13 Times Superstars Looked Embarrassingly Mortal

Stephen Curry accomplished the daunting task of making Chris Paul look utterly average. Paul is definitely not average—he’s a star. But on occasion, even the biggest of sports stars get beaten, embarrassed or just generally brought back down to earth. 

Just how embarrassing was it? Let’s look at this in terms of where these land on the “higher they fly, harder they fall” scale. How generally otherworldly are these athletes, and just how glaring was their human-after-all moment?

Okafor’s 4th Foul

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Jahlil Okafor is a man among boys, no doubt about it. Then again, AP National Player of the Year Frank Kaminsky is no slouch, and when their respective teams clashed in the March Madness final, Okafor seemingly met his match.

Okafor and Duke won the night, but not before Kaminsky got in a few good punches. Specifically, Kaminsky put a dirty spin move on Okafor in the paint, and the Duke center was left in the dust with only a fourth foul as a souvenir.

Earnhardt’s Daytona 500

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500 in 2014, and he came close to repeating in 2015. However, leading with 18 laps to go, Earnhardt made a costly mistake on a restart. He got caught in the wrong lane and dropped back significantly as a result. He ultimately finished third.

Jeff Owens of Sporting News reported that Earnhardt told reporters, “I made a poor choice and got shuffled back and you can't do that. It's real disappointing because the team gave me the best car.”

Tiger’s Worst Round

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Tiger Woods hasn't won a major since 2008, but he’s still one of the legends of the game. Over his career, he’s won 14 majors and spent 683 total weeks as the No. 1 golfer in the world.

However, the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open represented a low point for Woods. He shot the worst round of his professional career with an 11-over 82 in the second round.

At least he had a sense of humor about it. According to John Strege of Golf Digest, Woods smiled as he told reporters after the round, “I’m just doing this so I don’t get fined.”

Marshawn Lynch Burns Patrick Peterson (and Everyone Else Too)

Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson won the Jim Thorpe Award in college. He was a first-round NFL draft pick in 2011, and he's already a four-time Pro Bowler.

Still, Marshawn Lynch made him look like a junior-varsity scrub with that epic 79-yard touchdown run in December.

LeBron’s All-Star Game

To be fair, LeBron James scored 30 points in the 2015 NBA All-Star Game. However, there were two moments in which he just looked sloppy on the basketball court.

There was an egregious air ball in the first quarter, followed later by a missed dunk. Sure, it’s just the All-Star game, but still. This is one of the best basketball players on Earth we're talking about.

That One J.J. Watt Box Jump

It’s a rare occasion that J.J. Watt fails at anything. Besides his overwhelming football prowess, he once performed a box jump of 59.5 inches. He later accomplished a similar feat on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

However, the run of success came to an end in March when Watt attempted a 5'1" jump. He posted the results to Twitter, and let’s just say his spotter is a saint.

Messi Misses PK

Lionel Messi is one of the world’s greatest goalscorers, but even he’s not perfect. In February, Barcelona led Manchester City 2-1 late in the game when Messi drew a penalty kick. The kick was saved, and Messi shockingly sent the rebound header wide of the net.

Barcelona still came away with the victory, so it wasn’t disastrous, but the miss was Messi’s third this season.

Blake Griffin Gets Posterized

Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin is an experienced posterizer. However, when the Houston Rockets came to town in March, the tables were turned.

Corey Brewer took a long pass from James Harden in transition and threw down a dunk over the flailing arms of Griffin. Not his finest moment—and it looks like he knew it.    

Dez Bryant Beats Richard Sherman

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For “the best corner in the game,” Richard Sherman looked pretty inferior on this play against Dez Bryant. When the Dallas Cowboys visited the Seattle Seahawks in October, Bryant showed why he’s in the conversation of league’s best receivers when he simply blew by Sherman on a crossing route.  

Kershaw’s NLDS

Clayton Kershaw is the highest-paid player in all of MLB, and his 2014 season pretty much proved he's worth it. He took home both the National League Cy Young and MVP awards.

However, his last two starts of the season were the opposite of worth it. Kershaw started both Game 1 and Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Dodgers lost 10-9 and 3-2, respectively. Kershaw was tagged for a total of 11 runs on 12 hits in 12.2 innings of work, good for a 7.82 ERA.

Truth be told, he was pretty impressive for most of those games, but things fell apart for him late each time. Matt Adams' three-run homer in Game 4 ended up being the dagger.

Manuel Neuer Misses an Easy One

Manuel Neuer of Bayern Munich was a Ballon d'Or nominee and won the Golden Glove award as the best goalkeeper of the 2014 World Cup.

Stars still make mistakes, though. In a March contest against Borussia Moenchengladbach, Neuer mishandled what should’ve been an easy save, and the ball trickled into his own goal.

Bills Shut Down Aaron Rodgers

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Aaron Rodgers is the reigning NFL MVP. He was masterful in 2014, throwing for 4,381 yards, 38 touchdowns and just five interceptions.

Two of those interceptions came against the Buffalo Bills in December. The Buffalo defense managed to make Rodgers look like an amateur that day, holding him to just 17 of 42 passing for 185 yards and no touchdowns.

Curry Drops Paul

In March, the Golden State Warriors were in Los Angeles to face Chris Paul and the Clippers. Paul is a regular on the NBA All-Defensive team, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at one play from the second quarter.

Stephen Curry absolutely embarrassed Paul, sending him to the ground with an unreal behind-the-back move and sinking the subsequent jumper. Twitter predictably exploded.