Ayesha Curry’s comments were harmless

During the Warriors Game 6 loss, Ayesha Curry tweeted that the NBA was rigged. Her tweet was not nearly as horrible as the reaction to it.

It’s really weird that I’m writing this.

I mean, a player’s wife’s comments aren’t really NBA news. It’s the NBA Finals with two of the league’s biggest stars and the topic of conversation is a player’s wife’s tweets. Of course, this is the year 2016 and social media rules all. And this is no ordinary wife of a player, this is the wife of the first unanimous MVP in league history.

No family member is as visible or controversial as Ayesha Curry.

In Game 6, Stephen Curry fouled out and was ejected from his first game. He was called for a questionable foul after attempting to steal the ball from LeBron James in the backcourt. Curry was upset with the whistle and, feeling that several of his fouls were undeserved, let the official know how he was feeling. He tossed his mouthguard towards the sideline, accidentally hitting a fan sitting curtsied, and cursed at the referee.

Immediately after, Ayesha tweeted out her reaction, throwing out some huge allegation that opened a few eyes, to say the least.

The most visible wife of the league’s most marketable star claiming that the organization that has allowed her and her husband to enjoy the luxuries they have. It’s not ideal for anyone. But did she do something wrong?

No.

Was it irresponsible? Absolutely. Ayesha Curry, like the rest of us, is a fan. She’s a fan of Steph Curry and, like the rest of us, want to protect him and get upset when things don’t go his way. As a spectator at home with no real connection to Stephen, I was shocked and upset at how some of the whistles were going. So imagine how she felt when her husband was seemingly being shorted at his job and mocked by thousands of hostile opponents around them.

It’s not pretty.

It’s easy to get lost in the emotions of the moment. How could you not? It’s Game 6 of the NBA Finals. There’s so much at stake. Relatively speaking, that is. This is still a basketball game, at the end of the day. It’s a basketball game and a comment made by a fan, albeit a famous one. Nothing that happens there warrants personal attacks and insults upon someone’s family.

She probably shouldn’t have tweeted that. She deleted it and later apologized, admitting that the moment got to her while her frustrations had been building for a while as she and her family had been left on the bus and, later, her father was detained after, reportedly, being racially profiled. With her popularity and platform, it’s probably not smart to attack the National Basketball Association. It’s not a good look.

But she has a right to her opinion. I don’t think it’s a correct one, but she has a right to air out her frustrations. She is not on the NBA’s payroll. Or Golden State’s for that matter. Her comments do not represent the franchise, her husband, or all Warriors’ fans.

This shouldn’t be news. But the Curry family lives under this hyper-critical microscope. One that actually makes grown men hate four year-olds that they don’t know. One that causes folks to turn to social media and harass the sister of a basketball player. One that causes terrible human beings to spend time making disgusting and explicit Photoshops of a married woman engaging in sexual activities with players simply because of a basketball game.

Then the mansplaining comes along.

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith has a very loud opinion about nearly everything on the planet. Smith is one of ESPN’s most recognizable and, surely, profitable personalities. People will always tune in to hear what he says, either to agree or, more likely, to completely dismiss what he says. But when something, anything, happens in the sports world, best believe that Smith will be yelling his thoughts on it at you every morning.

So of course he had some thoughts on Mrs. Curry on his ESPN show First Take:

"“If that was Savannah [Brinson], LeBron’s wife. If that were Gloria [James], LeBron’s mother. What would we be saying?” LeBron James has a mom and has a wife, has kids, great guy, an even greater ambassador of the game of basketball than Steph Curry because he’s done it over the test of time. Wonderful, beautiful father. And I’ve got news for you: As beautiful as everyone wants to say Ayesha Curry is, and she is, Savannah is something special. I’m here to tell you something right now. Ain’t a man alive, particularly a black man, that’s going to look at LeBron James’s wife and not say that that woman ain’t gorgeous. She’s wonderful inside and out. She sits there, she doesn’t bring any attention to herself. She never tweets and goes out there and calls out the league and stuff like that. And nobody — nobody — is more scrutinized than her husband. But yet, she thinks about how she represents him, and as a result, she doesn’t do that.”"

I respect Smith for propelling himself to the top of the world’s biggest sports network. I respect his longevity in the field. But, to be put it as nicely as I can, he’s way off about this. Smith has a history of saying sexist things. He once joked that a women’s soccer team didn’t want to head a ball because they didn’t want to mess their hair up. He also suggested that women provoke domestic violence while compromising his journalistic integrity through his support for known domestic abuser Floyd Mayweather Jr. This seems right up there with those.

For no reason whatsoever, he decided to bring in LeBron James’ wife and compare two women to each other. He’s telling Ayesha that James’ wife is special because she’s quiet and represents her husband. He’s essentially advising Mrs. Curry to “know your place.”

Ayesha Curry does not represent her husband nor should she. She’s entitled to her own opinions. Should she support her husband? Of course. That’s what a good marriage is about. Her job isn’t to just be pretty and to be obediently standing behind her husband. But her tweets are innocuous, passionate frustration from a fan.

Her tweets should not and will not have any implications for Steph. Her tweets were irresponsible. It’s not the best idea to challenge the organization that has rewarded your husband with two MVPs and a championship (though those awards are not given out by the NBA). But her tweet should not have been news. And they definitely don’t warrant some of the horrendous things people are saying to her. Attacking her family because of a basketball game is beyond low.

Keep tweeting, Ayesha.