The Warriors, despite their success, continue to receive disrespect from the media. On “Undisputed”, podcast host and part-time pianist Ric Bucher decided it was appropriate to compare Ja Morant, in his third season, to Steph Curry, who has driven TV rating sky-high as we analyzed earlier this week. Bucher talked a lot about “foreign players” in his segment, and how Ja is the only one of the league’s younger guys who could potentially be the NBA’s marketing plug for the next few years.

Now don’t get me wrong. Ja Morant is must-see basketball. He posted a career-high 52 points earlier this week, and he’s been an electrifying presence on the court since March of his sophomore season at Murray State. But to say that he is about to do something Steph Curry has never done is outright disrespectful, and flat-out incorrect.

“Undisputed” has a reputation for some of the NBA’s hottest takes, but this one may take the cake.

“He’s got that edge. There’s that fieriness about his game” Bucher said in the segment, speaking about a comparison of Ja to Steph’s “baby-faced assassin” moniker that fan’s have gravitated towards since his 2013 career-high against the fatally playoff-bound New York Knicks.

To say that Bucher’s lack of credit to a lot that has happened the past two seasons since Steph’s return from a near-season long broken hand is ignorant may be an understatement. It proves that his credibility is tedious at best, given his clear lack of actually watching Warriors games this season. The Dubs have ridden a lot of Steph’s expression, their attitude coming from his audacity to not only hit shots nobody else can hit, but let his opponents (and the refs) hear about it.

Bucher’s analysis is lazy at best. The only argument you could make against Steph being the NBA’s face is that he doesn’t get enough national TV games. Despite that, the Warriors local broadcast is the league’s best by almost twice their 2nd place competitor, as we analyzed in a recent article. The fact of the matter is, fans want to watch Steph Curry. He’s the most electric player in basketball since Kobe Bryant, who was must-see TV only after Michael Jordan before him.

The media doesn’t care to acknowledge how good Curry is because he isn’t scoring 30 a game this season. He has stepped up as his franchise’s superstar to a role he can play until the end of his career, and decidedly has the Warriors in the West’s 2nd spot. Can Ja Morant be the face of the NBA? Most certainly he can. Ja is an excellent player and is a favorite amongst newer fans to the sport.

But Steph Curry is different. There has, and never will be, another player like him. He makes the impossible seem possible, and for that reason, he is the face of the NBA. The league’s lack of acknowledgement has nothing to do with how much they owe him for his outreach, for making the league a success at the international stage. If you go around your neighborhood and ask everyone’s favorite NBA player, the chances are you’ll hear about Steph.

For an analyst on a major network to be so ignorant of the sport they’re expected to analyze is to ensure you only care about controversy. The “baby-faced assassin” is the league’s most marketable product, and whether he’s been the league’s focus or not, he’s still the most marketable player they’ve had since Jordan. It’d be a wise decision for networks like Fox Sports to start endorsing that… If not for the NBA’s sake, then for their own.

(Photo credit: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)