardo DiCaprio in a sorority house.
That gets into the “respecting the game” and “being a role model for the kids” debates. Curry is absolutely a role model for our youth, but that doesn’t mean we should make him into something he is not, or collectively bury our heads in the sand when he stares down Serge Ibaka while his three-pointer is still in the air(and we all know it’s going in). He can be both. He’s an entertainer, let him entertain. (And the same goes for his daughter.) Don’t sterilize his genuine emotion in the name of raising other people’s kids.
As for Curry’s role on the Golden State Warriors, any in-depth discussion (which there has been a lot of) deserves a fair amount of nuance. For instance, even while acknowledging that Curry is, beyond a doubt, the Most Valuable Player in the NBA, one could also argue that Draymond Green might be the Most Valuable Warrior. That may sound hypocritical, but Green is the fuse that allows Curry’s spark to provide Golden State’s flame. Green can post, set picks, and shoot on offense. He can guard anybody on defense. He can play forward when they go big; he can play center when they go small and fast. And he can play with anybody. It’s his versatility that makes Golden State so malleable from a match-up standpoint. From a league-wide view, it is Curry’s flame that is visible and shines bright. But if one digs deeper on a team level, one can see how the flame would exist in a different form if not for the fuse. That is not to take away from either Green or Curry. Saying Green is more important to his team than the reigning two-time MVP is the ultimate compliment. And Curry is the greatest shooter the game has ever seen, more than deserving of the trophies he’s amassed in the ever-expanding case.
Moreover, it’s fascinating that Curry is now in a situation where he is everybody’s All-American. The Warriors have shot their way into record books, and paved the way to being the team every other team’s fans root for once their team loses – which is interesting in itself, because it’s seldom that the conquering empire gets the adoration of those it conquered – but yet though all of it they have Green, who seems to want so much to play the role of the heel. That’s why the current Warriors team feels so complete. It has everything a team could ask for, and it has it in spades. It’s got the Golden Boy in Curry. It’s got the guy who’s not afraid to do the dirty work and not care what anybody else thinks in Green. It’s got Klay Thompson, who doesn’t seem to mind being a little off to the side of the spotlight, but still is as good or better than every other player at his position (and who would be the league’s best shooter, if not for the existence of his teammate). Golden State also has Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli for when they want to go big, and Andre Iguodala and Harrison Barnes to fill in all the gaps on the perimeter. The icing on the cake is how comfortable everybody is with their roles. At some point, this team will have to be broken up. That may start this off-season in losing Barnes. It may not start for a few more years, but that makes it no less beautiful to watch in the present.
No matter how you frame it, Curry is an amazing player. But let’s not conflate Curry the person – who is genuine, endlessly likable, and humble – with Curry the player, who is a lightweight fighter holding the heavyweight belt, and got there with endless hard work and a good amount of braggadocio. He’s earned the right to remind every other NBA player he’s better than they are. Let him have his dance. A league where the best players challenge the rest to be better than they are makes for an infinitely more fun league. The NFL and MLB are doing their best to minimize individualism. The NBA should be thrilled with the level of showmanship in the league right now … as long as it stays within reason, which it totally is right now. By all means, raise your children to be like Curry, but remind them that he is a person, and Curry is a performer, and those can be different things (and we’re lucky to have both).
