Every NBA Fanbase's Most Hated Villain of the Century
Freddy Krueger, Darth Vader and Hans Gruber are all notorious villains, but their psychological impact was based in fiction; it had no impact in reality. Second-class antagonists, the whole lot of them.
None of them has anything on Robert Horry if you're a Phoenix Suns fan, for example. And no dream-haunting, sweater-wearing, knives-for-fingers ghoul comes anywhere close to inspiring the level of visceral distaste that Trae Young conjures in New York Knicks fans. Those guys dashed hopes, broke hearts and inflicted real pain.
Over the last 25 years, every NBA team has someone whom it's either deathly afraid of or can't even stand to look at. Let's see who fans from each team view as the true villains of this century.
Atlanta Hawks: LeBron James
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The 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks set the franchise record with a 60-22 record that netted Mike Budenholzer the Coach of the Year award, sent four players to the All-Star Game and entered the playoffs as the East's No. 1 seed.
LeBron James was not impressed.
Playing in the first season of his second tour in Cleveland, James racked up 30.3 points, 11.0 rebounds and 9.3 assists per game, sweeping the 60-win Hawks out of the Eastern Conference Finals. For Atlanta, that kind of heartbreak was nothing new. James had also engineered a 4-0 postseason dismissal in 2009 and would later add another sweep in 2016.
That's right: The Hawks are 0-12 against LeBron in the playoffs.
Boston Celtics: Kyrie Irving
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To hear head coach Joe Mazzulla tell it, the biggest villains in Boston Celtics history are, in order: The Geneva Convention (because there are no fouls in war), positive affirmations and comfortable chairs.
Rick Pitino, who came aboard as coach and general manager in 1997, warrants more serious consideration, but he only lasted a year into the century. He seemed to have no idea how to run an NBA team, but he was very clear on who wasn't walking through doors. The Celtics went 102-146 before he resigned in 2001.
That leaves Kyrie Irving, who forced his way out of Cleveland, pledged allegiance to the Celtics and promptly bounced to Brooklyn a few months later.
It's safe to say that Boston fans still aren't over it.
Brooklyn Nets: Mikhail Prokhorov
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Known in NBA circles for owning the Brooklyn Nets from 2010-2019, Mikhail Prokhorov was a Russian tycoon with interests in mining, tech and energy assets that were previously run by the Russian state.
That stuff aside, Brooklyn fans are probably most upset about the trade with Boston that sent out three first-round picks and a swap in a package for washed-up stars Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.
The Nets won one playoff series during Prokhorov's tenure as majority owner, while the Celtics used some of those selections to land Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who led the team to six 50-win seasons and the 2024 championship.
Charlotte Hornets: Michael Jordan
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The GOAT (if you're over 40) became a minority owner and president of basketball operations for the Charlotte Bobcats in 2006, taking full control as majority owner in 2010. Over his 17-year tenure with the team, Jordan saw his Bobcats/Hornets set the all-time record for lowest single-season winning percentage, post just three total playoff victories and pile up an epic list of draft misses.
The names Adam Morrison, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Cody Zeller and Frank Kaminsky may not mean much to you, but they cause acid reflux in Charlotte. And let's not talk about the Hornets trading Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on draft night in 2018.
Charlotte never spent big on Jordan's watch, changed coaches seven times and continually made short-sighted, win-now moves that never panned out and set the franchise further back.
But hey, MJ torched several players in practice while he was in charge. So in his eyes, the whole thing was probably a pretty big win.
Chicago Bulls: Anterior Cruciate Ligaments
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To be more specific, the one that used to hold together Derrick Rose's left knee.
The 2008 Rookie of the Year guided the Chicago Bulls to a league-best 62 wins in 2010-11, earning MVP honors before wrist, back and ankle issues hampered him in an Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Miami Heat. The next season, Rose again led the Bulls to the East's No. 1 seed and an even higher winning percentage before he suffered an ACL injury in the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers.
One of the most electrifying athletes and promising young players in the league was never the same again, short-circuiting what could have been a dynastic individual and collective run for the Bulls.
