Warriors beat writer: LeBron, Westbrook don't particularly like Curry

While Stephen Curry ranks near the top as an NBA fan favorite, there's long been a sense within certain media types that the two-time MVP is not the league's most popular player among opposing stars.

Now, longtime Golden State Warriors beat writer Marcus Thompson has openly stated that in his new book, "Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry." Thompson is currently doing promotion for the book, and specifically identifies LeBron James and Russell Westbrook as two superstars that have an extra axe to grind with Curry.

"I think if you ask them and they're being honest, they don't like all the hype he gets, and they have to direct it that way," Thompson recently told The Big Lead's Jason McIntyre. "I think, out of all of them, if somebody doesn't like Steph Curry, I think it's probably Westbrook ... his seems to be, 'I don't like that dude.'

"But LeBron and them, I think they will say, 'Man, I like Steph. We can have a conversation.' But there's something that burns them about the fact that Steph is the one that is exalted and because of that they want to go at him and demean his hype. They want to take him down."

If there's a reason for Westbrook to dislike Curry now, one obvious theory would be Kevin Durant's decamping for Golden State, something that effectively ended the Oklahoma City Thunder's championship hopes. Yet a sense of borderline contempt from Westbrook towards Curry goes back before that.

As far as James goes, Thompson cited a block The King laid on Curry during last June's Finals. James promptly talked a little smack to the sharpshooter.

"Never see him do that against anybody else," Thompson told The Big Lead, adding that the relationship between the two has changed a few years ago from when James actually mentored Curry.

"He was a big fan of Curry, he would go to Curry's games at Davidson," Thompson said. "And even when they got to the NBA, they had moments where LeBron was looking at him like, 'wow' and then Steph kind of like challenged LeBron's status."

Despite the obvious competitive streak of elite-level athletes, others have posited that Curry's privileged upbringing as the son of 14-year NBA player Dell Curry creates tension with competition. Either way, Steph's rise to the top of the basketball food chain has been unique, and not without some turbulence.