http://radio.cbssports.com/2016/05/31/jemele-hill-stephen-curry-disrespect-lebron-james-nba-finals-russell-westbrook-kevin-durant/
On the latest episode of Michael Rapaport’s I AM RAPAPORT: STEREO PODCAST on CBS Radio’s Play.it podcast network, Michael spoke with ESPN’s Jemele Hill about all things NBA Finals.
In addition to discussing the greatness of the Golden State Warriors’ backcourt of Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry, the two addressed a troubling trend that arose as the Warriors began to falter early in the Western Conference Finals to the Oklahoma City Thunder: the world started to turn against Stephen Curry.
“Could you have imagined this Curry backlash?” Rapaport incredulously asked Hill. “Could you have imagined so fast, people turning on Curry so quick? And why do you think that happened? Because, as far a sports guy and like a hero, he’s you’d want. But then he has a couple of bad games and he’s on the ropes and just like, boom. People are laughing at him, giggling at him, talking ‘greazy,’ what’s that all about?”
“I knew it would happen eventually, because eventually it happens to everybody,” Hill said. “Because success does breed contempt for a lot of people. But here’s the thing: there’s so many layers to the Steph Curry hatred.”
Some of those layers, Hill pointed out, are the older generation of players like Charles Barkley and Oscar Robertson, who aren’t a fan of the way Steph plays. Then there are the people who feel like Steph is a ‘package’ that’s too good to be true and is being forced upon them with his perfect family and stellar image and play.
On top of that, Hill added, Curry is “light-skinned” and that’s “exposed this deeper level of insecurity within black people that they have when it comes to skin tone.”
Because of all those reasons, Hill said, Steph has been disrespected to a whole new level and even NBA players are taking shots at the league MVP.
“You’ve got to understand, it’s not just people on Twitter and social media that hate,” Hill said. “The open disrespect that he’s shown by other players I’ve never seen before. It’s completely crazy. For LeBron, to all of a sudden, unprovoked, go into this conversation about what value is in the NBA, it’s like, he wouldn’t have done that if Russell Westbrook won it. Then you have (Damian) Lillard dropping the tweet ‘no excuses’, like, they didn’t do that with LeBron, they didn’t even do that with Dirk Nowitzki! People are going in on him and his team got sent home in the first round the year he won the MVP. And yet it’s completely acceptable to do it with Steph.”
You can hear Hill’s entire interview beginning at 21:50 along with interviews with Marv Albert, Marc Stein and the Warriors house DJ, D-Sharp, on the latest episode of the I AM RAPAPORT: STEREO PODCAST.
