Perhaps no professional athlete in this century has ridden the crest of a popularity surge the way Stephen Curry has, for the past two years.

Remember, ahead of the 2013-14 NBA season the Golden State Warriors shooting star was widely considered something of a one-trick pony, an interesting player with one good season, one playoffs season and no all-star games to his credit.

He solidified his status as his team’s best player, in 2013-14, but the Warriors went out of the playoffs in the first round of the playoffs, at the hands of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Since, then … it’s been all Curry all the time. A semi-frail, long-range bomber who led the Warriors to record heights and “changed the way the game is played”. Twice an MVP. A champion last season.

And a great guy, too … modest, a family man, kind to animals and journalists, beloved by fans, almost a regular-looking guy, like the rest of us. His No. 30 jersey the top-selling jersey in the NBA, displacing LeBron James at the top of the heap.

And then came Game 6 of the NBA Finals, and the Steph Curry momentum machine ran off the road.

To wit:

–James drew Curry into making his sixth foul, disqualifying him from the game with another silly infraction, making the Cavalier veteran winner of the Game 6 head game.

–Curry hurled his mouth guard — essentially a gummy piece of plastic with his saliva all over it, the one he chews throughout the game, an adorable tick — toward the sideline. He apparently meant to hit the scorer’s table with it, but the most accurate shooter in the history of the league missed … and it hit the son of the Cavaliers minority owner — who at least was not a kid. He was ejected from the game, the first of his career.

–After the game, Curry’s wife, Ayesha, tweeted after her husband’s ejection that Game 6 was “absolutely rigged for money” or “ratings” and she wouldn’t be silent. (She later deleted the tweet, saying it was posted “in the heat of the moment”.)

–Curry, unanimous MVP for the 2015-16 regular season, has been thoroughly outplayed by James in this series. LeBron leads the finals in points, rebounds, assists and blocks, after his latest 41-point game — while Curry struggled to get 30.

All of a sudden …

Curry doesn’t seem like the hyper-cool uber-marksman … we are left to ponder what sort of damage his wife did to the NBA’s image by resurrecting the “rigged” discussion … and we are wondering if over the past five days LeBron James has moved to the verge of 1) diminishing the Warriors’ record, 73-victory season by beating them in the Finals and 2) making it clear that Curry might have had the best stats in the regular season, but he, LeBron is still the best player in the league.

None of that was part of the Curry narrative, a week ago. The one that had been spiraling to heights where the air is thin.

One more defeat and maybe LeBron’s No. 23 goes back to the top-selling jersey at the NBA store, ahead of Curry’s 30.