Chicago has had its share of 21st-century villains—Gar Forman, John Paxson and basically anyone with a front-office position under cheapskate owner Jerry Reinsdorf—any one of whom could have wrecked things if Rose had stayed healthy. But Rose's torn ACL forever altered the course of history for him and for this franchise.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Draymond Green
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Ironically, Draymond Green's Finals suspension might also make him one of the most celebrated players in Cleveland Cavaliers lore. It's harder to believe Cleveland would have erased that 3-1 series deficit in the 2016 NBA Finals if Golden State's best defender and most notorious crotch-kicker hadn't gotten himself suspended for Game 6.
But if you run into the same team led by the same mouthy irritant in four straight Finals…well, that level of familiarity is going to breed some serious contempt.
Green's "right up to the line and then over it" approach to basketball is one of the great illustrations of how tribal NBA fans can be. Beloved by Warriors supporters who know none of those four championships could have happened without him and despised by everyone else, Draymond probably rates among the top five villains for over half of the league.
Dallas Mavericks: Nico Harrison
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Andrew Bynum delivered a mid-air clothesline to JJ Barea in 2011 so dirty that security escorted the Los Angeles Lakers big man to the locker room for fear of fan reprisal. Five years prior, Dwyane Wade's parade to the free-throw line in the 2006 Finals probably made Dallas Mavericks fans even angrier.
However, Bynum, Wade and everyone else who wronged the Mavs this century are still playing for second. Nico Harrison runs away with this one.
No, the "vision" he sold after lucking into the lottery combo that landed Cooper Flagg does nothing to reduce Harrison's villainy. The Dallas general manager traded away Luka Dončić without a bidding war, netting a post-prime Anthony Davis and a laughably weak haul of draft capital.
Even if Dončić never matches his past form, and even if the Mavs win a title with Flagg, Harrison's decision will forever be the wrong one.
Denver Nuggets: Carmelo Anthony
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Carmelo Anthony averaged 24.8 points per game (his highest with any team) and earned four All-NBA nods during his time with the Denver Nuggets. Despite those individual achievements, which coincided with annual playoff trips, he found himself basically excommunicated from the Mile High City for life.
Messy trade demands tend to have that effect.
Melo forced his way out of Denver in 2011, and neither the franchise nor the fanbase took it well. Nikola Jokić got Anthony's former jersey number without any pushback from the team, and fans relentlessly booed the squad's former leading scorer for years whenever he returned to Denver.
Bad job staying mellow, Nuggets fans.
Detroit Pistons: Joe Dumars
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If we were considering pre-2000 villains, the Detroit Pistons would have to nominate themselves. No franchise of that era was more tied to or defined by general malfeasance. They weren't labeled the Bad Boys for nothing.
Bill Laimbeer and friends wrought havoc on the league, leaving a trail of bruised and bloodied opponents in their wake. Their box scores back then actually had a column for "body slams." (Don't actually look that up.)
In terms of more modern villains that did damage to Detroit, we still get to go with someone from that Bad Boys era.
Joe Dumars deserves credit for presiding over a championship team as general manager in 2004, but his draft misses and carousel of coaching hires ended most of that good will. Nobody will forgive him for selecting Darko Miličić over Carmelo Anthony in 2003, and the trade that sent former Finals MVP Chauncey Billups to the Nuggets for Allen Iverson in 2008 effectively ended the Pistons' tenure as contenders.
Golden State Warriors: Chris Paul
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Now that we've got some distance from it, Chris Paul's one-year tenure with the Warriors in 2023-24 seems impossible. For a full decade prior to that, CP3 and his teams (mainly the Clippers) were constantly in Golden State's way. And at the height of his powers, Paul was a petty, Grade-A irritant who doubled as a reminder that the young Warriors weren't ready for the big time yet.
Blake Griffin dumped water on Golden State fans, Doc Rivers did some trolling and JJ Redick had his say as well, but everything stemmed from Paul.
In 2016, former Warrior Marreese Speights told Sam Amick of USA Today: "It's not really Blake Griffin. It's all Chris Paul for real. … Chris Paul starts all of that stuff. Before Chris Paul came here, the team was not like that."
