Stephen Curry has made a pile of money in the NBA. Even in my most dedicated days as a sportswriter when I hung out on press row at the Delta Center and could tell you off the top of my head who needed to win what game in any given playoff for another team to advance, I never understood one thing. Namely, why do we pay professional athletes so much money? These are, after all, grown men playing children’s games. And yet, we do. We buy jerseys, t-shirts, bobblehead dolls, and, if by some miracle we can afford them, tickets to games. And Curry has been the beneficiary of the sports industry. As a player for the Golden State Warriors, Curry has certainly earned his keep. In his most recent matchup, Curry pulled down 38 points in a 128-120 win against the Thunder. So he’s made some serious bank, and good for him. If you can convince people to give you large amounts of cash to do what you love, then you have won America.
Like most successful liberals, Curry is a supporter of Joe Biden. According to the Washington Free Beacon, he and his wife Ayesha joined a non-profit in 2021 that was dedicated to “bridging the racial wealth gap.” Curry has been a supporter of Black Lives Matter and was one of the NBA players to take a knee during the National Anthem. He also has a $30 million mansion. Which is all pretty much standard-issue Leftwingery.
But, despite his public display of solidarity, Curry is more than a little concerned about a plan to put high-density affordable townhomes in his tony neighborhood. The Currys were so aghast at the idea of the “little people” sharing their space, they wrote a letter to the town of Atherton, CA, in protest. The Currys are upset about the townhomes “looming” directly behind them, as well as their privacy and safety. Outkick published an excerpt of the letter to the city: “We hesitate to add to the ‘not in our backyard’ (literally) rhetoric, but we wanted to send a note before today’s meeting. Safety and privacy for us and our kids continues to be our top priority and one of the biggest reasons we chose Atherton as home.” The Currys also want the city to install taller fencing and create landscaping to protect the sight lines to their property.
My beef with Curry isn’t that he made enough scratch playing ball to buy a beautiful home in an upscale neighborhood. If we’re being honest, if I could afford to purchase a secluded cabin in the mountains, a condo overlooking the ski slopes of Vail, or a beach house on the Gulf of Mexico, I probably would buy one. And so would you. My issue with Curry is that he joined a movement, bent a knee, and raised a figurative fist to force someone else to make sacrifices and to hold someone else accountable. And when his trendy precincts are suddenly threatened by the presence of the great unwashed, he wants someone to do something. It’s the craven, self-righteous purchase of indulgences that are part and parcel of the wealthy left that offends me. It is the idea that wealth and success are forgiven so long as you make another person bear the burdens of social change and equity. His heart goes out to the poor, oppressed, and downtrodden, as long as they maintain a respectful distance.
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In George Orwell’s Animal Farm (funny, how often Orwell comes up these days, isn’t it?), a group of animals on an English farm get fed up with being oppressed by the farmer. They stage a revolution, throw him off the property and take the farm over. At first, everything is a communist utopia. But eventually, the pigs rise to the top of the hierarchy to the point that they walk on two legs, live in the farmhouse, and even do business with the nearby humans. At the novel’s conclusion, the other animals watch in rage as the pigs host a party and play cards with the people they were all supposed to hate. Once the pigs realized what life was like at the top, they only had to mouth the words. They only needed to talk the talk without ever again walking the walk. It is the perfect picture of modern, wealthy progressives.
Steph Curry made it to the top, and he wants an exclusive life. If he were to be honest about that, things would be fine. Then at least we would know he is an elitist. But he champions the common man when it is convenient and shoos that man aside when it is not.
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