Most Hated Players In NBA History

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Just because you're great at basketball doesn't mean that you're likable. In fact, some of the league's greatest players are the most hated. Being born to a mother who had just been 15 in one of America's worst communities, Allen Iverson was an oddball when he entered the league. There had been poor players before, but none are willing to change the persona and style like Iverson. While Iverson was certainly revolutionary in the way that he played the point guard position, he was more of a revolutionary when it came to NBA culture. The league had always loved to develop a clean cut, well-spoken, and dressed NBA players for the simple reason that they were the easiest to market successfully. Iverson was the opposite. When everyone went Nike, he went Reebok. When everyone had been coming to the NBA with an image that was considered acceptable, Iverson came in the way he walked in the neighborhood. Iverson talked about his thoughts in the NBA's dress code saying, I think there should be a dress code now. They made a big deal about it when I was doing it, and some of the stuff these dudes wear, come on man, they're obviously picking on me. I was bothered by it. I felt like they were targeting people that dressed like me. All the young guys in my generation were like, damn, he dresses like he wants to, so it must be alright. We've been wanting to dress like we want to dress, but we felt like we couldn't. To put it simply, Iverson was trouble for the NBA, and they hated them for it. His image only worsened from his constant legal troubles throughout his career. However, that had been the least concerning aspect of Iverson from the NBA's view. His constant fights with NBA coaches and refs had proved distasteful for a lot of old school NBA fans. Old school NBA fans were fine with on the court fighting, but they were against Iverson throwing an F-bomb at a ref or a coach because it lacked class. Tim Donaghy, who is an ex-NBA ref, talked about Iverson in his book. Well, he admitted that refs not only hated Iverson, they'd go as far as to even rule against Iverson every chance they had. As a player who's been single-handedly credited for bringing hip-hop culture into the NBA, it's safe to say the hatred Iverson spun up created the league that we know today. At 6'9, Larry Bird couldn't jump high, he wasn't very athletic, and he was considered pretty slow. While of course he did have a deadly jumper and passing ability, he used trash talk as a means to give him an edge. The art of trash talking couldn't have come any more naturally to Bird, as it had been his tactic for years leading into his days in the NBA. His trash talk coupled with his incredible skill had made for a frustrating player to defend and an even easier player to punch. With his rivalries with Magic Johnson being the most public, it'd be his rivalries with Dr. J, Bill Lambeer, and even a young Michael Jordan that had real bad blood associated with him. His trash talking had made him public enemy number one in the league, but it also made him one of the most popular and marketed NBA players for his time, only to be rivaled by Magic Johnson. The distinction between fan hate and player hate is important, given that Bird had been so popular with Celtics fans and general NBA fans alike. His antics were generally overlooked by the league when it came down to punishment for his several fights. Aside from his regular trash talking against the league's greatest, Bird loved to pick on rookies. Clyde Drexler talked about his matchup against Bird his rookie year, saying, I was guarding in my rookie year. He looked at me and goes, You can't stop me. I looked up and said, Gosh, boy, you're so confident. He goes, Confident? You're a rookie. You don't know anything. He proceeded to score 10 straight points on me. Coach took me out of the game. He walked by and he's laughing at me. What made Bird unique in his trash talking was that while most of me players would have told you that they hated him at the time, now the majority of them have grown to be friend and even respect for the player that he was. With his talent unquestioned, Isaiah Thomas will forever be remembered as a great player. That title doesn't come without some criticism on Thomas' character. Perhaps his greatest crime in the league was just being a part of the wrong team. During the time that Thomas played with the Detroit Pistons, the team would be carrying with them a bad reputation of players on the roster that gave them the moniker of bad boy Pistons. The reputation defined quite a few players on the roster without spoiling the others. It is safe to say Thomas lived up to the role perfectly. Thomas became infamous for escalating unnecessary situations, especially with Bulls players during the rivalry in the late 80s and early 90s. His biggest targets had been both stars Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan, who had both come to resent Thomas. In addition to being an overly physical player even to the standards of the 80s, Thomas had also become synonymous as being a sore loser. During Game 4 of the 1991 Finals, the Bulls had found themselves matched up against the Pistons. After losing three straight games to the Bulls, now being demolished in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, both Isaiah Thomas and Bill Lambeer had come up with the idea that they