When L.A. eliminated the Warriors in a hard-fought seven-game second-round series in 2014, Paul taunted them from the tunnel outside their locker room, according to Andrew Bogut.
Just stellar villainy all around.
Houston Rockets: Math
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The easy answer would be the Golden State Warriors, who knocked multiple excellent Houston teams out of the playoffs. The most painful ouster came in 2018, when the top-seeded, 65-win Rockets fell short in the Western Conference Finals.
Even with Kevin Durant, it was hard to argue the Warriors had a massive talent advantage. Houston won more games in the regular season, and James Harden was the MVP. The real culprit was the 27 straight threes that the Rockets missed in Game 7, a true betrayal of the "three is better than two" math that had helped propel them to that point.
Top executive and lead advocate for math-based basketball Daryl Morey left town soon thereafter, Harden eventually departed as well, and no one in Houston has trusted numbers ever since.
Indiana Pacers: Ron Artest
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Tyrese Haliburton embraced the wrestling heel bit over the last couple of years, particularly when it came to the Milwaukee Bucks, but he's nothing close to a true villain. His performance is entertainment, and it hasn't cost the Pacers anything.
Everyone forgets how dominant the 2004-05 Pacers appeared. They were 7-2 on Nov. 19 of that season, the night Ron Artest (with ample help from Ben Wallace, a thrown beer and a chaotic environment that security failed to control) triggered the Malice at the Palace brawl.
The resulting suspensions took a legitimate title-contending Pacers roster and turned it into one that couldn't escape the second round of that season's playoffs.
Self-inflicted wounds often hurt the most.
Los Angeles Clippers: Donald Sterling
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Donald Sterling was widely regarded as one of the worst owners in the modern history of professional sports—one who presided over a league-low .371 winning percentage from 1981 to 2014. During those 33 years, Los Angeles endured 22 50-loss seasons, eight 60-loss seasons and even dropped 70 games once.
He was known to heckle players on his own team while sitting courtside, which was a step up from failing to pay them on time or springing to fly them first class like the rest of the league, as was alleged when other owners attempted to make him sell the team in 1983.
In addition to the wretched on-court performance during his tenure, Sterling's litany of scandalous deeds scarred the franchise until he was forced to sell it in 2014.
Los Angeles Lakers: Paul Pierce
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The Lakers have two NBA Finals losses this century—one delivered by the Detroit Pistons and one by the Boston Celtics. The rules dictate that ties must be broken in favor of the mortal enemy. In this case, that's obviously Boston and Paul Pierce, the 2008 Finals MVP.
Infamously wheeled off the floor following a knee injury during Game 1 (though speculation persists it was something else), Pierce miraculously returned to the floor, played the rest of the series and helped Boston secure the title.
The perception that Pierce's means of exiting the court was a bit performative irked Lakers fans. It even inspired Kobe Bryant to walk off the court after tearing his Achilles several years later, according to longtime trainer Gary Vitti.
Pierce is also an Inglewood native and grew up adoring the Lakers, which adds a layer of history to the mix.
Memphis Grizzlies: Golden State Warriors
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You know it's a contemporary beef when Twitter was prominently involved, which was the case in a rivalry between the Grizzlies and Warriors.
The Grizzlies (and Dillon Brooks, obviously) were annoyed that former Warrior Andre Iguodala never reported to the team after being traded there in 2019. The Dubs and Grizz met later to determine the No. 8 seed in the 2020-21 season finale and again in the play-in tournament, with Golden State winning both. Jaren Jackson mocked the Dubs after a regular-season win in 2022, which set the stage for the conference semifinals that postseason.
Draymond Green (also obviously) got ejected in Game 1, and Brooks was ejected for an early flagrant foul that fractured Gary Payton II's elbow in Game 2, which head coach Steve Kerr said "broke the code."
Then came "Whoop that Trick" after the Grizzlies staved off elimination in Game 5 with a blowout win. The Warriors ended the series in Game 6, but the chippiness continued well into next season, tweets and all.
