10 Athletes Fans Just Couldn't Stay Mad At
Sports fans live vicariously through the athletes who make or break a season—at least on game day. It’s simply the nature of being a fan. We spend a lifetime watching our favorite teams win and lose, so it’s impossible not to channel our emotions into the men and women who play the game.
Inevitably, an athlete is going to do something that draws the ire of the insatiable horde of fans who invest their dreams of a championship in the talents of that person.
Maybe the athlete creates dissension in the locker room or decides it’s the right moment to say goodbye and move on to another team. Whatever the reason, it can seal their legacy as a loathed anecdote of the team’s history or set the table for reconciliation down the road. And myriad factors can determine an athlete’s standing.
When you consider sports stars who have broken the hearts of fans, plenty fall into the category of vilified, but some athletes have found a way to stay in the good graces of fans.
These are 10 athletes fans just couldn’t stay mad at.
Torii Hunter
1 of 10
If there’s anyone in sports who knows how to make an amicable exit, it has to be Minnesota Twins outfielder Torii Hunter. Drafted by Minnesota in 1993, Hunter became a full-time starter in 1999 and was a two-time All-Star entering the 2007 offseason as a free agent.
After turning down an extension with the Twins during the season, Hunter signed a $90 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels in November 2007. Apparently, there were no hard feelings in Minnesota, though, since the team welcomed him back to Minnesota seven years later. “You talk about true love. That’s the Twins right there,” Hunter told the Minneapolis Star Tribune (via ESPN.com).
It seems his whole career has been a love-fest. In 2015, Detroit showered Hunter with love when he returned in April (he played for the Tigers in 2013 and 2014) and again when he returned to Los Angeles in July. Angels fans were particularly gratuitous, “They even clapped for my base hit,” Hunter told Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press.
Vince Carter
2 of 10
After playing the first six seasons of his career with the Toronto Raptors, the team traded eight-time All-Star Vince Carter to the then-New Jersey Nets in December 2004. At the time, Toronto forward Donyell Marshall said of Carter, per ESPN.com, “He was to Canada what Michael Jordan was to the Bulls.” They didn’t call him Air Canada for nothing.
Despite the success he had with the Raptors, Carter just got antsy. Basically, he decided he wanted to leave and began hassling the team to trade him the previous summer. Fans in Toronto were displeased in the wake of the trade and hated on their fallen hero for the greater part of a decade.
That was until November 2014, when Carter returned with the Memphis Grizzlies to play the Raptors. Celebrating their 20th anniversary, the team planned to honor their “all-time best player.” Unsure of how fans were going to react, Carter was moved to tears when the crowd erupted into cheers during a video tribute.
Wayne Gretzky
3 of 10
After winning four Stanley Cup championships in nine seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, the team traded all-time great Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings. Losing a living legend still in his prime is always a tough pill to swallow, but fans in Edmonton were further incensed by rumors that the move was made because his wife, American actress Janet Jones, was desperate to move to Los Angeles.
That rumor, incidentally, was finally put to rest in October 2014, when Gretzky revealed to the media it was his father who convinced him to pick the Kings—his wife wanted him to play for the Detroit Red Wings. Despite anger over the loss of No. 99, it took Oilers fans all of 10 weeks to start working toward forgiveness. They just couldn’t stop themselves from cheering when he returned for the first time in October 1988.
Edmonton fans were quick to sniff out the real villain in the situation: former Oilers owner Peter Pocklington, who systematically sold off every key member of the dynasty. He moved Gretzky because he was looking for a well-deserved salary increase. Fans may never forgive Pocklington for what he did, but apparently Gretzky has, as he revealed in August 2008, per Canada.com's Windsor Star, 20 years after being shipped out.
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LeBron James
4 of 10
When Cavaliers superstar LeBron James, an Ohio native, announced he was taking his talents to South Beach in the summer of 2010, fans in Cleveland had a full-on meltdown. Leaving as a free agent was bad enough, but rubbing it in via a 75-minute prime-time special on ESPN, dubbed “The Decision,” really added insult to injury.
At the time, James returning to Cleveland in the future was almost unthinkable, especially after owner Dan Gilbert posted a vitriolic open letter to him on the team’s website (via For The Win). Yet somehow relations had thawed enough in four years that when the King became a free agent again in 2014, the Cavs welcomed him back with open arms. Seriously, though, they really did hate him for a while.
Even though James basically did the same thing to the Heat when he bailed, fans in Miami proved themselves much quicker to forgive and forget. When an emotional James returned to Miami for the first time in December 2014, the crowd at the American Airlines Arena greeted him warmly. Fans cheered him again in March but with far less enthusiasm.
Kevin Garnett
5 of 10
When Kevin Garnett, who played the first 12 seasons of his career with the Timberwolves, left Minnesota after being traded to the Boston Celtics in 2007, it’s fair to say it wasn’t on good terms. Although the reasons behind his resentment were never fully explained, KG never bothered to hide his disdain for the franchise.
Garnett did, however, make sure to draw a line between the issues he had with the front-office personnel, whom he hated, and the fans, whom he loved. Perhaps that’s why the relationship with the Minnesota fanbase didn’t deteriorate to the point that the Timberwolves weren’t willing to welcome him back, as they did in February 2015.
That’s for those who were mad at Garnett to begin with—not all were. KG, too, proved he could forgive and forget, waiving a no-trade clause with the Nets in order to return to the T-Wolves. There may have been some early questions about his homecoming, but the thunderous standing ovation received in his first game back quickly put most concerns to bed.
