The 50 Most Hated Athletes Right Now

Sport is built on passion, irrational fandom, and unconditional love. The natural flip-side of those qualities is of course hate. Every sport has their villains to balance the narratives. Imagine the NFL if everyone was like Tony Dungy and Drew Brees. Booooorrriinnngggg. As fans, we love to hate. Let's get real: hating LeBron the past three years has been more fun and more interesting than rooting for your own sorry team.Sometimes the loathing is even good natured *cough Butt-Fumble *cough, cough*. Professional athletes are tough-skinned egoists, but through all of the abuse, we're pretty sure the athletes on this list would still take this classic Dr. Dre line to heart: "If y'all don't like me, blow me." No thanks, but let's bring on the pain. Based on a number of factors including their transgressions, overexposure, and loathing amongst fans for no real reason (we see you, Chris Bosh), here are the 50 Most Hated Athletes Right Now.

RELATED: The 50 Most Unsportsmanlike Acts in Sports History

Sport: Fighting
Team: N/A
Hateful lowlight: Pleading guilty to money laundering and getting a reduced sentence for testifying against others in a mortgage fraud scheme.

Chael Sonnen's UFC career has certainly been a weird one. The former University of Oregon All-American wrestler has two Fight of the Night awards, but his career has been marred by strange incidents. He nearly won the Middleweight championship, beating Anderson Silva on points heading into the fifth round. However, Sonnen got trapped in an armbar and tapped out. In 2010, he was suspended for a year for failing a drug test, and in 2011 he pleaded guilty to money laundering involved with his side-job as a real estate agent. Last month, he challenged LeBron James to a fight after Bron Bron allegedly told Sonnen's fiance that her nipples look like "tic tacs." LET'S GET WEIRD.

Sport: Basketball
Team: Ole Miss
Hateful lowlight: Flipping off the Kansas City crowd after Ole Miss got knocked out of the NCAA Tournament.

At times, Marshall Henderson makes J.J. Redick look like a good guy. His antics outweigh his talents—imagine if this kid played for Duke. Whew. This past March, he called the other coaches in the SEC "losers," mocked Florida by using their signature arm chomp as a celebration, got into a Twitter beef with a fake Kentucky player #te'od, and to top off his March Madness experience, he flipped off all of Kansas City after being upset by La Salle in the second round of the tournament. Given that he tried to buy $800 worth of pot in high school using fake money AND tested positive for cocaine, nobody should be surprised by his piss poor character. Oh, and he got caught with pot and booger sugar once again.

Sport: Hockey
Team: Buffalo Sabres
Hateful lowlight: Suspended for dirty hit on Brad Richards

If you're too violent for hockey, you're too violent for this planet. Patrick Kaleta is the kind of dude that will knock you through the glass and then head-butt your unconscious body. He's absolutely merciless, which is fun for blood-curdling hockey fans like us, but rough on the guys who share the ice with him, many of which will perpetually misplace their car keys for the rest of their lives.

Sport: Soccer
Team: Tottenham Hotspur
Hateful lowlight: Diving against Inter Milan in the Europa League, earning a yellow card that suspended him for the following match.

The reigning PFA Players' Player of the Year winner, Gareth Bale is perhaps the most magical player the English Premier League has to offer. The goals he scores are truly beautiful—not since Ronaldo has the EPL seen a more feared winger. His strikes, however, are underwritten by his scornful diving record. He picked up six yellow cards this past season for simulation, supplanting the likes of Luis Suarez, Ashley Young, and Nani as the EPL's top diver. Stay on your feet, lad.

Sport: Golf
Team: N/A
Hateful lowlight: His racist comments towards Tiger Woods before the U.S. Open.

Tiger Woods may not have many friends left in the sporting world, but when racist comments get hurled his way, it's not okay. At a European Tour players' dinner, Sergio Garica responded to his spat with Woods during the 2013 Players Championship. He offered an olive branch, albeit a racist one: "We'll have him 'round every night. We will serve fried chicken." He was taunted by crowds throughout the U.S. Open, and quickly played himself out of the tournament by shooting a +6 on the 15th hole of the first day. Good riddance.

Sport: Soccer
Team: Chelsea
Hateful lowlight: Allegedly having an affair with his teammate's wife.

