Patrick Mahomes was once asked about the athlete he resembles the most. He replied, “If I played basketball, I’d be just like Steph Curry. I mean, I’ve got the shot.” Aside from their athleticism, there are simply too many other similarities the duo share. Both of them were raised by professional athletes. They are both golf enthusiasts and are amongst the most renowned power couples in their respective sports. If all goes well in the next few hours, then the NFL star will hold the same number of championship titles as the Warriors shooter!

For some, this would be a moment to celebrate. For one Reddit user, however, this became the basis for asking an unusual question.

A query was recently put out on the official Reddit community of the Golden State Warriors: “Was Steph hated as much as people hate Patrick Mahomes now?” The query brought to light any disdain held towards the players, not because of their personalities, but because of their competitive spirit. After all, if you are going to rise to the top, you will make some enemies at the bottom too.

The user highlighted seeing some hate for Curry during the 2016-19 NBA season when the Warriors were at their peak. The NBA Player’s “showboating and dancing, along with all the winning” was something the user believed generated disdain for him. Similarly, Patrick Mahomes was also highlighted to be someone who “showboats”.

The point where differences formed between the two athletes was, according to the user, that Steph majorly carried the Warriors, while Mahomes rides on the coattails of Travis Kelce and a strong defense. In the world of sports, it is easy to accumulate hate by viewers and game enthusiasts.

With the rivalry between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors dominating at one point, the former’s fans automatically held a competitive disdain for Stephen Curry. The same could also be said about Warriors fans and LeBron James. From ‘Chef Curry’ lashing out after a fan used Ayesha to mock the player to Sonya Curry being heckled by Toronto Raptors fans, this competitive hate has often shown its ugly side to the Curry family.

In light of this, one can almost say that any two athletes can be hated equally by fans of rival teams. In this situation, however, people refuse to put Stephen Curry and Patrick Mahomes on the same pedestal. Mostly due to recent events.

Reddit users cite alleged referee bias to dismiss Stephen Curry as being equally hated as Patrick Mahomes: “it’s apples to airplanes”

One Reddit user kicked off the conversation by writing, “Have you ever seen Steph get any favorable calls, ever?? It’s not apples to oranges, it’s apples to airplanes.” This comment received approval from several other users, with one of them replying with a “This”.

The comment was a reference to the ongoing disdain that the NBA community continues holding against the referees. From Anthony Edwards calling the officiating “f—ing terrible” to Nick Nurse venting his frustration over Andre Drummond’s alleged wrongful ejections, several instances have come up within the ongoing season itself. Even Stephen Curry has openly shown his disapproval of referee calls.

Another user followed the same path by writing “No, because Steph is actually a likeable human being. That and he doesn’t get bailed out by the refs unlike Mahomes.” Yikes!

While no proper evidence has been presented of NFL referees favoring Patrick Mahomes, this hasn’t stopped theories from arising anyway. One instance of alleged bias was called when Texans’ Will Anderson got hit with a roughing-the-passer penalty on Patrick Mahomes. Later, a roughness call was made for a hit during Mahomes’ slide, even though the helmets reportedly collided away from him.

Steelers’ Cam Heyward criticized these instances, stating, “Yeah, Mahomes is going to get calls. He’s an MVP, he sells tickets. The second they think it’s questionable, it’s probably getting thrown. He’s the Bruce Bowen, the Manu Ginobili—flopping and flailing.” From an AI-generated picture of Patrick Mahomes kissing the referee to Riot Comedy’s roasts, fans are not choosing to shut down any bias theories.

One individual praised Stephen Curry by writing “Steph has always been a super humble star with no ego whatsoever. Plus he never gets any help from the refs”. The 4x NBA Champion had recently contributed to ESPN Journalist Tim Keown’s report. The same highlighted that Curry may hold a certain reverence, and liking, unlike Michael Jordan and LeBron James. Despite this, the Three-Point Leader can also lose his cool occasionally. Especially when it comes to referees.

“It exhausts me,” said Curry about certain referee calls. “One thousand percent more than any defense. You get distracted and waste energy yelling at the refs.” Shedding some more light on his frustration, Curry revealed, “I’ve thrown a mouthpiece or two … or three … or four.”

One individual went into detail about his reasoning by writing, “The warriors team overall? They hated us, but steph is really beloved around the league, sh-t even celtics fans were praising him. The thing about mahones, dude is great, HOF material, best qb in the league. But man a lot of calls are favorable against them, hence the argument of nfl rigging that shit for them, the same time you cant deny, Chiefs are really a dynasty.”

Alleged missed calls against Stephen Curry have even frustrated commentators. During a Warriors-Timberwolves game earlier this month, with 6:09 left in the third quarter, Steph drove to the basket, got fouled by Jaden McDaniels, but wasn’t initially awarded free throws. After protests, the refs finally gave him the call, prompting the broadcaster to say, “They’re so inconsistent with this… Steph was at least in the upward motion.” He went on to emphasize, “That’s all these players want—consistency.”

Adding on to the thread, one individual wrote “I think the only Steph haters are youth basketball coaches”. Steph’s fight with referees over wrong calls sometimes made him out to be the bad man. During Ayesha Curry’s recent interview on Sherri Shepperd’s show, she shared a funny story about her son Canon inheriting her childhood habit of denying obvious mischief.

And what exactly was Mrs. Curry guilty of?

Apparently, she denied writing on the carpet at school. However, it was evident that it was Ayesha since she had written her name on the carpet! Since Canon had also seemed to have developed her mother’s traits, Ayesha felt that her kid would soon outgrow it. Sherri playfully connected it to Steph’s on-court moments, saying, “Well I don’t know, if you’re going to grow out of it, cuz I saw Steph on the court, and they say ‘You foul’, he goes ‘I didn’t do it’. So….”.

Ayesha was quick to defend her husband, laughing, “He did not, Sherri,” remark.

Overall, the majority of reactions looked to criticize NBA referees for taking an allegedly biased stand against Stephen Curry. From all these remarks, one thing is evident: Patrick Mahomes and the NBA player may be similar in lots of ways.