Steve Kerr recently had this to say on Steph Curry’s recent 62 point performance:
And I’m reminded again of how this myth of Steph Curry, which is palatable to whiteness, white culture, and thus, the universal persists. The career of Steph Curry I would add, is also palatable to the myth of Amerikan nationalism. You don’t have to be the biggest, strongest, richest, smartest, but just work hard at your craft and you can achieve greatness. I present below a mock podcast I made in 2016 discussing how Steph Curry is more beloved by white and non-black consumers because of colorism, the values he markets himself on, and the general alienation of players in the NBA. Lebron, AD, and Giannis are all 6’9″ and above and can dribble the basketball, shoot (minus Giannis), and control their bodies in a way that players of that size were not able to do in Steve Kerr’s era. But that is not the result of this alienated “freak of nature” status. It is the result of putting in thousands of hours at the gym, just as Steph Curry has put in thousands of hours at the gym. They are seen as unobtainable and “naturally” gifted, feeding into the myth that black people are better athletically than white people or other races, which we are supposed to accept because it is presented to us as positive, but is nothing more than the leftover of vile race science and anti-blackness. That history presents comments like this. I present a different narrative. Listen below: