Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is in the middle of a feud between Stephen A. Smith and Steve Kerr over the leadership of Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
In light of the NBA deciding to suspend Warriors big man Draymond Green indefinitely after he was ejected for hitting Phoenix Suns player Jusuf Nurkic, some folks in the media — including ESPN’s Smith — have questioned Curry’s leadership ability.
Warriors head coach Kerr recently spoke with the media and said that it’s “sickening” and “disgusting” for anyone to question Curry’s leadership.
Smith responded to Kerr’s comments by explaining that James would get criticized if a teammate of his were consistently getting into trouble with the league, so Curry shouldn’t get a pass.
“Steve Kerr didn’t mention me by name, I’ll mention Steve Kerr by name,” said Smith. “I’m disgusted with him. … No one is questioning Steph Curry as a leader. What we said was…if that were LeBron James, we would’ve said, ‘Where are you?’”
Curry and the Warriors have had a turbulent start to the 2023-24 regular season on the court as well. Golden State owns a 10-14 record on the season — the 11th-best record in the Western Conference at the moment — and is riding a three-game losing streak.
The Warriors’ three losses during their losing streak have come against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers. They lost to the Thunder in overtime by two points, lost to the Suns by three points and lost to the Clippers by eight.
If there’s one positive takeaway for the Warriors in their loss to the Clippers on Thursday, it’s that Klay Thompson — who is averaging just 16.0 points per game, his lowest scoring average since the 2011-12 season — had one of his best scoring performances of the season.
He scored 30 points while shooting 9-of-15 from the field and 8-of-12 from behind the 3-point line in 32 minutes played. Also, he dished out five assists and came up with two steals for the Warriors.
The Warriors will attempt to end their losing streak at three games when they face Mikal Bridges and the Brooklyn Nets at home on Saturday. The Nets own a 13-11 record on the season and are winners of seven of their last 10 games.
