A rumor that circulated online in July 2025 claimed basketball star player Stephen Curry had helped an elderly man who was being kicked out of a bank. One reader asked, "I don't see this story, circulating on Facebook, among your other fact-checks on Steph Curry, so I wonder if it's accurate?"
For example, on July 4, 2025, Facebook page NBA Legend posted (archived) the story, receiving 35,000 reactions and 5,100 reshares as of this writing. The post displayed a picture of Curry standing at a bank next to an elderly man being pushed by a security guard. The caption read "Staff Dumps Elderly Man Out Of Bank… They Turn Pale When Steph Curry Show Up To Take Action!"
(Facebook page NBA Legend)
Other Facebook users also shared the same claim. All these posts featured links, either in the caption or as a top comment, leading to articles hosted by WordPress blogs, such as one advertisement-filled story hosted on the Luxurys website.
However, searches of Google and Google News found no news media outlets reporting on Curry helping an elderly man at a bank. Reputable news media outlets would have widely reported this rumor, if true.
Rather, the person or people who authored the story fabricated the entire tale as one of hundreds of inspirational tales that depicted celebrities and athletes performing inspiring acts of kindness. They aimed to earn advertising revenue on websites linked from the aforementioned Facebook posts.
The nearly 1200-word article read like a fictional short story, using the supposed elderly man's first name rather than his last, as tends to be the norm in news reports. The language was descriptive and detailed, delving into the various characters' personalities and slightest gestures, which also does not conform to news writing style. Two AI detectors confirmed that indeed, most of the text had been AI-generated.
Snopes contacted a manager of the NBA Legend Facebook page to ask about the fictional stories displayed on the feed, and will update this story if we receive more information.
These stories all very much resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as "stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental."
For further reading, Snopes previously reported on another story claiming that musician Eric Clapton gave money to the families of the victims of the floods in Texas in early July 2025.