Steph Curry Throws Mouthpiece and Hits Fan and Gets Ejected as Cavs Force Game 7

With just over four minutes to go in Game 6 in Cleveland, Steph Curry picked up his sixth foul and then completely lost his mind. Curry was frustrated all night with the fouls called on him and as he tried to pick LeBron James's pocket in transition he got tagged for a fairly nothing foul that ended his night. It's a pretty funny scene when you consider a major LeBron narrative is that he doesn't get the foul calls he deserves because he's such a physical monster, and then tiny-ass Steph Curry fouls out going for a steal. Curry immediately freaked out and then threw his mouthpiece in disgust at the call. It wound up hitting a fan sitting court side—the son of one of Cleveland's minority owners—and then the ref ejected him.

Curry almost immediately went up to the fan and apologized, but he and Steve Kerr were both upset all night with the seemingly ticky-tack fouls called against the two-time MVP.

"I've thrown my mouthpiece before. I usually aim at the scorer's table. I was off aim. Definitely didn't mean to throw it at a fan," Curry said. "That was obviously not where I was trying to take my frustration out."

…

"He had every right to be upset. He's the MVP of the league. He gets six fouls called on him; three of them were absolutely ridiculous," Kerr said. "He steals the ball from Kyrie [Irving] clean at one point. LeBron [James] flops on the last one. [Referee] Jason Phillips falls for that for a flop. As the MVP of the league, we're talking about these touch fouls in the NBA Finals.

Kerr went on to say that he wasn't blaming the loss on the fouls, just pointing out how poorly officiated he considered the game to be. It was the first time Curry fouled out of a game since December 2013, so it's certainly an outlier event.

The drama at the end of the game took some of the focus away from the second straight bananas performance from LeBron James in an elimination game. LeBron equaled his mark of 41 points from Game 5, joining Jerry West, Rick Barry, Michael Jordan, and Shaq as the only guys to have back-to-back 40-point games in the a Finals series. he added 11 assists, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals to his line, and he did it all in front of the home crowd and they went absolutely bonkers for it.

LeBron has been so good that he leads both teams in points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals through the first six games of the series, which is simply insane. Ayesha Curry, however, thinks its less about the greatness of LeBron and more about the NBA rigging the finals for ratings and/or money. She went on a bit of a tweeting jag after Steph got ejected. In a tweet she later deleted, she said "I've lost all respect sorry this is absolutely rigged for money… Or ratings in not sure which. I won't be silent . Just saw it live sry."

tweeted in the heat of the moment because the call was uncalled for.
— Ayesha Curry (@ayeshacurry) June 17, 2016

Police racial profiled my father and told him to remove credentials and tried to arrest him. It's been a long night for me. I apologize:
— Ayesha Curry (@ayeshacurry) June 17, 2016

I'm okay that we lost… I just can't take people coming at my family for absolutely no reason. Something I don't understand or stand for.
— Ayesha Curry (@ayeshacurry) June 17, 2016

I'm not sure what any of that has to do with the NBA being rigged for money, but I am glad we have two full days of the Hellcycle that is 24 hour sports coverage and a legion of Here Are Two Chuckleheads Yelling At Each Other debate shows to talk about Ayesha Curry and not a decisive Game 7 to finish off a series where both teams have scored exactly 610 points each through six games.

UPDATE:

You didn't expect the NBA to suspend its MVP and Coach of the Year for Game 7 of the Finals, did you? Well, it's official. Curry and Kerr have been fined, but not barred from appearing at Oracle:

As expected, NBA fines Curry & Kerr $25k --no suspension. pic.twitter.com/use5AUsv7T
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 17, 2016

While Curry's outburst was certainly impromptu, people are discussing whether or not Kerr's criticism of the officials was calculated. It's possible that the man was trying to buy back some fouls for Game 7. We'll see if that works out for Kerr and the Warriors on Sunday.

[ESPN]