Did Steve Kerr have a point about Steph Curry’s ‘ticky-tack fouls’?

Ayesha Curry, wife of Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, did not have a point. There is no conspiracy theory keeping the NBA’s unanimous MVP from a second straight title. There is no puppet master pulling strings on Draymond Green’s fist and marionetting it into Cavaliers forward LeBron James’ groin. And commissioner Adam Silver can’t punch a cheat code into a controller to make LeBron unstoppable.

Mrs. Curry’s theory earned some 75,000 retweets before she deleted it, and then Golden State coach Steve Kerr took up the cause, in a way. Instead of suggesting the league rigged Game 6 in Cleveland’s favor, Kerr insinuated Curry’s MVP status should curry favor with the officiating crew, which, in a sense, would be rigging the outcome in his favor. Here’s the exchange between Kerr and the media afterward:

Q. Steve, do you think your team lost its composure, specifically Steph with throwing the mouthpiece and getting ejected?

STEVE KERR: Well, that had nothing to do with the outcome. The outcome was decided. But 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. He steals the ball from Kyrie clean at one point. LeBron flops on the last one. 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.

Let me be clear, we did not lose because of the officiating. They totally outplayed us and Cleveland deserved to win. But those three of the six fouls were incredibly inappropriate calls for anybody, much less the MVP of the league.

Q. So are you okay with him throwing his mouthpiece?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, I’m happy he threw his mouthpiece. He should be upset. Look, it’s The Finals and everybody’s competing out there. There are fouls on every play. It’s a physical game. I just think that Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, the way we run our offense, we’re running, we’re cutting through the lane, we’re a rhythm offense. If they’re going to let Cleveland grab and hold these guys constantly on their cuts and then you’re going to call these ticky-tack fouls on the MVP of the league to foul him out, I don’t agree with that.

Look, most everyone understands rookies get penalized for personal fouls that veterans might not and referees probably keep whistles a little quieter when it comes to making calls on stars versus non-stars. But this is the NBA Finals, and Curry is playing opposite James and Kyrie Irving. It’s stars on stars.

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We should also recognize that Kerr may not even fully believe the theory he’s floating — one that earned him a $25,000 fine — but instead wants the refs to at least think twice before calling Curry for a foul in Game 7. It’s Phil Jackson 101. And Kerr might have a point about the arbitrary nature of their whistles.

Here’s a look at all six fouls called against Curry in the Game 6 loss, with a hat to tip to folks at r/NBA.

Curry earned this one just 1:23 into the opening quarter, and when I say earned, it was an obvious foul. He was more handsy with Cavs forward Tristan Thompson than most guys get on their sixth date.

Midway through the first quarter, LeBron treated Curry like a dog treats a screen door. Just ran right through him and barely stopped moving. Did Curry set his feet? Could the play have kept going without a whistle? Judgment calls. But by Kerr’s logic, maybe LeBron’s four MVPs trump Curry’s two on this one.

Late in the first half, Curry got caught reaching on Irving, and while it wasn’t much in the way of a hack, he was draped all over his opponent and swung his arm into the mix once he got worked on the pick.

Does this pick of Irving’s pocket always get called? Of course not. But Curry reached in twice and double-hand-checked him in between on this play, so the whistle wasn’t exactly an injustice here, either.

Yet again, Curry doesn’t drill LeBron late in the fourth quarter, but he does make contact with his right elbow and undercut his motion, impeding forward movement, even if James flops to sell the sixth foul.

Could the officials have swallowed the whistle on a few Curry fouls? Sure, but the MVP also could’ve been smarter about constantly reaching, particularly with five fouls — especially when he’s 75 feet from the basket and any hope of a comeback rests on his ability to shoot his team back into the game. But if Kerr’s complaints earn Curry even one extra foul from the refs in Game 7, it will be $25,000 well spent.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach