Image via Complex Original
By this time next week the Miami Heat will be 2011 NBA Champions. Mark Cuban, Cavs and Mavs fans, and all haters alike feel free to start going off in the comment section below. Many would love to see Bron Bron, D-Wade, and Co. collapse but it's not happening.*
For any fan, the next best thing to seeing your team win is seeing the teams you hate lose. But what is it that makes us love to hate these teams? Cockiness? Dirty play? Success? As we found out, it's a grimey mix of all those. From the 1988-89 Bad Boys of Detroit to the Shaq and Kobe-led Lake Show of 2001-02, the NBA has had its share of intolerable teams over the years. So, as Miami fans plan victory parties and Cavs fans go on suicide watch, let's see where this Heat team ranks among the 10 Most Hated Teams in NBA History...
*UPDATE: Hmmm, perhaps we spoke too soon? Regardless, there's even more reason to hate them after last night.
10. 2006-07 San Antonio Spurs
THE BAD GUY: Bruce Bowen
COMPLEX SAYS: Remember all that BS that your youth league basketball coach would teach you about the fundamentals of basketball and the importance of sticking to the script? The Spurs were the pro version of the squares who listened to dude, except they ended up schoolin' everyone on game day instead of riding the bench. In 2007, the painfully methodical Spurs notched a fourth title in eight seasons as they swept LeBron James and the Cavs in the lowest-rated series in NBA Finals history. Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker played their pesky and whiny tactics, while Bruce Bowen and Robert Horry brought their own patented style of play. Knees to the nuts and all. Stay classy San Antonio!
9. 1968-69 Los Angeles Lakers
THE BAD GUY: Wilt Chamberlain
COMPLEX SAYS: Most remember Wilt the Stilt as the beloved player who posted a 100-point game, but some players and fans across the league saw Chamberlain as an arrogant figure known for putting his personal stats before his team. In 1968, when he joined the Lakers, Chamberlain became the highest-paid player in the league on a $250,000 salary. Chamberlain's strained relationships with team captain Elgin Baylor and head coach Butch Van Breda Kolff would ultimately lead to the team's demise in the '69 Finals. After a lackluster 8-point performance by Chamberlain in Game 6, Kolff criticized the center for choking in the big moment. In Game 7, Chamberlain was benched by Kolff for the final six minutes as the Celtics beat the Lakers 108-106. It didn't help that Laker owner, Jack Kent Cooke, had put thousands of balloons in the rafters of the Forum prior to the game. Yup, that's a FAIL.
8. 2000-01 Portland Trail Blazers
THE BAD GUY: Rasheed Wallace
COMPLEX SAYS: For ol' fashioned basketball purists, the Jail Blazers were an eyesore for the NBA both on and off the court. If it wasn't Rasheed Wallace's setting a record for technical fouls (41) that season then it was the subsequent pot arrests for Damon Stoudamire and a DUI for Zach Randolph ('01 Draft pick) a couple seasons later. The 2000-01 squad ushered in an era of shenanigans that some found entertaining and some found disgusting. Bonzi Wells' comments after flipping off a 76ers fan pretty much sums up the Jail Blazers Era: "I blackout sometimes." #fairenough #keepit100
7. 1996-97 Miami Heat
THE BAD GUY: Alonzo Mourning
COMPLEX SAYS: Way before people started hating on the Big Three, the play of Alonzo Mourning, P.J. Brown, and Tim Hardaway made this team one of the most loathed squads out East. In 1995, Pat Riley played a significant role by controversially dipping out as head coach of the Knicks only to announce he would be the president and head coach of the Miami Heat. Hardaway's trash-talking along with Zo and Brown's willingness to throw 'bows made the Heat villains (especially for Knick fans). Where else could you see Brown toss Charlie Ward head over heels like a rag doll? '90s era NBA, FTW.
6. 1985-86 Boston Celtics
THE BAD GUY: Danny Ainge
COMPLEX SAYS: Everyone hates winners (except front-running jock riders their fans, of course), and if winning garners hate then no franchise is more hated than the Boston Celtics. By the time the '86 Celtics took the floor, Boston had 15 titles under their belt including two that decade. A team that boasted five Hall of Famers (Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson, and Bill Walton) seemed to be an unfair match-up for any squad. They'd cruise to yet another title by beating the Houston Rockets in that year's Finals. Sidebar: Would you believe this brawl only cost Sedale Threatt and Danny Ainge $2,000 and $1,000 fines, respectively? No suspensions, either. #glorydays
5. 1997-98 Utah Jazz
THE BAD GUY: Karl Malone
COMPLEX SAYS: One of the greatest duos in NBA history, John Stockton and Karl Malone would lead the Jazz to their only two Finals appearances in franchise history. Don't get fooled into believing it was all just clean pick and rolls, though. For years the Mailman was notorious for throwing reckless elbows (just ask Zeke), and Stockton was known around the league for setting illegal low screens on those pick and rolls. For a team that repped the Mormon capital, their play was anything but holy. That's probably why anyone could appreciate this dose of ether MJ gave them in Game 6 of the '98 Finals. God don't like ugly.
4. 2010-11 Miami Heat
THE BAD GUY: LeBron James
COMPLEX SAYS: No other three stars in sports history have turned into villains quite as fast as Miami's Big Three. The Decision, this WWE-esque welcoming party, and subsequent regular season and playoff success have created a storm of hate in South Beach. There's a few reasons to like 'em but LeBron James is still that dude who quit on his home state's team, Chris Bosh is still soft as Charmin Ultra, and D-Wade (wait, why do we hate him again?) well, he's just guilty by association and he lured Bron Bron down to Miami. A title this season isn't going to help much either. *Cues theme song of bitter Cavs fans*
3. 1993-94 New York Knicks
THE BAD GUY: John Starks
COMPLEX SAYS: The '94 Knicks had a bit of everything you love to hate in a team: Enforcers like Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley, a grumpy-aging star in Patrick Ewing, scrappy guards in Greg Anthony and Derek Harper, and a feisty agitator in John Starks. Plus, their team is based in one of those big city markets where fans feel entitled to success. Their gritty style of play was far from pretty but good enough to get them all the way to the Finals where the Houston Rockets took 'em out in Game 7. Kind of like that time Bushwick Bill beat Biggie in a rap battle. We kid. Relax, fam.
2. 2001-02 Los Angeles Lakers
THE BAD GUY: Kobe Bryant
COMPLEX SAYS: Take one of the winningest franchises in NBA history, build a new dynasty around the era's biggest free agency acquisition and one of the greatest (and most cocky) players in NBA history. Add annoying feisty characters like Rick Fox and Derek Fisher in addition to a dirty enforcer like Robert Horry—now you've got the 2001-02 Lakers. Dudes knew they were good and could win even when every possible sign pointed to them losing. Such was the case here in the 2002 Western Conference finals when Horry's shot—and according to Tim Donaghy, some help from the refs later on in Game 6—put the Lake Show on track to their third straight title. It's alright Kings fans, at least y'all are still in Sacramento!
1. 1988-89 Detroit Pistons
THE BAD GUY: Bill Laimbeer
COMPLEX SAYS: The Bad Boys. Really, what else needs to be said? The cleanest thing about this squad was Isiah Thomas' Kool-Aid smile, and even that couldn't hide all the grimey tactics he and his cohorts used. Two of the dirtiest players of all time in Bill Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman, along with Rick Mahorn, made sure anyone trying to enter the paint would have hell to pay. In today's soft modern league half the starting squad would foul out before halftime, but back in the late '80s it led to back-to-back titles and recognition as the only team that beat MJ's Bulls, Magic's Lakers, and Larry Bird's Celtics in the playoffs. Bad boys for real. Take that, take that. (copyright Puff Daddy)
