For me it was Tom Watson.
Growing up, there were two seasons. Hockey season, and golf season. And for me, there was no athlete that epitomised the excellence I sought in my own performances more than Jack Nicklaus. I idolized that guy. I loved that he basically told the PGA Tour that he didn't give a damn about the little tournaments, he wanted his career to be measured on the biggest stages, the Majors. And nobody dominated the Majors like Nicklaus until this Aw Shucks Schmuck from Kansas came along and bested Jack toe-to-toe at the British Open in 1977 and the US Open in 1982, when Jack was really in his late prime and striving for history. That drove me crazy with rage.
A few years later when Nicklaus was done with competitive golf, I rejoiced when Watson got the yips and started consistently whiffing on 3 foot putts. I loved that.
Having said all that, I look back now at my youthful dislike for Tom Watson and I'm embarrassed. In his old age, and mine, I've softened on the man and can now finally respect what a great player and man he is.
So which current or past athlete do you dislike the most?
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Take a look at those piece of shit recruiting classes from '03 and '04 and tell me he didn't deserve to be fired, ESPN assholes.
...or because he's an incompetent goldbrick?
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pretty much every Celtic in the 80s, except for Walton, and pretty much every Piston in the late 80s/early 90s, except for Dumars. I will also admit that while I enjoyed watching Jordan in that 85-88 period, I didn't enjoy him during the championship years and I will argue that he was most spectacular right around that 87-88 period.
And as a few veterans here can attest, I was down on Lance Armstrong long, long before he confessed. Killshot and I used to go back and forth on him all the time. It wasn't about how he doped, it was about how he tried to destroy people and run them out of the sport.
Nothing made me want to puke more than Bryant Gumbel trying to wax poetic in that maudlin way he always did to liken Ali to MLK or some other genuine civil rights figure. Read about how Ali treated Joe Frazier after Frazier helped him when he was down. Nevermind that it's entirely possible that Liston threw those fights, which would've changed everything had he not.
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I know he was a crowd favorite, but he has been pretty much alienated from general Tennis since retiring. Everyone hated him. The guy was a narcissist. And I am not talking "well, he was kind of a jerk Charlie Weis style" I am talking full blown personality disorder. Tennis is a sport where the individual players make a lot of friendships, but Connors had none.
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That style reminds so much of Paterno and now Coach K. At least John McEnroe was not a faker when he was an immature ass.
Good golfer but intense on the course.
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Not really when it came to his opponents in the ring. He humiliated them often, including rubbing an opponent's ass with his hand during a clinch, plus the shaking of his head, no, when he got tagged by an opponent was a bull shit act. I suppose his Parkinson's had nothing to do with the shots he took, which were many, and did in fact hurt him. He was a great winner though, like so many other fakers., very gracious after he won.
He matured greatly after his boxing days but he acted like a jerk way too often to opponents.
Granted, everything I know about boxing comes from the Rocky movies, but that's how I see it.
Ali was brash and cocky, but not douchey, in my opinion. He might have had a dirty trick or two in the ring, but he wasn't a thug.
There is nothing "brash" or "flashy" about it. Sure, Frazier forgave him decades later once both men had maybe two or three marbles still rolling around in their skulls, but it was nasty and ruined much of Frazier's life.
Chicago Tribune story from a year or two ago.
If Ali did something thuggish to injure Frazier, then they didn't mention it.
Obviously, there was a lot going on during that era I simply don’t understand.
That said, objective accounts of how he treated Frazier make it pretty indefensible.
greatness of the great Larry Bird in his prime based on your comments about the Celtics. As a Piston fan, i despised them too, but that didn't prevent me from appreciating the amazing Bird.
Bird is a top 5 player all time and I've come to like him more years later, but I liked none of those Celtics except for Walton. Ainge grated on me much more than Bird. Parish is on my all-time overrated team. McHale was a great player but I never liked him, either. There was that one year where the Bucks took them to the limit, seventh game, I believe, and man that would've been cool to see the Bucks dethrone them. Sir Sid, TC, Sikma...the Bucks had a great team, too.
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Recent billions, a hero that also broke your heart. His perseverance; however, kept people going.
Hockey - Todd Bertuzi - Hit on Steve Moore was cheap shot to end all cheap shots
Honorable mention - Ed Belfour, Bob Probert
Basketball - Danny Ainge I never got over that ND/BYU NCAA game I suppose. Just seemed cocky and arrogant to me.
