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Early Lead Lionel Messi just the latest to fall victim to the ‘Curse of Steph Curry’

Solomon Ekakitie June 27, 2016
Remember when Steph Curry and the Warriors imploded in the NBA Finals, and some folks blamed it on the release of his much-derided shoes? What if the championship-round loss, though, had less to do with footwear and everything to do with the two-time MVP himself — and his bad 2016 mojo has already spread to his superstar-athlete pals?
[Chile wins Copa America to deny Lionel Messi a title]
That notion was bandied about online Sunday, in the wake of Argentina’s loss to Chile in the Copa America final, a defeat aided by Lionel Messi’s stunning miss in a penalty kick shootout. Is it a fairly silly notion, one that ignores Curry’s magical 2015? Sure, but let’s consider it anyway, just for fun.
Starting with Messi, he is not only arguably the world’s best soccer player (a status more arguable in the wake of his continued failures to help Argentina win a major international tournament) but a prominent member of the Curry fan club. And the feeling is mutual, with the players sending each other jerseys and compliments.

It was just one week ago, of course, when Curry himself finished off of a disastrous Finals by hitting a mere 6 of 19 shots, scoring 17 points, as Golden State blew a 3-1 lead and lost to the Cavaliers (thus ending Cleveland’s very well-known sports hex). For the entire seven-game series, Curry shot just .403, .400 from three-point range, this after shooting at a .504/.454 clip in the regular season; his assists dropped from 6.7 per game to 3.7.
Back in April, some noted that Jordan Spieth, who had a meltdown for the ages in the final round of the Masters, carding a quadruple-bogey at the 12th hole and giving away his lead to unheralded Danny Willett, was a friend of Curry’s. When told what had happened to Spieth, the Golden State star collapsed to the court in mock anguish during pre-game warmups before a playoff contest at San Antonio.

As noted in the first Spieth tweet, the golfer is one of Curry’s fellow endorsers of Under Armour. Another one would be Cam Newton, who also happens to be the quarterback for Curry’s hometown team the Panthers. We all remember what happened to the Panthers in the Super Bowl, right? They suffered a 24-10 loss to the Broncos, one in which Newton, the NFL MVP, completed just 18 of 41 passes for 265 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception, while taking six sacks.
Curry, the Panthers’ biggest celebrity fan, had been given the honor of beating the team’s ceremonial “Keep pounding” drum before the Super Bowl, a fact the guard ruefully noted afterwards on Twitter.

Speaking of Under Armour, another high-profile member of the company’s stable of athletes made a point of posting a photo to Facebook showing him taking in an NBA Finals game. Tom Brady noted that he was “locked in to watch Curry and LeBron,” but the fact that he conspicuously wore Curry’s infamous shoes, complete with a replica of the “fire” emoji the Warrior had drawn on his, left little doubt as to his rooting interest. 
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Solomon Ekakitie

Posted by Solomon Ekakitie

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