It is very clear that the refs do not like Steph. He never gets touch fouls. It has to be a clear foul, like an outright grab, shove, hand slap, or knockdown, and even then it may not get called.
Which is crazy to me considering he rarely ever complains, and only does so when it's an obvious miss. You would think the refs would respect that, instead they double down on the foolish way they officiate him.
The offensive foul on the 3 when they say he kicked out, which was a natural shooting motion, ridiculous. The flopping penalty after getting knocked to the floor on a drive in the tweet below. I don't remember seeing a superstar HOF all time great player of his caliber be officiated with such malice. It really is the only thing the league and Nike can do to slow him down.
When the story of Stephen Curry is told, I'm going to include all these details. It has actually been amazing what a 6,3 guard has accomplished despite the lack of support and outright opposition from the league.
It is not just Nike, it is also Silver who has assisted in dampening Steph, while promoting other players that the consumer does not care about or watch.
If Stern was alive, Steph would be the poster child for everything that is great about the NBA and basketball globally, like Kobe and MJ before. Broadcasting companies would be falling over each other to bid for NBA media rights.
You can say, if only Steph was a Nike athlete he'd be in the GOAT convo, but why is that? We openly acknowledge that Nike holds that kind of power in the NBA. We recognize that games are fixed in their athletes favor or given as much assistance as possible to get the outcome they desire. The sample sizes for these conspiracies are no longer just samples. The data is staring us right in the face.
The league picked the wrong fairytale to get behind and it has cost them dearly. They let a sponsor, that fumbled the biggest bag in sports history, dictate basketball discourse. That is not a good business model.
I would not ask for preferential treatment of the NBA's most valuable franchise or their most popular player. I simply ask that they call the game fairly. Don't make the agenda so obvious. The winning that results will more than compensate the league for any losses sustained by its biggest sponsor, and it would even bring in new ones.
Steph was given a technical foul for flopping on this play ...