Sports offer a respite for people from their daily challenges, problems, and grievances. And so, they come to the venue to root for their stars, all charged up and passionate. But while that energy can be a beautiful thing, fans can also be extremely toxic. NBA superstars understand this duality of fans quite well.
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One day, you can be the most beloved player in the world. However, after just one bad game, people may throw a barrage of heinous insults on social media. Unfortunately, that hate often spills into the personal lives of the players. Just ask Stephen Curry and his wife, Ayesha, who by now have learned how to navigate through the hate.
Ayesha acknowledges that being married to Steph has given her some serious privileges. But with that comes the pressure, which she has learned to handle with incredible poise.
“Parts of it have afforded me doors to be open,” Ayesha said on the Call Her Daddy podcast. “I obviously have to walk through them and then put in the work to stay in the room. I’m grateful for that side of things.”
However, it is impossible for Ayesha to simply ignore the dark side of that fame. “I, in the beginning, hated it so much,” she revealed.
“Sports fans are so different than entertainment fans. And oftentimes, it’s very ruthless,” added Ayesha. Steph, being one of the biggest players in the league and a heartthrob on top of that, has led to some unwarranted fan encounters for Ayesha.
One encounter in particular left a scar that remains hauntingly fresh in Ayesha’s mind.
“I remember one time, after my first was born, she was whiny, so I was like, let me nurse her in the back seat. Stephen was putting a bike or something in the trunk. This woman opens the car door, she sticks her head in and is like, ‘I just wanted to see the baby,'” Ayesha revealed.
The story at this point itself is already unbelievable, but it only gets worse. “I’m like, ‘Excuse me?'” Ayesha said, adding, “She looks me dead in my face and goes, ‘Oh, honey, you know what you signed up for.'”
At the end of the day, celebrity or not, every human deserves basic decency and privacy. But fans like this one simply ignore personal boundaries. “I was just bawling my eyes out. Is this what it’s going to be like?” Ayesha asked herself at the time.
Ayesha and Steph have since learned how to balance their life to accommodate fans. It wasn’t an easy path, but thankfully, they are much better adjusted than before.