No two ways about it: John Terry is a shitty guy. The former England and current Chelsea captain may be a rock at the back and a leader to his teammates, but he's been embroiled in one too many extramarital affairs and racism trials. In 2010, he allegedly slept with the wife of former England and Chelsea teammate Wayne Bridge. And because he's John Terry, in 2011 he called QPR defender a "fucking black cunt" during a match, leading to charges from the police and the Football Association. John Terry: the racist who'll also shag your wife. Lock up your daughters.

Sport: Hockey
Team: San Jose Sharks
Hateful lowlight: Being handed down a 25-game suspension for putting Marian Hossa in a stretcher.

Raffi Torres is a dangerous man on the ice. A notorious head-hunter, he's been suspended in two consecutive playoffs for dirty hits, including a 25-game monster (later reduced to 21 games) for a hit that put Marian Hossa in a stretcher. If that wasn't enough, he and his wife wore blackface on Halloween 2011 to look like Jay Z and Beyoncé. Not cool man. Not cool.

Sport: Soccer
Team: Bayern Munich
Hateful lowlight: His World Cup Final performance against Spain: He missed the two best chances of the game for Holland and repeatedly dove en route to a Spanish victory.

In a nutshell, Arjen Robben is what every American hates about soccer. He dives whenever the opportunity arises, fakes injuries, makes a meal of every foul, whines to referees, and pouts when he doesn't get his way. One of his more iconic moments involved Liverpool goalie Pepe Reina. While playing for Chelsea, Robben had his hand shoved in his face by Reina, and then theatrically fell down, resulting in a red card for Reina. After the match, Reina said that Robben "did well enough to win an Oscar," and Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez joked that he "would soon be going to hospital to check on Robben's condition." Reina's red card was rescinded upon further investigation, and the show Everybody Hates Chris was cancelled in favor of Everybody Hates Arjen.

Sport: Boxing
Team: N/A
Hateful Lowlight: His post and pre-fight taunts against opponent Paulie Malignaggi.

The 23-year-old is already a three-time champion, and undoubtedly has a bright future in the sport. Adrien Broner's success, however, only fuels the hate boxing fans have towards him, because he's a huge dick. During a promotional news conference before his fight with Paulie Malignaggi, he took out his phone and called a woman who he said was Malignaggi's ex-girlfriend, claiming to date her. After beating Malignaggi last month, Broner said, "I lifted his belt and his girl." *cues Ne-Yo's "Back Like That"* Bonus hate: his "Versace" freestyle video.

Sport: Skateboarding
Team: N/A
Hateful lowlight: His entire reality TV show run, but mainly the multiple points when he cried on camera.

The Justin Bieber of the skate world, ESPN's Allison Glock summed up Ryan Sheckler pretty well in 2008: "Sheckler is a hot guy who happens to skate." He's a talented skater who has jumped at the chance to sell-out and capitalize on his looks, as evidenced by his teenybopper following and the two seasons of his MTV reality show, Life of Ryan, which focused more on his shirtless physique and girlfriend problems than his actual skating.

Sport: Soccer
Team: Los Angeles Galaxy
Hateful lowlight: Taking a five-month sabbatical away from the Los Angeles Galaxy and the U.S. Men's National Team.

Landon "Landycakes" Donovan has never really relished his role as the de facto (with apologies to Clint Dempsey) best American soccer player. The United States' all-time leading goal scorer has failed to become the global icon that so many tipped him to be after being named the Best Young Player of the 2002 World Cup. Landycakes flamed out in the German Bundesliga twice, and only made a modest impression for Everton in the English Premier League. Donovan has carried Major League Soccer for a decade now, but his failures abroad, his public divorce, and his selfish sabbatical during World Cup qualifying have been spotlighted more than his accomplishments.

Sport: Swimming
Team: N/A
Hateful lowlight: "Chyeah!"

Being an Olympian requires a great deal of personal sacrifice, so you have to be a real stroke to draw the ire of the very country you're representing. Ryan Lochte's problem is that he embodies the dumb jock stereotype while, simultaneously, cashing in on America's celebutard race to the bottom. His show, What Would Ryan Lochte Do?, is seriously just him doing and saying things that are so dumb that you can't believe he hasn't been hit by a bus while sexting in traffic yet. Though, to be fair, he does spend most of the day starving his brain of oxygen at the bottom of a pool. Perhaps we should be more forgiving.

Sport: Baseball
Team: Washington Nationals
Hateful lowlight: Throwing a temper tantrum during a minor league game and getting ejected.