were going to lead the team out of the court before the final buzzer. The act of defiance did little to change the outcome of the game, so the Bulls went on to win the championship. Thomas had effectively became a marked man, to demonstrate to a national audience that he couldn't take a loss. The protests couldn't have come at a worse time. With Thomas' PR ratings plummeting, by the time the 1992 Dream Team selection had come about, just a few months afterward, Thomas had been left out of the talks. Even with Chuck Daly as the Dream Team's head coach, who would coach Thomas on the Pistons, Thomas still lacked a representative who could speak for his place in the roster. Practically every star selected from Larry Bird to Karl Malone had a story about Thomas that made them hate him. Magic Johnson talked about why Thomas had not been selected despite being a great player. He said, Isaiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him. Michael Jordan didn't want to play with him. Scottie Pippen didn't want to be a part of him. Bird was a pusher for him. Karl Malone didn't want him. Who was saying we need this guy? Nobody. While the debate is still being argued to this day as to whether Thomas would have been a better point guard over John Stockton, the fact of the matter is, even if you have the skills to perform in the league, your attitude plays a role in your ability to seize opportunities, and Thomas lost his. As another ex-player of the infamous Bad Boy Pistons team of the 80s, Bill Lambeer has become somewhat synonymous of being a dirty player in the league. If Isaiah Thomas was an assassin when it came to his physical play, Lambeer goes down as the grim reaper. No one could describe him better than his fellow teammate and fellow Bad Boy Dennis Rodman, who said, everybody hated Lambeer though. He loved that role. Anyone who's ever played the game would want a guy like Lambeer on their team. He didn't have fear in the world. He didn't care who it was he was knocking down. He didn't care if you were black or white, somebody or nobody. He was going to knock the shit out of your ass, and then he was going to finish it up by spitting on you and cussing your ass out. He was something else, bro. And everybody in the league hated this shit for it. And despite his physicality bordering on battery, Lambeer remained extremely popular amongst Detroit fans, who looked at him as a fowler, who cared only to forward his team even if it was dirty. Lambeer hadn't met a scrub either. During his best days with the Pistons, he averaged over 12 rebounds a game, coupled with 15 plus points a night, which probably only added to his hatred. While Lambeer had been equally despised by almost every player in the league, his biggest rivalry had proven to be Larry Bird. Ironically, Bird himself had established a negative reputation for trash talking similar to Lambeer. However, unlike Lambeer, Bird hadn't been known to commit intentional fouls. Bird talked about his tumultuous relationship with Lambeer, saying, He had to do what he had to do, and I understand that. But you take Rick Mahorn, he'd hit you and all that, but he hit you like you knew you were going to get hit. He didn't try to maim you. Bill tried to hurt you. And he was one of those guys that you shot a jumper, he tries to slide his foot underneath your ankle, so you twist your ankle. Just prior to his eventual draft, Ron Hattest had been largely considered one of the best two-way shooters, and as a lockdown defender, he was also quick to the basket to stop an easy layup or a dunk. What Draft Scouts hadn't known about Ron was just how controversial he'd end up being after landing a spot in the big leagues. Whether it was flipping off fans, starting fights, chucking TVs after losses, or even deciding literal riots in the stadium, Ron was just flat out hard to love. His hatred had become a sentiment both players and fans tended to agree on, provided you weren't a fan of whatever team he was playing with. Much of his criticism came from what seemed to be his failure to control his emotions, like a young child incapable of restraint. Ron just seemed to throw temper tantrums at the slightest defense. Ron even owned up to it. After winning a championship in 2010 with the Lakers, Ron changed his name to Meta World Peace and vowed to change his ways. It would also be after his first championship that Ron spoke openly about his mental health issues saying, I've always had anger issues because that's all I grew up around, anger. I also had love and that's why people see two sides in me. I saw my parents happy and mad. I grew up with friends who were happy and the next moment's guns were firing. As a kid, it was unbalanced and confusing. There was never a chance to relax. It was just get up and see what was going to happen today. I might have a good day. I might wake up on the other side of the bed. I was suspended in nursery school, kindergarten, first through 12th grade, every year for fighting. In college, I got in trouble, and in the NBA, I was in trouble for something or another every year, except my last year. And in act of good faith, Ron even auctioned off his first and only NBA championship ring to donate it to charity, to help impoverished kids to get the resources they need for mental health. The league has always had the prolific trash talkers, from your Larry Bird to more recently Rashid Wallace, and the league isn't a stranger for this