Wow.  Bad enough Jamie Mottram ain't giving me proper respect, but now you, too, Seth?  Sh*t, who else is stealing from me....

YES SIR!

In all, seriousness, wacky interviews aside, I still dig Steph and I do NOT think he's "on drugs"  as some of NY's more spirited (i.e. schmuck) columnists have suggested.

I do think (and I have no clinical basis for saying this - it's just based on his interviews and other public activities) that Steph shows symptoms of being a low-level, functional manic depressive.

A manic depressive will have "up" periods where the patient exhibits signs of megalomania and feelings of god-like powers (My shoes are going to change the world, Starbury Ones will employ everyone in the world who doesn't have a job, I'm going to be the David Beckham of basketball when I go to Italy, I'm the best point guard in the NBA, etc.) followed by "down" periods marked by sullenness, depression, paranoia, and isolation (The towel on the head bit, his rep as being a loner/bad teammate, his jealousy of KG's contract, etc.)

Now manic depressives can be highly successful individuals. I.e., calling them "crazy" is both and oversimplification and just plain wrong. The director Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys) is one. Van Gogh was another - in fact many artists throughout history were low-level manic depressives (though the term/diagnosis didn't exist at the time).

Many manic depressives also come from families where a great deal of pressure/expectations are placed on the children - either due to the child exhibiting precocious talent, or b/c the family as a whole has been very successful and/or famous, or b/c of financial strife.

Steph, as the 5th child from a poor family from Coney Island (4 brothers who were talented and yet failed to make the NBA) also is a classic candidate in this regard.

And no, I'm not a psychiatrist, but the signs are all there. And yeah, I still love watching Steph play. And to be honest, I far prefer interviews where Steph does an interpretive hand dance to show how close he is to god than the canned bs that you'll get from LeBron, Duncan, et al.