The most lauded baseball phenom of his generation, 20-year-old Bryce Harper matches the media hype with his arrogance and cockiness. He once compared himself as "Hercules," and has a puppy named "Swag." *cringe*

Sport: Soccer
Team: Olympique de Marseille
Hateful lowlight: Knocking Manchester City teammate Ousmane Dabo unconscious on the training ground, resulting in a four month suspended sentence, £128,000 in fines, and two separate suspensions from the club and the Football Association.

Joey Barton easily has the longest rap-sheet of any player on this list. His first bit of trouble as a professional came back in 2004, when he encited a ten-man brawl during a friendly after hitting an opposing player. Since then, he's been a whirling dervish of trouble, drinking, and violence. He's stubbed lit cigars in teammates eyes during Christmas parties, run over pedestrians with his car in Liverpool, punched out men at bars in the Liverpool city centre, mooned Everton fans during matches, and beaten up Everton fans while in Thailand.

Most recently—and this is what got him virtually thrown out of English football—he tried to take on the entire Manchester City team during a match on some Rambo shit. Barton elbowed Carlos Tevez, kicked Sergio Aguero, tried to head-butt Vincent Kompany, and nearly brawled with Mario Balotelli before being literally dragged off the pitch. My word. Overall, his actions throughout his career have cost him 77 days of jail time, millions of dollars in fines, and dozens of games lost to suspension. (We didn't even get into his numerous wars of words with managers, teammates, other players, media members, and Twitter followers.)

It's a miracle that Barton hasn't been deported yet. He's was loaned out to French club Olympique de Marseille last season, and for the safety of the British people, we hope that he stays across the English channel for good.

Sport: Basketball
Team: Los Angeles Lakers
Hateful lowlight: His infamous Colorado sexual assault case.

If you've ever shouted "Kobe!" while shooting a balled up piece of paper at a trash can, you're probably a douche. Why? Because it's so easy to hate Kobe. His sexual assault case makes for one of the finest and overly graphic readings on Wikipedia. You'd think that after a brush with sexual assault, Kobe would change his ways, stay grounded, and become faithful to his wife Vanessa. Nope. The two nearly got divorced in 2012 because of Kobe's cheating. Combine his promiscuity with his on-court bullying and his championships, and haters gon' hate.

Sport: Soccer
Team: Manchester United
Hateful lowlight: Handing in a transfer request to Manchester United right before Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement.

Imagine the virtrol American soccer fans have towards Landon Donovan, and then multiply that by about a trillion. That's how much the English hate Wayne Rooney right now, even though—like Donovan—he's their country's finest. He's won just about every trophy in club football, has smashed 141 goals for Manchester United and another 36 for England, but his poor form at the 2010 World Cup, his two attempts to flee United, and his repeated prostitution scandals (one even involved sex with a grandma when he was 18), has tarnished Rooney's reputation. Plus, his new hair plugs don't make the little piggy any less ugly than he was before.

Sport: Biking
Team: N/A
Hateful lowlight: Doping during competition

OK, so technically Lance Armstrong isn't an "athlete" anymore, but he's such a self-serving egomaniac that he deserves dominion on this list. For the majority of his career, Armstrong equated his own athletic success with surviving cancer, which blurs the line between the man (a liar and a cheater) and his cause (inspiring cancer survivors). In the wake of his doping scandal, Armstrong delivered a half-hearted confession to Oprah and recently said it's "impossible" to win the Tour de France without doping.

Bottom line: this is why we shouldn't make heroes out of people who are just good at riding a bike. The cyclist's character became a fetishized symbol of hope and Armstrong, the fraud that he is, reveled in the spotlight.

Sport: Basketball
Team: Chicago Bulls
Hateful lowlight: Celebrates SEC championship in 2007 by dancing like a jackass.

Joakim Noah is trolling us all. He shoots like a goon, he looks like a drifter, and talking shit is as much a part of his game as blocking shots and rebounds. Like Jim Belushi, everyone outside of Chicago wishes he'd just choke on a slice of deep-dish pizza already. And, to troll us even further, the one-man meme factory wouldn't have it any other way.

Sport: Tennis
Team: N/A
Hateful lowlight: Her distasteful comments on the Steubenville rape victim.

