🏀 The Mount Rushmore of Hatred
Basketball isn't just about the heroes. It's about the villains who make the heroes' triumphs meaningful. The players who made you throw things at your TV. Who made entire arenas boo in unison. Who created moments so controversial they're still debated decades later.
These aren't the worst players. They're not even the dirtiest. They're the ones who inspired the strongest reactions - who made millions of fans feel something, even if that something was pure, unfiltered hatred.
Here are the 10 most hated players in NBA history.
🏀 10. Reggie Miller
Peak Villain Era: 1990s
Why He's Hated: The choke gesture. The Knicks trauma. That smirk.
Reggie Miller spent his entire career making New York Knicks fans miserable. Eight points in nine seconds. Game winners at Madison Square Garden. The choke gesture to Spike Lee. He wasn't just beating the Knicks - he was psychologically torturing them.
Outside of New York, he was beloved. Inside New York, he's still public enemy #1.
🏀 9. Draymond Green
Peak Villain Era: 2015-present
Why He's Hated: The kicks. The screaming. The "natural shooting motion."
Draymond Green has never been the best player on his team. But he might be the most hated player of his generation. The groin kicks. The constant technicals. The WWE-level trash talk. The podcast drama.
He's what happens when a defensive specialist has the confidence of a superstar and the self-control of a toddler.
🏀 8. Chris Paul
Peak Villain Era: 2008-present
Why He's Hated: The dirty plays. The flopping. The never winning a championship.
Chris Paul is one of the greatest point guards ever. He's also one of the most annoying players ever. The flops. The cheap shots. The complaining to refs. The way he somehow gets away with dirty plays that would get other players suspended.
He's the kid in class who reminds the teacher about homework. Talented, but insufferable.
🏀 7. Kyrie Irving
Peak Villain Era: 2017-present
Why He's Hated: The flat Earth. The trade demands. The vaccine situation.
Kyrie Irving hit one of the biggest shots in NBA history (2016 Finals Game 7). Since then, he's become basketball's most frustrating genius. Demanding trades from Cleveland. The Boston disaster. The flat Earth conspiracy. The vaccine drama in Brooklyn.
He's incredibly talented and impossibly difficult to root for.
🏀 6. Isiah Thomas
Peak Villain Era: 1987-1991
Why He's Hated: The Bad Boys leader. The Jordan Rules architect. The 1991 walk-off.
Isiah Thomas had an angelic smile and the mindset of an assassin. He led the Bad Boys Pistons - the team that tortured Michael Jordan and changed the rules of basketball. He played beautiful basketball while enabling some of the dirtiest play in NBA history.
The 1991 walk-off - refusing to shake hands with the Bulls after being swept - remains the pettiest move in NBA history.
🏀 5. Bill Laimbeer
Peak Villain Era: 1983-1993
Why He's Hated: The dirtiest player of his generation. The smile after hard fouls.
If Isiah was the brains of the Bad Boys, Bill Laimbeer was the enforcer. Hard fouls. Cheap shots. Dirty screens. And that smirk - that insufferable smirk that said "yeah I did it, what are you gonna do about it?"
He made Larry Bird - LARRY BIRD - want to fight him. That's how good he was at being hated.
🏀 4. Ron Artest (Metta World Peace)
Peak Villain Era: 2004 (specifically one November night)
Why He's Hated: The Malice at the Palace.
Ron Artest was already a problematic player before November 19, 2004. Intense. Physical. Unpredictable. Then a fan threw a beer at him, and he charged into the stands.
The Malice at the Palace changed the NBA. Changed player-fan relationships. Changed how we think about sports violence. And Ron Artest was at the center of it all.
🏀 3. Kevin Durant
Peak Villain Era: 2016-2019
Why He's Hated: The hardest road. Joining the team that beat him.
Kevin Durant was beloved in Oklahoma City. He was the humble superstar. The nice guy. Then he blew a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Finals and immediately joined the 73-win Warriors team that beat him.
It wasn't just joining a super team. It was joining the team that eliminated him. The team that didn't need him. The weakest road disguised as "the hardest road."
His alt Twitter accounts and constant need for validation only made it worse.
🏀 2. Kobe Bryant
Peak Villain Era: 2000-2010
Why He's Hated: The arrogance. The Lakers dominance. The Shaq feud.
Kobe Bryant was loved by Lakers fans and hated by literally everyone else. The arrogance. The ball-hogging. The way he ran Shaq out of LA and then won two more championships to prove he didn't need him.
He played with a villain's mentality - if you weren't with him, you were against him. And he made sure you knew it.
His tragic death in 2020 shifted public perception, but during his playing days, Kobe was the most polarizing player in basketball.
🏀 1. LeBron James
Peak Villain Era: 2010-2014
Why He's Hated: The Decision. The celebration. "Not one, not two, not three..."
LeBron James is arguably the second-greatest player of all time. He's also responsible for the single most hated moment in modern NBA history.
The Decision wasn't just a bad PR move. It was a betrayal. An hour-long television special to dump his hometown. The celebration in Miami. The promise of multiple championships. The arrogance. The tone-deafness.
He would eventually redeem himself - winning two championships in Miami, returning to Cleveland, delivering that magical 2016 title. But for those four years in South Beach, LeBron was the NBA's #1 villain.
The Decision changed everything. It normalized player empowerment. It created the super team era. It showed that stars could control their careers in unprecedented ways.
But it also showed how quickly a hero can become a villain. All it takes is one decision.
🏆 The Beautiful Thing About Villains
These players didn't become hated by accident. They made choices - some calculated, some impulsive - that created incredible stories. They gave us moments to debate, plays to remember, decisions to analyze.
Without them, the NBA would be boring. Championships would be less meaningful. Rivalries wouldn't matter.
Love them or hate them, these are the players who made basketball unforgettable.
