The 2016 NBA Finals will feature the league's two brightest stars in Lebron James and Stephen Curry. The James led Cavaliers vs the Curry led Warriors is sure to move the tv and dvr ratings to near record highs. With such a highly anticipated matchup there will be plenty of old lazy narratives to resurface in order to describe the teams and individual matchups that I will either loathe or like. The socially tone deaf narrative of Lebron seen as a chiseled 6'8 260lb uberathletic man who was predestined for greatness while Curry will be viewed as a frailly built, under recruited hard working sharp shooting underdog who slays in a league filled with Goliaths will be 1 of the top narratives used throughout the Finals. Can we take a step back and examine who is the true underdog in this matchup between star?
The underdog Steph Curry, is the son of a valuable NBA role player and ex division-1 volleyball star. As a child Steph would often accompany his father Dell Curry into NBA locker rooms, thus receiving the privilege to see the inner workings of professional basketball. Most stars today are forced to push the business aspect of playing basketball to the forefront in their mid teens due to their families being in terrible financial situations. Curry's married parents were well off and this allowed Steph to just focus on having fun while playing basketball and develop at his own rate. This provided Steph the luxury of staying in college for 3yrs to enjoy the atmosphere like a normal kid by in large unlike most other stars who leave after their freshman or sophomore years to chase NBA money,
The physical specimen predestined for greatness Lebron James, was born to a poverty stricken single mother. Throughout his preteens Lebron bounced around from house to house resulting in him missing close to 100 days of school in the 3rd grade. He was an unknown child living out season 4 of The Wire in real life. By his teens he found some home stability as his name started to dominate basketball media. The media spotlight on him was intense in addition to adults exploiting him for free. ESPN was airing his high school games and sending their best pundits to cover them and Adidas enjoyed a nice spike in sales as a result Lebron wearing their shoes most of his senior year. The media was so Lebron crazy that they dug into his families finances that got him temporarily suspended when his mother purchased him a hummer for his 18th birthday . The hummer fiasco brought up the old coded conversation about whether amateur athletes should be paid and how it was bad for the guy who makes everyone else money to actually receive money *stares at Dick Vitale*.
After reading this post it's pretty clear that the guy who fought through poverty and other non ideal situations on his way to becoming a self made millionaire is the real underdog in this matchup? If anyone still thinks Steph is the underdog and Lebron is one who was destined for greatness after this needs to reevaluate how they view society and check their own insecurities. Ladies and gents the broke kid with the nappy fro named Lebron James is the real underdog.