"I don't like Draymond at all," Brooks told ESPN's Tim Keown in 2023. "I just don't like Golden State. I don't like anything to do with them."
Miami Heat: San Antonio Spurs
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The Heat met the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs twice apiece in the Finals this century, splitting both series. The distinction that earns San Antonio the villain label is that it helped end the Heatles era.
Maybe LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade were always going to part ways after making four straight Finals from 2011 to 2014. But the Spurs' employment of The Beautiful Game to dispatch Miami and avenge their Finals loss in 2013 might have sealed it.
San Antonio didn't have a talent advantage over Miami, but those 2014 Finals saw it play the game with more aesthetic appeal and team-first commitment than the Heat ever managed. It almost felt like an exposure of Miami's star-driven, mercenary makeup.
Full disclosure: Villains were tough to come by for Miami this century. Jimmy Butler's trade demand comes to mind, but that and everything else pales in comparison to the white-hot hatred that the Heat and Knicks exchanged in the '90s.
Milwaukee Bucks: Tyrese Haliburton
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It's a pretty good endorsement of the NBA Cup that it nearly brought the Bucks and Pacers to blows. It's clear both teams cared extra, though a lot of that had to do with Tyrese Haliburton doing everything from taunting opposing fans to taking his ball and going home, allegedly denying Giannis Antetokounmpo possession of the rock with which he set a personal and franchise record of 64 points.
Even Haliburton's dad got involved, exchanging words with Antetokounmpo after a game this past postseason. That was before Tyrese eliminated Milwaukee from the playoffs with a game-winner in Game 5.
Haliburton has sent two different Bucks teams packing in the playoffs, and the Oshkosh, Wisconsin-native revels in the rivalry, embracing the role of heel. He made Milwaukee mad enough to waive-and-stretch Damian Lillard just so it could sign away Myles Turner from the Pacers in free agency this past offseason.
Minnesota Timberwolves: David Kahn
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Ricky Rubio was a delightful player with the kind of life advice we should aspire to follow. But if you try to tell Minnesota Timberwolves fans to "be happy" or "enjoy" anything when it comes to David Kahn, the only face they're going to change is yours—with a knuckle sandwich.
Kahn was the man in charge when the Wolves needed a point guard and had two shots to get one within the top six picks of the 2009 draft. He chose Rubio at No. 5, which wasn't a wild move considering the teenaged Spaniard's already decorated international career (plus the vibes). Syracuse's Jonny Flynn curiously came off the board with the next selection at No. 6.
Some guy named Stephen Curry went seventh to the Warriors.
If that had been Kahn's only misstep, it probably wouldn't have earned him this spot. Curry wasn't exactly a sure thing back then. But he also took Wesley Johnson at No. 4 in 2010 and Derrick Williams at No. 2 in 2011, cementing his status as one of the most franchise-crippling drafters in recent memory.
It's fine. Minnesota fans probably wouldn't have enjoyed the uninterrupted string of playoff excellence they would have seen if Kahn had taken Curry, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard in successive drafts instead.
New Orleans Pelicans: Anthony Davis
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Some villains haunt abandoned orphanages. Others terrorize teenagers at rural lake houses. The worst ones, though? They wear shirts that say "That's All, Folks!" when they're trying to get traded.
Anthony Davis resides in that third category, and the good people of New Orleans will never forgive him for it.
Players force their way out of bad situations all the time, but invoking the Looney Tunes is basically a declaration of war.
New York Knicks: Trae Young
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In 2024, Trae Young did a celebratory dice-roll on the Knicks center-court logo as the clock ticked down on a win that advanced Atlanta to the final of the NBA Cup in Las Vegas. That was only the second-most villainous act in his history of antagonizing the Knicks.
The top entry came in 2021, when he drilled a logo three and bowed at center court before jogging back up the floor. Boos thundered down, and Young seemed to love every decibel. The win eliminated New York from the playoffs and sent the Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals. Reggie Miller, the undisputed greatest Knicks villain of all time, was on the call.
