Chris Carter couldn’t have conjured up a more bizarre episode of The X-Files.
There’s no other way to describe what has happened to the Golden State Warriors other than a complete and utter meltdown — from within and without.
Whether that benefits the Cavaliers remains to be seen, but between Steph Curry, Steve Kerr and Ayesha Curry, the Warriors might need extended time with a mental health professional before Game 7. None of this lives in a vacuum, the media — the national media in particular — will take notice.
In these instances, it has.
“Look, let’s get this out of the way: LeBron James was positively transcendental in Game 6, turning in the kind of performance that makes you sit down, shut up and applaud. James took over Game 6,” wrote Tony Massarotti of CBS Boston. “Maybe he has taken over the series. And along the way, the cool Steph Curry became just Steph Curry, losing his cool in a fourth quarter meltdown that saw LeBron bark at Curry and Curry bark at officials.”
Curry barked on the floor, tossed his mouthpiece, hitting the son of a Cavs minority owner and officials sent him packing for the first ejection of his career.
“It had nothing to do with the outcome. The outcome was decided. But he had every right to be upset. He’s the MVP, he gets six fouls called on him, three of them were absolutely ridiculous,” Warriors coach and former Cavs player Steve Kerr said in his postgame interview. “Three of the six fouls were incredibly inappropriate calls for anybody, much less the MVP of the league. I’m happy he threw his mouthpiece. He should be upset.”
And Curry?
“But the last two fouls I had I thought were — I didn’t think I fouled either Kyrie or LeBron. That’s just kind of my perception of the plays and I had a reaction to it,” he said in his postgame news conference. “It was obviously frustrating fouling out in the fourth quarter of a clinching game and not being out there with my teammates. So it got the best of me, but I’ll be all right for next game.”
Both Kerr and Curry received $25,000 fines from the league and some will likely argue they weren’t stiff enough, given the severity of the actions and words, but the NBA has a Game 7 on Sunday night, and if you’re Ayesha Curry, Steph Curry’s wife, that’s not a good thing.
After a day in which she alleged her father was racially profiled and nearly arrested, she vented on Twitter as the Warriors’ fortunes crashed. After what happened with her husband, she had some words about the NBA:
“I’ve lost all respect sorry this is absolutely rigged for money …or ratings in [sic] not sure which. I won’t be silent. Just saw it live sry.”
If you’re an NBA executive, that’s not something you want anyone, especially the MVP’s wife, tweeting, given that the league has been hit with such conspiracy theories before. It’s not a good look.
“She’s a wife. She’s emotional at the end of the game. She said the NBA was rigged,” said Brian Windhorst, an ESPN basketball writer and a former Akron Beacon Journal Cavs beat writer, during a TV appearance just after Game 6. “If indeed the NBA is rigged, she better thank her lucky stars because they rigged it for Steph Curry to have two MVPs and be worth $100 million. So the rigging has worked out very well for Ayesha.”
The prevailing query for those covering the Warriors, who are in danger of losing three consecutive games to blow the championship, is simple.
“The question is not whether the Warriors have their backs against the wall, but whether that masonry is pressed up against a backbone,” wrote Fran Blinebury of NBA.com.
That represents a curious position for a team that set the record for regular-season wins (73) with the league MVP on its roster playing for its second consecutive championship.
George M. Thomas can be reached at gmthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeorgeThomasABJ.