The Worst Guys in the NBA

6'11", 253 lb. Kevin Garnett really letting the 6'3, 211 lb. Jose Calderon have it

Many of my blog posts lately have had a negative connotation overall. I'm somewhat of a cynic but it's unintentional. But after reading something about Kevin Garnett today I'm obliged to write this post.

I don't know any of these athletes personally of course, but from being a sports fan you kind of get an idea of who the good guys are. There's also guys in sports who, if you played a game of pick-up ball at the Y with them, you'd probably want to pop them in the face.

Call me a "hater" if you want. These players are pretty well known and may just be your favorite, likely only for their play on the court and not the way they conduct themselves. I'm sorry if that is so. Maybe send him a letter telling him to be a better person or something.

I like to keep the language clean on my blog so I'm not going to say anything worse than "jerk." 

1) Kevin Garnett

He's got quite the reputation as being one of the biggest jerks around. He's the biggest fake tough guy in the league. He's obnoxious. Everyone knows this about KG. He'd be proud to admit it, I'm sure. I don't really care about that, though. Trash talking is fine if he can back it up, and he does with his play. But he takes it too far. It's not all in good fun. He's called Charlie Villanueva (who suffers from alopecia universalis, a medical condition that results in hair loss) a cancer patient. Garnett didn't even own up to that, saying what he meant was Villanueva is cancerous to the league. But that's not even the worst. When Tim Duncan about to shoot a free throw, Garnett allegedly yelled "Happy Mother's Day, mother------!" Duncan's mother famously died of breast cancer when he was fourteen.


2) LeBron James

LeBron isn't a terrible person, but he's everything I can't stand about the NBA. I'm all about athletes being humble, which is why I, along with the city of Cleveland, still haven't gotten over that decision thing on ESPN. Why couldn't he have just gone and signed a contract? Because he's full of himself. I know he's the best basketball player in the world, however much preferential treatment he may get.  He's just unbelievably ignorant. From those comments he made about how his life is so much better than the fans to being a Yankees and Cowboys fan, to the type of fans he attracts (snapback and Beats wearing bandwagoning kids who just bought AJ McCarron jerseys), I just can't stand the guy. His excessive whining, flopping, and traveling is incredibly annoying also. He's not a jerk like Garnett, but I'll never bring myself to be a fan of the King of Traveling.


3) Josh Howard

The NBA is full of wannabe thugs. And who am I to judge them? I shouldn't, but you be the judge of Howard at a celebrity flag football game in 2008, when he said on camera: "The Star Spangled Banner's going on right now and I don't celebrate that s***." He's the kind of guy that had someone take his SAT for him to qualify for college.


4) Stephen Jackson

"Somebody tell serg Abaka. He aint bout dis life. Next time he run up on me im goin in his mouth. That's a promise. He doin 2 much." What the heck is that? Is Ibaka supposed to be scared? Again, why can't basketball players just play the game of basketball? I wish you could just take all the firefighters or volunteer workers in the world and just make them good at sports to replace athletes like Jackson. Sheesh. 


5) Every player with enough of an ego to get a coach fired


6) Latrell Sprewell

He's retired, but he had to be included. Look him up if you don't remember this guy. 

How to Fix the Dunk Contest

DeMar DeRozan stated it best a year ago, when he campaigned against props that have taken over the dunk contest. The best pure dunker in the field of Serge Ibaka, Blake Griffin, JaVale McGee and himself, DeRozan was eliminated after the first round, probably because he didn't use any props: gospel choruses, Kias, teddy bears...

"There's no telling what might happen next year," DeRozan said. "Someone might use a trampoline."

Well, that didn't happen, but there was a motorcycle to jump over, a camera attached to eventual winner Jeremy Evans' ear, and a glow-in-the dark jersey (the only one that was actually kind of cool). Also included in this year's contest, rated an "F" by over 35% of SportsNation, was corny dialogue prior to practically every dunk.

There was also P Diddy proclaiming "black power" after stating his favorite sports movie was White Men Can't Jump before Chase Budinger's first attempt. I'll let you be the judge.

Honestly, I wouldn't care about all this garbage, if the dunks were actually impressive. This year, only one really stood out: Evans' two-ball alley-oop slam. Budinger, Paul George and Derrick Williams were all disappointments.

Oh, and Blake Griffin jumping over the car last year wasn't any good either.

It's just frustrating as a fan when TeamFlightBrothers on YouTube feature hundreds of slams that completely blow the NBA dunk contest away.  

Another problem: the contestants. It pains me to hate on these role guys, but when there was a graphic saying Chase Budinger had registered six dunks all season, well, yeah.

As Charles Barkley stated, LeBron and those other superstars need to "get off their butts" and get into the dunk contest.

I hate LeBron. And I don't like most of the other NBA superstars either. But their participation would make for a better contest from a fan's perspective. I don't need to explain why. Or at least get legitimate dunkers back out there, such as DeRozan, Andre Iguodala, maybe a John Wall.

And get rid of those stupid props.