How unaware is Serena Williams of her status? She's up there with Mia Hamm and Lisa Leslie in terms of iconic female athletes, but there's mud all over her face right now. Commenting on the charged Steubenville High School rape case, Serena said, "she [the victim] shouldn't have put herself in that position." Just, no. No, no, no. Although she later publicly apologized and privately spoke to the victim's parents, her ignorance speaks badly of her character, especially in an age of female independence and social progression in sports. We're disappointed in you, Serena.

Sport: Football
Team: New England Patriots
Hateful lowlight: "Tebow Mania"

Some people resent Tim Tebow for his preaching, which isn't totally fair because Derrick Rose and Ray Lewis are comparably annoying bible thumpers and they both get a pass. He's also an absolute cornball, but his Jason Derulo-like cheese doesn't come close to warranting the Chris Brown-like vitriol he receives. Tebow's problem is one of overexposure. He's the Kim Kardashian of professional sports: void of talent and woefully uninteresting, but sort of pretty and intensely famous.

Tim Tebow saw less action than Steve Urkel last year and, somehow, received more attention than Pro Bowlers like Matt Schaub and Andrew Luck. Instead of discussing terminal brain injuries of retired football players, ESPN is content to slurp a guy who was Mark Sanchez's fucking backup. Naturally, that's going to annoy a lot people. Based God help us if Tom Brady goes down with a ruptured Achilles and Ryan Mallet throw three picks in his first start as a replacement.

Sport: Hockey
Team: Pittsburgh Penguins
Hateful lowlight: Not shaking hands with Red Wings players in 2009 Stanley Cup Finals

Acting like a spineless pussy in the NHL is a relative thing, but Sidney Crosby's developed a reputation for being one of the league's softer players. That's especially bad for Sid because he's also one of hockey's biggest stars. Now, Mr. Crosby, we insinuate your crybaby ways with all due respect. We know that you could walk into the Complex office in full pads and rip every writer wearing retro sneakers into 1,000 pieces. But the perception is that you need Malkin's protection, and there are a lot of NHL fans that begrudge your de facto position as the NHL's poster boy.

Sport: Basketball
Team: Miami Heat
Hateful lowlight: His pitiful Game 3 performance in this year's Finals: 16 points on 7 of 15 shooting to tip the series back to the Spurs 2-1.

Dwyane Wade is the second best player on the most hated team in basketball, and he also happens to be the guy who lured LeBron and Bosh to South Beach. When all of the gloating and expectations of the Heat aren't met on a daily basis, a lot of the blame falls on Wade's shoulders, as his performances over the past year have dipped due to nagging injuries. During the 2013 Playoffs, it seemed as if the old Wade was gone and never coming back. He averaged 15.9 points for the postseason; a full 7.8 points below his career playoff average. "Flash" came back strong to drop 32 on the Spurs in a pivotal Game 4 win, but the haters already had him six feet under by that point. And let us not forget the way he dresses and his cocky behavior.

Sport: Racing
Team: Stewart Haas Racing
Hateful lowlight: Fighting Kurt Busch after a race.

NASCAR's "bad boy" is also the sport's "chubby boy." A pretentious know-it-all, he's easily the corniest driver in the sport. In a 2008 Rolling Stone profile, Stewart unleashed this golden line: "Pussy, money and race cars. That's pretty much all I care about," later adding that "my parents are afraid my dick's gonna rot off." Not even Ricky Bobby came off as this shallow and pathetic.

Sport: Hockey
Team: Boston Bruins
Hateful lowlight: Receiving a five-game suspension for clipping Sami Salo.

The "Nose Face Killah" gives exactly zero shits when he's out on the ice. Boston Bruins fans love the little guy for his blue collar, even (gasp) dirty play, and the rest of the league resents him for it. As former Vancouver Canucks coach Alain Vigneault once said about Marchand: "he plays to hurt players." An old-fashioned roughneck, he's known for his late hits just for the sake of inciting reactions from fans and opposing players.

Sport: Football
Team: Texas A&M Aggies
Hateful lowlight: Allegedly showing up to Mannings' camp hungover

Who wouldn't want to be Johny Manziel right now? He's 20, a Heisman winner, has the hottest women flocking after him, and will be a multi-millionare this time next year. So, why is he hated? Well, we all envy him. Who woulndn't want to be in his position?

Plus, the around-the-clock coverage of his off-the-field shennanigans doesn't help things either. His 2012 arrest for possessing a fake driver's license and disorderly conduct along with the recent allegations that he accepted payment for autugraphs during the BCS National Championship game have only given his detractors more ammo. Think back to when you were 20 years old, if having a fake ID, some drunken nights, and accepting cash for your John Hancock were your worst deeds then consider yourself second to only a young A.C. Green.

