Why I Think Ayesha Curry Was Dead Wrong

Meet Ayesha Curry.  Chances are, you already know her.

Tonight is Game 7 of the NBA Finals and very few are actually talking about the game itself.  Just about everyone has spent the last few days discussing what Ayesha Curry tweeted about Game 6.

Mrs. Curry essentially insinuated that the NBA is"fixed" to allow Cleveland to extend the series to a Game 7.  A 7th game brings about more money through TV ratings and ticket sells.

As much as I love the Curry family and how they represent themselves, I think that she crossed over the line with her tweet.  Way over the line.

However, let me backtrack a bit.  Since the creation of the "Basketball Wives" TV show, it appears to me that a lot of women have come to the forefront of the game.  My only problem is with the ones who are bringing that reality show element along with them.  Sports fans honestly don't care what you think, good or bad.  We want to see Skip Bayless, Jemele Hill, Stephen A. Smith, and the likes discuss the game.  Not the wives of players.

Why?

Because wives of players are always going to side with their husbands.  Duh.  Where's the journalistic integrity of that (not to say that all talking heads on ESPN have integrity).  Brent Grimes of the NFL has a wife who is so outspoken that he has difficulty even signing with a team.  Imagine that!  Not being able to get a job because of your wife's actions on social media (and in real life for Miko Grimes).

Here's the tweet heard around the world (that she deleted afterwards).

And I want all the people who are supporting Ayesha to think about that.  If your husband comes home and discloses to you that someone at his job is holding him back, is your first thought to go on social media and bash his company?  Absolutely not.  Because you know that he will be out of a job if you do.

So, why do you give Ayesha Curry a pass on doing the exact same thing?  Because Steph is too talented to get fired from the Warriors?  Well, that's true, but that doesn't make it right.  Because believe it or not, Steph has been totally impacted in a negative way by his wife's antics.  He will never say that publicly because it's his wife.  Duh again.  But she's done more harm than good.

How so?

It's Game 7 and what who are we talking about?  Ayesha Curry.

Who are the reporters asking Steph Curry about in the interviews leading up to the game?  Not Lebron, but Ayesha.

What questions are Steph's teammates getting asked about in interviews leading up to the game?  Not about the Cavaliers, but about if they think the games are rigged.

And if the tweet was not enough, she challenged an ESPN talking head legend in Stephen A. Smith into a war of words.  He called her out on being a distraction to the team and her response was to challenge what he said and be even more of a distraction.  She even said that Stephen A. was pitting women against women simply because he stated that Lebron's wife, Savannah, experiences much more scrutiny of her husband than anyone in the league, yet she lets him handle it.  Imagine that.  A woman letting a man fight his own battles.  I would personally be offended if I had a wife who attempted to fight my battles for me.  That's emasculating.  It's just not right and it's humiliating.

Steph Curry is going into what could be the biggest game of his career and no one is really talking about the game.  And even if Ayesha Curry is correct in her accusations, how is she going to prove it?  What if she pissed the referees off so much (they're human) that they decide that they're not going to call many fouls tonight?  They may decide just to let the guys play it out and stay out of the picture.  A physical game favors Cleveland and not Golden State, so that would hurt her husband's chances of winning.  How is her tweet going to help her husband tonight?

Newsflash: It won't.

I'm not a fan of either team, but I do hope that tonight's game is a close one and has plenty of action.  I am a fan of both Savannah and Ayesha.  I'm a fan of Savannah's for being able to stay away from the spotlight, as tempting as it may be.  And I'm a fan of Ayesha's for how she's handled the spotlight, up until now.

It's not that Ayesha isn't entitled to her opinions.  She just has to realize that once she becomes the story, she becomes a target for criticism.  It doesn't matter if it's justified or not.  That's just how the media works.  And any criticism of her affects her husband's game whether anyone believes it or not.  It also puts him in a bad place with his teammates who also are affected by the controversy.

The last thing a player wants to worry about in a locker room is his wife/girlfriend or family.  You have to worry about how the media will make her look.  You have to worry about if some deranged fan(s) will accost her and hold her responsible if Golden State loses.  We live in a world where those two things are very likely.

Ayesha will probably have her own cooking show or something in the future.  She's a likeable person and she has the ability to brighten up any room.  She's one of the more positive recognizable figures in social media today and we need more like her.

But tweets can't beat microphones.  In a game between Ayesha Curry vs. ESPN, I'm putting my money down on ESPN every time.  I hope that she now realizes that she's fighting a losing battle and that she takes the high road going forward.