type of behavior. However, Gary Payton often took it way too far. Payton saw no boundaries in trash talking to a fault. He'd often get into brawls with players for no reason, which his teammates have said made him an embarrassment. Payton spoke openly about his intentions trash talking, saying, but I knew something about a person's mother, I knew something about his sister, if he had just gotten a drunk driving charge, I'd go at that situation. It might be cool to some people, but I'd go at it. At the time, them guys were very sensitive about that, so they would go at it. They'd react to it. And then after the game, they'd be like, ah, we're going to fight after the game. I'd be like, listen here, man, you don't really want to fight me. I'm going to say sorry to you and say it was just a part of the game, so don't worry about it. If you want to fight me after I say sorry, then we could deal with that later on. It was just one of those things. Peyton also faced scrutiny with the fans who felt that he was overstaying his welcome in the league in the name of winning a championship. Spending 13 seasons with the Seattle Supersonics, by the time Peyton had been competing in the league in the early 2000s, he had been long forgotten. However, I didn't stop Peyton, who was driven to win a championship, even if it meant he'd go on to contribute little. And that's just what happened during the 2005-2006 season, where with the heat, he was able to snag a championship despite putting up averages that had been the worst in his entire career. Peyton's credit? He was pretty open about his championship criticism, saying, it's a big deal. That's what I was doing at the end of my career. I was taking pay cuts, signing one-year deals with teams that I thought could win. I lost two of them. When you watch guys celebrate, you want that, especially with the career that I had. I wanted to feel that feeling. I wanted to kiss that trophy. I wanted to go into the locker room and have champagne, squirt it and pour it all over me. Go to a parade. It was really a big deal for me to get all that. As a player who isn't really known for getting into scuffles, play dirty, or even have bad off the court persona, it's hard to believe that Steffa Curry isn't very popular in the inner circle of his fellow NBA players. All the fans and players alike had their eyes set on young LeBron, Durant, or even Kawhi's league superstars. No one could have guessed that Curry would end up enjoying as much success as he did. Curry catapulted in to stardom shortly after entering the league. He shattered career records that had taken players before him to be in their prime to top. With a lanky frame and relatively short stature, it's hard to choose Steff Curry out of the lineup of the NBA's greatest, but to the distaste of many, he's made that lineup. He's frankly disliked by a lot of his opponents for the simple fact that he's an unassuming superstar who seems to be just as surprised as fans when it comes to how good he is. Matt Barnes talked about why players have seemed to hold like a weird hate for the All-Star saying, I think he came in, he's the golden boy. He came in and destroyed record books, won championships, beat LeBron. He's done a lot of things that probably angered other players and fans. That's why I don't think he gets the respect that he deserves. He's obviously the greatest shooter to ever play the game, and I can see people being better for that. Not to mention the whole light skin thing, and people have a problem with that. Like I said, he's a perfect example of what the NBA needs to be represented as, and people don't like that either. Most of the time, when people are so good or something so perfect, people don't like that. That's exactly what you get with Steph. His hatred in league's inner circles has likely helped his PR off the court with fans. Curry has almost universally been described as an easygoing celebrity who just seems like he was born for the spotlight. Steve Curry talked about his charisma with fans and compared it to Michael Jordan saying, they all identify with him. He's probably the rare superstar where an 8 year old kid can go, he looks just like me, maybe I can do it. The crowd size is similar, but the biggest difference is the children that gravitate towards Steph. You see so many little kids with Steph jerseys begging for his autograph. A writer also brought up a good point about Steph's size being why he was so overlooked like he was prototypical of what we think of as a superstar. Kevin Durant, LeBron James, so there's always a level to that where he's so abnormal. Everyone acknowledges he's good, but people don't want to put him in the class of those guys. Whenever Steph is a bad game, people compare him to players who were just not on his tier. Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, Chris Paul. To us, it's slander because they don't see the impact. They don't see the way Steph has changed basketball. So we're always going to think he's underrated. Hey, yo, dog, if you don't click on this video on the screen right now, bro, you're going to be the most hated viewer in the entire history of Rebound Central, bro. You don't want that title, okay? Everyone in the comments is going to flame you. They're going to be like, ha ha ha, you're so hated, ha ha. All because you didn't click on the video, bro. All right? You don't want that. So just do me a favor. Click on the video.