Saturday was the rare news conference where Stephen Curry had to act as something of a White House press secretary. Pratfalls needed explaining. Worries needed new lives as reassurances.
Curry put the onus on himself, perhaps to a strange degree when declaring, "I need to play my best game of the year, if not my career."
It is often argued that Curry gets something of a free pass in these situations, as posited by the hypothetical, "But if LeBron James did that ..." The idea is that Curry is treated with kid gloves compared to the superstar in the other jersey, with varying hypotheses as to why.