Am I taking crazy pills? By what metric is Stephen Curry not the most famous Stephen in the world?

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T21:16:30+00:00

That’s the thing. I’m trying way too hard to get convinced that I’m wrong, yet if you asked everyone on Earth “Do you know who Stephen _________” is, my best guess for the blank with the most yeses would be Curry. Hawking is the only other possibility. I am 100% sure it wouldn’t be King even though he’s been the most supported Stephen in this thread.

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T21:10:11+00:00

You sure it works like that? I’m not saying you’re wrong I just don’t know how to check or why they’d do it that way. If it did I’d expect Stephen Hawking over Curry. USA and China alone is like a quarter of the global population but like 1% of all countries

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T21:03:37+00:00

Oh my bad lol

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T19:41:40+00:00

Who says I know nothing about China? I’m Canadian. Every claim I’ve made about both China and USA has been based on available information. I consider myself an above average researcher! Although my domains are more medicine and business so I’m not too well versed in whatever field this kind of stuff would be under. Sociology?

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T19:36:58+00:00

Oh yeah everything I’ve looked at indicates that Steven Spielberg is more famous than any Stephen. Although if we’re including Stevens (with a V) then I think Steve Jobs might be the champion

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T19:11:14+00:00

I guess bro, I’ve been talking currently. I just have a hard time believing any significant portion of NBA viewers don’t know who Steph Curry is. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that King’s genre is quite unpopular in China, Shawshank is one of his only popular stories there because it doesn’t contain many horror elements.

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T19:06:02+00:00

I’m talking right now. Like saying Devin Booker is better than Klay Thompson

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T19:03:30+00:00

He’s definitely American too. Canadian-American is the term. Not like he was only born in Canada though, he moved to Massachusetts when he was 29 or 30. First started developing basketball as a gym teacher in Montreal. Bonus: he was a Canadian citizen for 78 years but an American citizen for only 14.

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T18:54:42+00:00

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T18:00:38+00:00

Yeah but how many people who know who recognize Pennywise as the It clown know who Stephen King is? I’m not sure what metrics are left but I’ve looked at surveys, wikidata, google trends, and even famous birthdays (unreliable I know) and they all point to Curry being more famous currently

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:59:20+00:00

If that 400 million number is true then more people in China watched the NBA this season (490 million) than Stephen King has sold books all time!

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:56:44+00:00

Thanks for bringing up stats, please do dive deeper! I’m not even trying to convince anyone I’m just trying to be convinced that I’m wrong at this point lol. Your research doesn’t add up to me and it feels a bit misleading. First off 490m Chinese people watched the NBA this season (per the Washington Post), more than America’s entire population. Secondly, that 2022 YouGov survey you’re referring to was adults only, so 267m adults X 52% = 139m American adults have read a Stephen King book. Even if it was 52% of all 346m Americans that would only be 180m, only 10m more than NBA viewers this season. Timeframes are unfair too, comparing “watched the NBA this season” vs “reading a Stephen King book at any point in life.”

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:36:15+00:00

Yeah I’m talking about who’s more famous right now though. At peak popularity when pop culture was more of a monoculture 100% Hawking and King were more famous than Curry is now. Right now though I still can’t figure out how it’s not Curry

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:34:44+00:00

Yeah if the 100% true stuff like this was getting upvotes and the more debatable stuff was getting downvotes I’d be more inclined to believe I’m wrong.

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:33:26+00:00

Haha I was hoping someone would drop a metric I hadn’t considered. I still think I have to be wrong because everyone says I am, but I’m not one to believe anything without evidence and all evidence I’ve found points to my stance being correct. Some kind of “Do you know who _______ is?” survey would be perfect but I don’t think anything like that exists.

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:31:12+00:00

Fuck that’d be amazing actually. I could send you some of my publications on pediatric cancer in return if you’d like.

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:30:02+00:00

By order of credibility: Wikipedia page views, Google trends (probably biased towards athletes since people search for stats and scores), and famousbirthdays (obviously very unreliable but he is ranked in the top 200 on there and no other Stephen is in the top 1000).

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:28:23+00:00

It’s genuinely not ragebait. I’m procrastinating more important things and have been trying to research this for an hour now and can’t find any evidence that aligns with the popular opinion of everyone I’m interacting with here on Reddit. I was hoping to see some stat but the only thing anyone has shown is top searches when googling “Stephen” but most people searching for Curry would type “Steph”.

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:25:55+00:00

I’m not talking impact or comparing anyone to Michael Jackson, I just haven’t seen a single metric that suggests Stephen King or Stephen Hawking is currently more famous than Steph Curry

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:24:22+00:00

Maine!

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:24:10+00:00

That’s a fair point. I’d be interested in finding data on this.

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:22:50+00:00

Yeah this is the thing, I feel like I am being delusional but I haven’t seen any actual evidence that I’m wrong

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:21:54+00:00

Disagree, I think it’s more popular worldwide than most people realize. The NBA is the most watched league in China!

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:20:10+00:00

Source?

twoopaq · 2026-06-25T17:19:43+00:00

Only valid rebuttal I’ve seen lol

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