Sports Figures Who Have Gotten a Raw Deal Lately
Former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt got a raw deal in Cleveland, right? How does one get fired with the best record in the Eastern Conference?
The following are some other sports figures who recently experienced a similar bad draw. Now, some situations are worse than others. Some are funny, and some are more serious.
For instance, sometimes a raw deal simply means being the butt of a joke on Twitter. Other times, it means losing a job.
Whatever the case, let's hope there is some good karma coming at these 15 people sometime in the near future.
Larry Nance Jr.
1 of 15
Los Angeles Lakers rookie forward Larry Nance Jr. got a rude awakening about his true place during the January 26 game against the Dallas Mavericks.
Though Kobe Bryant was sitting out with a shoulder injury, the legend still bumped Nance off the Lakers bench and relegated him to sitting on the floor.
Rude.
Thomas Pieters
2 of 15Thomas Pieters is a professional golfer with a somewhat shaggy haircut. Not a crime, right?
Even so, the PGA Tour felt the need to actually photoshop his picture for the official website to make his hair look, well, less shaggy.
Per Luke Kerr-Dineen of For the Win, PGA Tour Executive Vice President Ty Votaw issued a statement that included an apology and this line: "We regret this sequence of events and meant no disrespect to Thomas. We think he has a great head of hair."
Lane Kiffin
3 of 15
The Alabama football program's team buses left offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin behind after the College Football Playoff National Championship. Then, of course, the Internet found out about it and mocked him—sort of a bummer for a guy who just helped a team win a national championship.
Getting stranded is a raw deal, but then again, surely no one feels too bad for the guy. His team won the title, and he caught a ride with head coach Nick Saban.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Eric Weddle
4 of 15
Yes, sports teams have rules, and when players disobey those rules, punishments have to be doled out.
Still, when San Diego Chargers safety Eric Weddle was fined for watching his daughter perform during the halftime show—that seems extreme.
Weddle had to pay $10,000 for being a good dad. Pssh.
Eddie Lacy
5 of 15
Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy has been catching heat about his weight since his rookie year in 2013. According to ESPN, he is 234 pounds.
In October, amid further weight criticisms related to decreased on-field performance, Lacy said, "When I get on [the scale], it's like, 'He cool.' If I'm not, I'm pretty sure I'll hear from the guy upstairs," per Rob Demovsky of ESPN.
Lacy did experience some injury issues that could have affected his weight, performance or both. In January, head coach Mike McCarthy said Lacy does have some work to do. Still, he has had to hear about his weight on-and-off throughout his career.
Enough already. Celebrity fitness trainer Tony Horton has got this.
Hassan Whiteside
6 of 15
Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside was just minding his own business one day in mid-January, when a couple of other NBA dudes started razzing him on Twitter. What gives?
Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tweeted, "You can have good stats but hurt your team... numbers do lie sometimes."
Per Tom Ley of Deadspin, Orlando Magic center (and friend of Gobert) Nikola Vucevic responded, "I think you should tell us who you're talking about like a real man would."
The Magic's Evan Fournier eventually brought Whiteside into the mix by responding, "Blancote ??" (a made-up French word meant to mean "Whiteside" in English).
The whole thing was similar to the time Philadelphia Eagles lineman Jason Peters aired his grievances on social media about Cincinnati Bengals tackle Andrew Whitworth being named an All-Pro.
Yoenis Cespedes
7 of 15
No, New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes did not get a raw deal in free agency. He did, however, get one in terms of the media coverage of his free agency.
Per Ted Berg of For the Win, one report on Rotoworld.com cited "sources on Tinder" when breaking a story about possible interest from the Washington Nationals.
So, the gist is this: Cespedes matched with someone on Tinder—a dating app—and that person leaked the news that he had plans to be in Washington, D.C.
Scandalous.
The problem is, there is no way to verify if this is actually true or not, according to Berg. If it's not, the raw deal is that an embarrassing story got leaked. And if it is true, the raw deal is also, ironically enough, that an embarrassing story got leaked.
Tom Brady
8 of 15
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady may not be the most-liked person in the NFL, but does he really deserve what one Denver Bronco player tried to do to him during the AFC Championship Game?
According to Nicholas Parco of the New York Daily News, an anonymous Denver player said, "I tried to lay on him a few times. I tried to rub my nuts on his face."
Say what? That's cold.
Cam Newton
9 of 15
Cam Newton has been taking a fair amount of heat lately, not that the Super Bowl-bound Carolina Panthers quarterback likely minds.