Baseball - Jeffrey Leonard and his one flap down vs. Cards during '87 NLCS. He was blamed for referring to St. Louis as a cowtown but Chili Davis actually said it.
Honorable mention - any player on '86 Mets
Football - Deion Sanders - all flash and little substance
Tennis - Jimmy Connors a complete ahole on and off the court
Golf - Fuzzy Zoeller
Not to mention a brilliant singer:
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Huh?
Overrated in my opinion
And a top 10 all time return man.
Ok.
That second part tells me that he was that good.
He did not like to hit, but he was probably the best cover-man and return man of his era.
God, I hated him.
Watson was an ass for the bulk of the peak of his career. He was extremely lucky and Jack got a bit of revenge in the 86 Masters and never once gloated about it. Watson with the long putts he made and the very fortunate chip in at Pebble Beach was very lucky. Jack could/should have won about 4 more majors. Actually maybe more because Trevino was very lucky a few teams. Jack clearly outplayed him in the playoff at Merion and Lee with that line drive chip in at the British Open maybe prevented Jack from getting a real Grand Slam. Lee was the biggest faker going.
It’s one thing to make a career out of being a pest. It’s another to go around sticking your foot underneath guys while shooting jumpers (Bowen) and knocking guys out who aren’t looking (Ward). Cheap bullshit, and I hated everyone I ever played against who was like that too.
He's such a cry baby and talks about himself too much.
Because he played for the fucking Giants.
I'll drink to that.
because he made the greatest block in NFL history possible.
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Just kidding. Loved Bruno. RIP.
Saw him steal one rolling right to a kid. Not cool.
for the reason given
To me he always came off as a huge douche. I never liked his cockiness either. It didn't make him likeable. I loved Jordan. Nobody more cocky, but it worked for him.
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Link: http://www.5pointsblue.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/1-38.jpg
heh heh heh
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Margarito could have quite literally killed someone by loading up his wraps with plaster who-knows-how-many times. In essence, once he started sweating he was basically punching his opponent with concrete gloves. He received a suspension that wasn't nearly long enough (should have been a lifetime ban, if not criminal charges given the danger already inherent in the sport), continued to deny he knew how his wraps got loaded with the stuff, and not only failed to ever show any contrition but also continued on with that smirking punk persona of his. He should have had to forfeit every single win on his record if they were going to allow him to return. Cheating inflated him from an average boxer to a relevant one, and he may have ruined some careers and lives along the way.
Sosa was a massive fraud. He juiced to the point that he went from a 160-pound scrapper to a 230-lb. behemoth who hit 600 homers. And used a corked bat on top of it all. I recognize that he has plenty of company in the P.E.D. regard (Bonds, McGwire, A-Rod, et al), but I despised the way Sosa played himself up during the 1998 Home Run Race, portraying this false front that he was merely trying to help his team win the division and didn't care about the record, all with that false gee-golly-whiz "earnest" team player nonsense. The reality was that he was swinging for the fences in every at-bat. Every St. Louis fan despises him.
Kaepernick, of course, enjoyed being a part of the false narrative that the police are evil racists and that disrespecting the country and its servants was a brilliant move. He then took the next step of hanging out with terrorists like Linda Sarsour, wearing socks with pigs in police uniforms, comparing the police to slave patrols, and trashing White America (always funny, since he's half-white and only has the opportunities he does because he was raised by white adopted parents). He can't get enough ostracism to make me happy.
Besides being a cheater he was a horrible prima-donna, and a terrible teammate.
Clemens for throwing the bat at Piazza, Rocker for being an all-around dick, and Pippen for smug overratedness. He was the Ringo of the NBA, except he didn't acknowledge it.
Most of my sports hatred these days is reserved for college football coaches.
He was a douche's douche.
And actually, I don't even mind that he gambled on the game.
Him.
I was a big fan of the Reds and Bench, Morgan, Griffey, Foster, Concepcion, Geronimo, and Perez but I never could warm up to Rose. Something about that guy always bugged me.
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Richie Hebner, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Manny Sanguillen, Steve Blass, Al Oliver.
Damn those were some great years.
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Much like the Steelers owned the Bengals back then.
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I hated Ott because he got into a fight with....Buddy Harrelson, I think, when I was a kid.
But loved watching Teckulve pitch.
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the day.
I was like 9 years old during those years, played baseball every day, went to a bunch of Pirate games, and would have had no idea what a bad ball hitter even was.
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His last meaningful year was 1963.
67 and proud of it. Blood pressure checked today. 127 over 70.
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