“Fraudulent”: Fans Fume Over Stephen Curry’s ‘Clutch Player of the Year’ Win Over DeMar DeRozan, SGA

The Golden State Warriors’ season came to an early end. Of course, they managed to make it to the play-in, but just couldn’t make it out of that alive. Stephen Curry, though, had a better outcome, considering he is part of Team USA and got his jersey. And now, the 4x champion received another honor from the league. He won the 2023-24 NBA Clutch Player of the Year award. His close competitors were DeMar DeRozan and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

While Curry got 45 first-place votes, DeRozan had 34, and Shai, just 11. Interestingly, though, fans on X have varied reactions. They aren’t all because the Warriors had a terrible season. Although, some are still mad at him for that. However, this NBA fan seems to be annoyed at Steph getting the award because he believes he doesn’t deserve it! And the netizen lets it be known in a pretty strong comment. “Fraudulent award”.

This irritation could be due to Bulls’ Rozan and OKC’s SGA snub. As per NBA stats, DeMar is seven points behind Stephen Curry in total clutch points at 182. As for Gilgeous-Alexander, he is at 112. But move to the average points per game and DeRozan ranks fourth with 4.6 points. Curry, on the other hand, is sixth with 4.4 per game.

It doesn’t help that the 34-year-0ld forward ranks ahead in three fewer games than Steph, either. The 10x All-Star played in 43 clutch games, with a 23-20 record. DeMar DeRozan played 40 of them and has a 24-16 record. SGA isn’t far away, given how he was in 3rd place in the voting over names like Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, and Nikola Jokić.

We already mentioned his total clutch points for the season above. As for his points per game, Gilgeous-Alexander stands at 3.3 in 34 games with a 23-11 record. Great numbers, by all means. Nonetheless, not enough to get either of them ahead of Stephen Curry. But that has never stopped fans from speaking their minds.

X users rip Stephen Curry apart for the Clutch Player award

Still mad about the play-in loss, this fan comments, “Couldn’t even clutch a play in win,” followed by a not-so-subtle GIF.

A hardcore Houston Rockets fan, host of two different podcasts, portrayed a sense of immense disappointment too, penning, “The game is ruined.”

Another user decided to remind the Warriors of their rank at the end of the regular season. “10th seed ‘clutch’ lmao.” A Laker and Hachimura fan, this person is obviously taking a dig at the struggles of the team this season and yet getting a postseason award, despite finishing as the 10th seed and being defeated in the play-in.

And finally, this championship-minded user has a serious statement to make. “Curry is 0-14 when it comes to being clutch.” The most recent instance of this happening was in the April 12- 109-114 loss to the Pelicans in the play-in. He was 0-14 on shots to take the lead with just 50 seconds left in the game.

To provide more context, another user who seems to have done some serious research posted a reply to LeBron James’ missed shot in the Nuggets’ Game 2 win connecting it to Steph.

Clearly, the numbers do not favor Stephen Curry, amid the unpleasant outburst of uncertainty and doubt from the fans. But he still leads in total points on clutch shots this year. And the voters believe he is good at what he does. With the award, Steph’s resume continues to grow longer.