Still, all the man did was throw a Seattle Seahawks 12 flag (that was put in front of him by a Seattle fan) to the ground. And now he is "classless" and possibly apathetic toward sick children? He is, at least according to one Seahawks fan who shared her not-so-flattering opinions on Facebook.
Newton has dealt with criticism all season for his end-zone celebrations and showy personality, criticism that has now ascended to "piling it on" status.
Newton has gotten a raw deal in terms of haters, but then again, he's also starting in the Super Bowl. So, in yo' face.
Kevin McHale
10 of 15
Former Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale led the team to three playoff appearances in four years. He had a win percentage of .598 and signed a three-year extension with the team in December 2014.
Then, just 11 games into the 2015-16 season and with a 4-7 record, the team canned him.
Rockets forward Corey Brewer said, "Personally, I feel like I let him down. We weren't winning games and if you aren't winning, you are letting your coach down. We are responsible. Coach can't make us play hard. That's up to us no matter who is coaching," per Jenny Dial Creech of the Houston Chronicle.
Darius Fleming
11 of 15
It has now been confirmed that New England Patriots linebacker Darius Fleming, it has now did in fact help a woman in distress after a car accident.
After the Pats' divisional playoff victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, Fleming revealed he played with injuries sustained from helping a woman trapped in a wrecked car.
Of course, the doubters immediately rolled in. Several news outlets reported they had not been able to corroborate Fleming's story with any local police departments. One police person even said, "It's starting to look like Manti Te'o," according to TMZ Sports.
Eventually, the Walpole Police Department in Massachusetts confirmed the events Fleming described.
Per Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz of USA Today, Fleming told ChicagoFootball.com, "I did something because I thought it was the right thing to do, not because I wanted any credit or anything. … and it was kind of upsetting to see some of the things that people were saying about it and that I was lying."
Pittsburgh Pirates
12 of 15
Sometimes the rules are just cruel. The Pittsburgh Pirates went 98-64 in 2015, good for the second-best record in baseball. Unfortunately for them, the first- and third-best records belonged to their division mates, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs.
The Pirates, who won more games than every division winner except their own, had to play the Cubs, who won 97 games, in the Wild Card Game. Worse than that, they had to face Cubs ace Jake Arrieta—a man who logged the lowest second-half ERA in MLB history—in a win-or-go-home situation.
The Pirates also faced the eventual world champion San Francisco Giants in the 2014 Wild Card Game.
Blair Walsh
13 of 15
By all accounts, Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh is solid. Through four NFL seasons, he has a 85.2 field-goal percentage, seventh among active kickers. He was an All-Pro in 2012, a season in which he made 92.1 percent of his field goals with a long of 56 yards.
During the Vikings' NFC Wild Card matchup against the Seattle Seahawks, he accounted for all nine of his team's points. Then, he uncharacteristically missed a 27-yarder that could have won the game.
Needless to say, the Internet wasn't kind. One guy actually tweeted, "I can't hate Blair Walsh more than I hate Blair Walsh right now." Sweet bro.
Mistakes happen, and perhaps if the offense had managed a touchdown, Walsh would not have been in the difficult position of having to score all his team's points.
At least the first-graders were nice.
David Blatt
14 of 15
David Blatt coached the Cleveland Cavaliers for less than two seasons, but he presided over a 53-29 record and an NBA Finals berth in 2014-15. They were doing pretty well in 2015-16, too, but apparently not well enough.
The Cavs endured a 132-98 home loss to the Golden State Warriors, but the team still had a 30-11 record and the top spot in the Eastern Conference the day Blatt was fired. In fact, according to ESPN Stats & Info (via Elias), Blatt was the winningest NBA coach to ever get fired 10-plus games into a season.
If that's not a raw deal, nothing is.
Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said, "It's embarrassing for the league, it really is. David Blatt had injuries this year and everything else. We all know; nobody cares about that. You're supposed to win, and he did. He did. And now he's still getting fired. It's hard to figure out what it's all about anymore," according to Nick Eilerson of the Washington Post.
St. Louis Rams Fans
15 of 15
It would be hard to find anyone in the recent sports landscape who got a rawer deal than St. Louis Rams fans, or perhaps more specifically, St. Louis taxpayers.
Not only did the St. Louis Rams secure approval to move to Los Angeles, but they left city taxpayers holding the bill for a now-useless stadium.
When the Rams first came to St. Louis in the 1990s, part of the deal was a new facility, now known as the Edward Jones Dome. The current problem is the loan isn't yet paid off. St. Louisans still owe millions for a stadium their team has abandoned.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
