Stephen Curry's meteoric rise to the top of the NBA world put everyone in the basketball world on notice.

The problem is it's starting to be for the wrong reasons. Curry, by all reports, is a very good guy that has a normal life off the basketball court. When he's on it, though, the world waits with bated breath for Curry to do something amazing.

That's rubbed an assortment of top players around the league the wrong way, and it's a surprising revelation detailed by Warriors beat writer Marcus Thompson. He discusses the situation in his newly-released book, and went into more detail on why in a radio interview.

Curry has garnered some legitimate heat from at least a few specifically-named players by Thompson, all a who's-who of superstars in the NBA. LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul were all cited as players who dislike Chef Curry. 

"They don't like all the hype he gets, and they have to direct it that way. I think, out of all of them, if somebody doesn't like Steph Curry, I think it's probably Westbrook. He just shows no sign of ... this ain't really about Steph, it's bigger. His seems to be, 'I don't like that dude,'" Thompson said, as transcribed by Jordan Heck of Sporting News. 

"But LeBron and them, I think they will say, 'Man, I like Steph. We can have a conversation.' But there's something that burns them about the fact that Steph is the one that is exalted and because of that they want to go at him and demean his hype. They want to take him down."

It's no surprise that Westbrook has no love for Curry — to be fair, Westbrook would like nothing more than to posterize everyone in the entire NBA. Russell has taken a handful of shots at Curry over the years and has never pretended to be buddy-buddy with the Warriors' guard. 

The simmering rivalry between Curry and James is something that troubles Steph, according to Thompson. James and Curry had a good relationship prior to his rise to superstardom, and that things have changed bothers the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player. 

"The part that’s odd for Steph – why does that mean there has to be some beef between us? He loves LeBron, he respects LeBron, and he’s like, ‘because the outside world is pitting us together, why do you and I have to now have this disdain between us, I thought we were cool?

"That’s the question that’s in Curry’s mind and Curry’s camp: Why do you not like me when all I did was basically respect everything you did, and kind of follow the model you carried out?"

It's an interesting dynamic, and perhaps it's only natural for top competitors to have a level of dislike toward threats encroaching on their territory. Perhaps James and Curry can bury the hatchet with a third straight NBA Finals battle.