The cold-blooded Game 4 celebration wasn't an isolated incident. Young hit the game-winner in the first contest of that series and shushed the crowd afterward, adding choice words about how quiet things got when his floater felled the Knicks.
The best villains understand theatricality, and Young showed more than once that he gets it.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Steph and Klay
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Everyone remembers the 73-9 Warriors falling short in the 2016 NBA Finals against the Cavaliers, but history seems to have forgotten that they probably should have bowed out a round earlier against the Thunder.
The Splash Brothers combined to erase a 3-1 series deficit, potentially rob the Thunder of a championship and cement the exit of Kevin Durant in free agency, all in one fell swoop.
Klay Thompson drilled a playoff-record 11 threes in Game 6, as he and Stephen Curry shot a combined 62-of-149 from deep in the series. Curry, the unanimous MVP that season, dropped 36 points in the clincher, completing a stunning turnaround that effectively ended that era of Thunder basketball.
All's well that ends well for OKC, who secured a title in 2025.
Orlando Magic: Doc Rivers
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Core life lesson: If Tim Duncan wants his family to fly on the team plane in violation of an organizational rule against it, you let Tim Duncan's family fly on the team plane in violation of an organizational rule against it.
Doc Rivers, the head coach of the Orlando Magic in 2000 when they were putting together a superteam of Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady and potentially Duncan, learned that lesson the hard way. Duncan was close to signing with the Magic, but he ultimately went back to the San Antonio Spurs, in part because of Rivers' refusal on what now looks like a face-palmingly trivial point.
In fairness, Hill was never healthy in Orlando. But McGrady quickly ascended to fringe-MVP levels. An in-prime Duncan was one of the greatest big men in the history of the sport. Had he teamed with McGrady, there's no telling how many rings the Magic would have secured.
Great work on that one, Doc.
Philadelphia 76ers: Ben Simmons
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Nobody's tougher on their own players than Philadelphia fans, so this nod was always going to go to a 76ers player—almost certainly one who decided he'd rather not deal with his hometown "supporters" anymore.
This is a fanbase that throws batteries at baseball players who shun them, just so you know what you're getting into.
James Harden made a messy trade demand fairly recently, so he's in the running. But Ben Simmons has to be the pick. He didn't just work his way out of town; he basically engaged in quiet-quitting during the 2021 playoffs, refused to suit up the following season and ultimately committed the sin of inspiring hopes of greatness in Sixers fans and then failing to live up to them.
Phoenix Suns: Robert Horry
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You'll get a lot of pretty good answers when asking about the most clutch thing Robert Horry has ever done. Big Shot Bob kind of made a career of series-altering, rip-your-heart-out moments.
Phoenix Suns fans might have a different answer than you'd expect because they were privy to one of the most diabolical late-game Horry moves in history. While it's hard to be sure the San Antonio Spurs forward knew what would ensue after he hip-checked Steve Nash into the scorer's table late in Game 4 of the 2007 Western Conference semifinals, he probably had a pretty good idea.
Nash, the reigning back-to-back MVP, had already been bloodied earlier in the series, and everyone knows the act of antagonizing a Canadian is automatically bullying (because they're nice!). It wasn't a shock that Amar'e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw left the bench to defend their fallen point guard, nor was it surprising that both were suspended for Game 5 of that series, which Phoenix ultimately lost.
That Suns team was arguably the best of the Nash era, and it would have had a real title shot. Horry took care of that.
Portland Trail Blazers: Kobe and Shaq
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It's been 25 years since Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal connected on a lob that sealed Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals and dashed the hopes of Blazers fans everywhere, so we're digging pretty deep in our search for villainy.
The thing is, Portland hasn't been that close to the Finals since. Objectively, that play, which capped a 15-point fourth-quarter comeback, had to inflict the most pain that many Trail Blazers fans have felt in their entire lives.
Los Angeles eliminated Portland in each of the next two playoffs, and the Warriors booted them three straight years (2016, 2017 and 2018). But none of those other postseason ousters had quite the same sting as the one that buried a 59-win Blazers squad that looked very much like a title threat.
