Remembering Both Times Steph Curry Chucked His Mouthpiece in Anger and Got Punished

No one would think of Warriors point guard Stephen Curry as the kind of guy to burst into anger on the basketball court. Maybe it's because he's not oversized, or because he still has a baby face, but zero NBA fans would pull his name immediately as that kind of character.

Well, as locked-in as the 32-year-old usually is, Curry does have a brief history of losing his chill on the hardwood – and sometimes it involves him throwing his signature mouth guard. The very first time Curry let it rip came during one of the darkest moments of his basketball career, as the 2016 NBA Finals began to slip away.

The Warriors blew a 3-1 lead to LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals, and Curry picked up his first career ejection amid that Golden State meltdown. Before Cleveland shocked the world on the road in Game 7, Curry fouled out and threw his mouthpiece in anger as the Cavaliers ran away with Game 6. The mouthpiece inadvertently hit a fan, so the ref hit Curry with a technical to throw salt in the Warriors' wound.

Steph tried to pull the same shenanigans a little more than a year later (with KD and an extra title in tow), and it could not have been more similar to the first incident. With the Warriors trailing late in the game against the Grizzlies, Curry let his mouthpiece loose as he pleaded with the ref, and he paid the consequences.

Curry wanted the and-one, got in the ref's face, and let his mouthpiece go in the man's direction. Yet again, Steph was ejected in the closing minutes of a loss. Maybe if Curry had kept his cool, he'd have gone on an epic 3-point shooting spree to bring Golden State back into the game. But instead, he had to be that guy.