Sport: Basketball
Team: Boston Celtics
Hateful lowlight: Ejected from 2012 playoffs for chest bumping a ref and forcing Ray Allen out of Boston.

Rajon Rondo is the Axl Rose of the NBA: as big a jackass as he is a talent. It's a good thing the temperamental superstar is good at basketball. Otherwise, he'd be at a Kentucky McDonald's violently accosting the staff for putting pickles on his Double Quarter Pounder. He's chest bumped an official, threw Kirk Heinrich into the scorer's table, and once cleared the benches in TD Bank Garden while fighting with Kris Humphries (his newest teammate).

The fighting hasn't been limited to opponents, either. He's beefed with Ray Allen for years, which is especially brazen because Jesus Shuttlesworth's been in the league since Rondo was 10 years old. That means this guy was in fifth grade, likely idolizing one of the NBA's all-time great 3-point shooters and, later in life, scornfully referring to him as "that guy" in interviews.

Sport: Basketball
Team: Miami Heat
Hateful lowlight: The "Big 3" welcome party and his sus' ways.

There isn't a player in professional sports who is more talented and less respected than Chris Bosh. With his wildly exaggerated facials and graceless celebrations, he plays basketball like someone who's trying to be immortalized in GIFs. He's a total goofball too, which is something fans would find endearing if he was playing in, say, Milwaukee. But on a team as self-aggrandizing as the Heat, Bosh Spice just looks like a jackass.

Sport: Soccer
Team: Liverpool
Hateful lowlight: Biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanović on the forearm during a match.

Liverpool fans love to sing the Depeche Mode classic "Just Can't Get Enough" when Luis Suarez scores, but the rest of the soccer world has had just about enough of his antics. Everywhere he's gone, he's caused trouble: early in his career, he went on strike at Groningen to force a transfer to Ajax; his last action as Ajax's captain was to bite PSV player Otman Bakkal, resulting in a suspension. Now at Liverpool, he's been suspended for flipping off Fulham fans, calling Manchester United defender Patrice Evra a "negrito," and recently for biting Branislav Ivanović during a match.

Now those same Liverpool fans who have stood by his side throughout all of his incidents are about ready to turn on him. Suarez is now trying to engineer a move to Real Madrid this summer because he feels victimized in England. Well maybe if he didn't act like an immature animal on the pitch, he wouldn't be the most vilified player in English soccer.

Sport: Basketball
Team: Los Angeles Lakers
Hateful lowlight: His tenure with the Lakers

In the time it takes to say "Stan Van Gundy," Dwight Howard went from the NBA's beloved class clown to the league's most repugnant prima donna. Howard is everything we resent about unendurable superstars: selfish, narcissistic, and agonizingly sensitive. This guy wants you to believe that he's leading a tortured existence; only he pulls in $20,000,000 a year and has a collection of Lamborghinis.

Howard needs a win worse than Paula Deen right now. Our advice: take a free throw lesson or two before reporting to the Rockets and wait until year two of your contract to demand a trade to Brooklyn. Unfortunately, Howard's woefully out of touch and will lead the "Fire Kevin McHale" campaign while sitting at the end of Houston's bench with a meniscus tear in his knee.

Sport: Baseball
Team: New York Yankees
Hateful Lowlight: His involvement in the Biogenesis scandal

The more we hear about Alex Rodriguez, the more we think he's a sociopathic serial killer who buries bodies in Central Park at dawn. His voice has a menacing resonance that gives us chills and no human being should have teeth that white. He's used steroids throughout his MLB career and lied about it repeatedly. His alleged use of HGH from the Biogenesis clinic makes him the most talked about athlete of the moment. The 211 game suspension and subsequent appeal process means you can expect A-Rod coverage to take up at least 30 minutes of SportsCenter's 120 minute run time for the next few months.

For all of the hoopla that surrounds his 19-year career, he has exactly one World Series ring and was probably peaking on rhino testosterone during that '09 run. In these trying economic times, it's painful to watch a guy collect $600,000 per week whilst sitting on the bench and spitting sunflower seeds. That agony hurts even more when that same guy gets in the playoffs, hits all of .120, and makes headlines for soliciting women's phone numbers from the on-deck circle.