New Stephen Curry video has Warriors fans convinced he has the worst whistle in the NBA originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has historically received relatively fewer calls from the referees in his favor. For a superstar of his calibre, 4.3 free throws per game is way less.

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On Monday, we got another example of a bad call by a referee against Curry.

During the game against the Orlando Magic, Curry was making his way into the basket while being contested by defenders, including Desmond Bane. As he leaped to get near the basket, he faced a lot of contact, but despite that, the referees ignored the contact and gave no foul call.

As he went down, Bane was almost on top of him and even tapped on his chest as Curry couldn’t believe that he received no call there.

Despite that missed call, Curry led the Warriors to a 120-97 win to improve to .500 (15-15) on the season. Curry scored 26 points to go along with six rebounds, three assists and two steals in 31 minutes. He was supported well by Moses Moody (20 points) and Jimmy Butler (21 points).

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Steph Curry named referees’ favorite by players but stats say otherwise

Earlier this year, a poll was conducted among 153 players regarding the new officiating favoring more physicality in the game. Several of them alluded that the referees are favorable to superstar players, pinpointing Steph Curry, LeBron James and others.

“I think it’s not even titled toward offense, it’s toward who you’re playing against,” one anonymous player said. “I think the physicality only applies to certain players. If you’re not known, OK, you can get hit. But if you’re [going against] Steph or LeBron, you can’t get that physical.”

Another anonymous player added: “Certain players get certain calls. That’s understandable. Kind of the way it works. Steph Curry, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, they are going to get calls.”

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However, the stats don’t back up these claims.

Last season, Curry was ranked 49th in the NBA in terms of drawing fouls per game (3.5). Luka Doncic was fifth at 5.9. Interestingly, Curry draws even fewer fouls than Austin Reaves (4.5) of the Lakers.

Now, one would argue that Curry’s major offensive weapon is to shoot from deep, which in general attracts far less physicality than a jump shot or layup from a short range. However, Curry moves a lot all over the court and still doesn’t get fouled too many times, or one would assume doesn’t receive favorable calls from the referee.

Whatever the case may be, it’s easy to say that the players are wrong about Curry and that he doesn’t get favorable calls from the referees at least.

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