Jaromir Jagr
6 of 10
The loss of Czech superstar Jaromir Jagr would have been tough for fans of a declining Pittsburgh Penguins team to deal with under any circumstances, but their indignation was stoked by nearly a decade of ungratefulness.
Having won two Stanley Cups in his first two seasons in the league, in 1992, Jagr told Sports Illustrated's E.M. Swift, “If they have no money, trade me. I want to be traded where there’s beaches. I have two Stanley Cup rings. I don’t need more rings. I just need more money and beaches and girls.”
Jagr didn’t get the beaches, but he finally got his wish to leave Pittsburgh in July 2001 when the club traded him to the Washington Capitals. Bitter Pens fans booed him mercilessly every time he touched the puck in his return the following December. However, they proved just how big their soft spot for Jagr was by giving him a standing ovation that same night during a tribute video that aired in the first period.
They proved it again in 2011 (and again in 2015) with #JagrWatch, an oddly desperate obsession with bringing him back as a free agent (and later via trade).
In 2011, those in Pittsburgh were jilted by Jagr in favor of the Flyers, their hated cross-state rival in Philadelphia—he turned down an offer from the Penguins. And after the deal was done, he later spoke about Pens fans in less-than-flattering terms, saying, per Anthony J. Sanfilippo of the Daily Times, he didn’t understand “so much bad attitude and anger from those people.”
Why they thought things would be different in 2015 is anybody’s guess, but they weren’t. At this point, it's abundantly clear Jagr will never return to Pittsburgh, but we all know fans would be quick to forgive him if he did.
Ken Griffey Jr.
7 of 10
The Seattle Mariners drafted Ken Griffey Jr. No. 1 overall in 1987, and he made his starting debut for the team during the ’89 season. He played the first 11 seasons of his career with the Mariners before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds after the ’99 season. Griffey simply decided he wanted out of Seattle, which forced the franchise's hand, but he wasn't willing to go just anywhere.
In December 1999, Griffey rejected a four-player deal that would’ve sent him to the New York Mets. Much to the detriment of the Mariners, who were completely fleeced by the Reds, he had his sights set on Cincinnati, and it definitely wasn’t about the money—Griffey turned down $170 million from the Mets and $148 million from the Mariners, agreeing instead to a $116 million deal with the Reds.
The departure was acrimonious enough that Griffey was still scared of being booed by fans when he finally returned to Seattle seven years later in June 2007. Fears that turned out to be largely unfounded, as fans welcomed him back, despite being routed by the Reds. Maybe it was that warm reception that led Griffey to sign with the Mariners as a free agent in February 2009.
Griffey played the final two years of his career in Seattle before retiring after the 2010 season. He received yet another hero's welcome from fans when he returned to be enshrined into the Mariners Hall of Fame in August 2013.
Ray Allen
8 of 10
In June 2007, the Seattle SuperSonics shipped seven-time All-Star Ray Allen to Boston. Along with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo, Allen was a core part of the Celtics team that won an NBA championship in 2008, a conference title in 2008 and 2010 and five straight division titles from 2008-12.
Allen was only in Boston for five seasons, but that was more than enough time to become a beloved figure in Beantown, ingratiating himself in a city that isn’t well known for accepting outsiders. Which is why Celtics Nation took it so hard when Allen decided to sign with the conference-rival Heat as a free agent in June 2012.
There were hard feelings to go around, with fans in Boston bitter about being betrayed and Allen bitter about the Celtics disrespecting him with a contract offer that ended up being far more lucrative than the one he got with the Heat. When he returned to TD Garden for the first time in January 2013, boos quickly turned to cheers.
Many expected a brutal Boston homecoming for Allen, but eventually, fans treated him to a standing ovation. Allen told reporters following the game, “I think the better heads prevailed and they say, ‘Hey, this is our guy regardless of where he’s playing.’”
Brett Favre
9 of 10
When Brett Favre left Green Bay in 2008, there was a lot of bitterness among Packers fans, who had become tired of being jerked around by the quarterback’s annual "will he or won’t he" retirement drama. Making matters worse was Favre’s desire to play for the division-rival Minnesota Vikings.
Green Bay refused to release him or trade him to Minnesota, opting instead for a deal with the New York Jets. But after one season in New York, Favre told the team and confirmed to the media he was retiring. Packers fans would’ve been much quicker to forgive and forget had that been the end of things. Of course, as we all know, he signed with the Vikings six months later.
That being said, five years after he played his last game in the NFL, the Gunslinger finally returned to Green Bay and wasn’t showered with a chorus of boos, as he was when he returned twice with Minnesota. Chants of “M-V-P!” greeted Favre at Lambeau Field when he arrived to be formally inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in July 2015.
Alex Rodriguez
10 of 10
For the last couple of seasons, New York Yankees steroid enthusiast/liar Alex Rodriguez has been the biggest pariah in MLB. He was digging in his heels and ready to sue anyone and everyone, including his own union, to overturn a suspension for something he has admitted to doing on more than one occasion.
It looked like A-Roid’s obituary had been written, but now he is not only not a pariah, but he's in the midst of a nearly All-Star season in which fans in New York have been applauding him as if he were baseball legend Willie Mays, whom A-Rod recently passed on the all-time list with his 661st home run. Or maybe Lou Gehrig, whose RBI record he broke even more recently.
For some reason, though, it seems Rodriguez’s league-imposed season-long exile in 2014 has given way to a season-long love-fest with the formerly embattled 39-year-old slugger in 2015. Maybe it’s easy for Yankees fans to suddenly forgive A-Rod (seeing as how the team is in first place in the AL East), but the national media jumping on board is definitely a surprise.
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