Sacramento Kings: Vivek Ranadivé
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The statute of limitations is close to expiring on the 2002 Western Conference Finals debacle, though no shortage of Kings fans are still reeling from Game 6's free-throw disparity. We get it. Those early-2000s Kings teams were an offensive symphony. They deserved better.
Most Sacramento fans under 40 would still pick current owner Vivek Ranadivé as their chief villain. His persistent meddling in basketball matters has done damage to the product via the draft, trades and free-agent signings. He's been in charge during a chaotic stretch of coaching changes, front-office shuffling and general mismanagement.
We should have known trouble was imminent when he championed the 4-on-5 tactics that led to success in youth basketball as a viable NBA strategy.
San Antonio Spurs: Zaza Pachulia
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The Spurs were so good for so long that they racked up a litany of heartbreaking moments. It turns out that when you win tons of massive games every year for the better part of two decades, you're going to endure some crushing failure, too.
Derek Fisher buried them with four-tenths of a second left in 2004, possibly denying a repeat title. Ray Allen drilled that fateful corner three to tie Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals. The list goes on.
But were those acts really villainous at their cores? Not really. They were just clutch.
Spurs fans must feel differently about the time Zaza Pachulia stepped under Kawhi Leonard's foot in Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference Finals. Leonard came down from that three-point attempt and re-aggravated an ankle injury, shelving him for the series.
Those were the KD-era Warriors, so it's hard to say San Antonio definitely would have emerged victorious. But the Spurs were a 61-win juggernaut with Kawhi at the height of his powers. Who knows what might have happened?
Pachulia claimed it wasn't intentional, and Leonard agreed, but the NBA made a rule change anyway. The step-under is now a flagrant foul.
Toronto Raptors: LeBron James
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It's hilarious—and a pretty good illustration of how the load of internet slop that trains AI is a problem—that any search of the terms "LeBron" and "Toronto" spits out results that include some version of "No, LeBron James does not actually own the city of Toronto or the Toronto Raptors. Confusion likely stems from James' playoff dominance against…".
Now, none of that is funny to Raptors fans who watched their team get served by James year after year. But even they'd have to appreciate the silliness in search engines having to explain that a current NBA player doesn't actually possess an entire city because he eliminated them from the playoffs in three straight years: 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Then again, LeBron is reportedly a billionaire now, and we live in a time where some people talk about annexing Canada in ways that are not unserious. Maybe we shouldn't close the book on James' official ownership just yet.
Utah Jazz: Derek Fisher
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Nobody's co-signing Utah Jazz fans' dislike of Derek Fisher, who was let out of his contract in 2007 after he explained to then-owner Larry Miller that he needed to seek medical care outside of Salt Lake City for his daughter's retinoblastoma. In the moment, no one faulted him for prioritizing family, but things changed quickly.
A few weeks later, Fisher signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he won two titles on top of the three he'd already secured during his first stint with the team. Worse still from a Jazz perspective, he eliminated them from the playoffs every year from 2008 to 2010.
Local columnists and Reddit posters have been labeling Fisher a traitor (and worse) ever since.
This shouldn't shock you in the wake of Russell Westbrook, Vernon Maxwell and a litany of other opposing players pointing out that Utah fans often cross the line, but the hate toward Fisher is very, very real.
Washington Wizards: Kelly Olynyk
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Kelly Oubre Jr. spoke for his people (Wizards fans) when he toppled Kelly Olynyk in Game 4 of the 2017 Eastern Conference semifinals, a reaction to what Oubre believed to be one too many headhunting screens by the Celtics big man.
Unfortunately for Washington, Olynyk had the last word. He torched the Wizards for 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting in Game 7 of that same series, effectively ending the franchise's last relatively competitive era.
Olynyk already had a rep as a dirty player in the wake of dislocating Kevin Love's shoulder in 2015, so Washington fans may have been primed to dislike him. He still did enough to them, specifically, to earn this spot.
And like all great villains, Olynyk came back just when Washington thought it'd seen the last of him, drilling a game-winner as a member of the Heat in October of the very next season.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.
Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.
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