OT: Biggest Jackass in pro sports
While watching the NHL Playoffs I can’t help but think Brad Marchand is a huge Jackass. Game to game his antics are pretty ridiculous. In game 1 against CBJ he stepped on a guys stick to break it during a face off, this is small compared to his constant shit talking and the cool time he licked a dudes face. This made me think about others who have earned Jackass status over the years. Rick Fox of the Lakers has to be up there. I remember him nut checking guys and sticking his fingers in places they don’t belong just to annoy people. Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox could be on this list as well. Who would you add and why?
Any MSU football player?
C Rogers lol. Plaxico lol.
....and any staee basketball player.
Draymond.
Claude Lemieux. First, last and always.
I know, I know, he isn't a Sparty. But regardless...
Rent free baby, rent free....
You've literally made an account on your rival's blog. They didn't teach you about hypocrisy at the Michigan Agricultural College, did they?
They didn't teach you about hypocrisy at the Michigan Agricultural College, did they?
And Staee should have time to do so considering they've dropped Algebra as a core course now.
Larry? Is that you? Is this how you plan to spend your hour a day of free time?
Aren't you late for your next delivery....
As soon as I saw the title of this, Marchand was the first to come to mind. Sean Avery is high up there with Lemeiux as well .
94 yards, baby. 94 yards.
That had to suck-under 100 yards total offense on your home field, AFTER you've tried to start a pregame brawl.
Spartoons won't...
I strongly dislike Russell Westbrook's personality. I recognize he is one of the 5-7 best players in the entire NBA, but he is a huge jackass IMO. Thank god for Damian Lillard sending OKC home in the first this year.
Agreed!
April 28th, 2019 at 11:16 AM ^
Lillard straight up punked Westbrook and it was beautiful. Talk is cheap. Maybe next year OKC can make it out of the first round
April 28th, 2019 at 11:53 AM ^
In my opinion, Westbrook isn’t a jackass, he just plays with so much passion.
He is extremely arrogant, at minimum.
Arrogant on the court and about basketball, but I haven't seen anything to suggest he's an ass outside of sports.
In defense of Russell Westbrook as a person, he once worked a full 12-hour day (with maaaaaaybe a half-hour break for lunch) for a show that I work on. There were lots of kids around and he was unfailingly and genuinely nice and funny and great with all the kids, for the full 12 hours. Like, fully engaged and constantly "on" and being charismatic and charming from 8am to 8pm.
He was much more quiet and a reserved around us adults, but still nice and completely professional. At the end of the day I hesitatingly said, "You seem... different... when you're on the court." He just shrugged and was like, "Yeah..."
Anyway... he was super nice and incredibly generous with the kids for a very long day of shooting. He even agreed to take a picture where he was pretending to hate the jokes I was writing! Not sure if he was pretending, though...
Except that he's nowhere near the 5-7 best players in the league. He was recently voted by his peers as the most over-rated player in the NBA (tied with Draymond Green) and they are right.
His true shooting percentage this season ranked tied for 312th out of 361 qualified players . But that's not even the worst part... he also had the 2nd highest usage rate in the league. So basically he's a terrible shooter that is going to keep wasting possessions, team be damned.
Of players who played 1,000 minutes in a season and took an average of four 3's a game, he had the 10th worst 3-point percentage of ANY player EVER in NBA history this season (29%).
In his last 5 playoff elimination games played, "Westbrick" has missed a combined 100 shots. Not taken 100 shots in the 5 games, but actually MISSED 100 shots. So he plays the worst kind of bad "hero ball" in big games.
In his 11 seasons, he's shot below the league average from the field in 9 of those seasons. From the three-point line, he's shot below the league average in all 11 seasons (wouldn't be a huge problem if he didn't keep jacking up so many 3's).
Now, despite being a historically terrible shooter, he obviously does enough things very well to still make him a talented player, but no way is he a top 20 guy in the league.
From Wikipedia: “Russell Westbrook is averaging 23.0 points, 11.1 rebounds and 10.5 assists this season. ... Westbrook'sthree straight triple-double seasons are an unprecedented achievement, with Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson accounting for the only other comparable campaign in NBA history, back in 1961-62.”
He’s accomplished something only comparable to Oscar Robertson, but he’s not in the top 20 players in the League right now? C’mon man, give the guy a little bit of credit. That’s impressive.
Well, he's the very definition of a player who always has the ball, takes tons of shots (which he usually misses) and also takes tons of free throws, but ultimately is an over-rated stat-sheet stuffer.
As I said, he still does enough things very well to deserve some credit for sure, but he's more of a top-50 player.
If you'd like a few more advanced stats, he's #399 in the league in true shooting % this regular season (out of 520 players). In the playoffs when he's in full hero-ball mode, his effective shooting percentage is #146 out of 207 players.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russell-westbrook-worst-nba-shooter-11547488655
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/1/3/18167155/russell-westbrook-shooting-struggles
https://clutchpoints.com/thunder-news-russell-westbrook-worst-clutch-shooter/
(sorry if the WSJ article is paywalled- when I click on it via my laptop it's paywalled, but not on mobile for me).
Bryce Harper
That’s a clown response bro.... ?
I would go with Tom Izzo. Dressing up as iron man. Way to make it about you Tom. Man, I love me some Beilein!
Do you know what the definition of athlete and professional are? Asking for everybody.....
That was an absurd post, agreed. But you do know that Tom Izzo is a narcissistic excuse making cry-baby who does everything he can to spotlight himself over his players, and regularly, like routinely, covers up rapes and other crimes of his players, and you still root for him? Asking for everybody.
Surely you have proof Izzo covers up rapes. I mean like.....real proof. Not your opinion. Generally that type of proof would be court documents, indictments, guilty verdicts, or sentencing hearings.
April 28th, 2019 at 12:51 PM ^
Came here to post it.
He lives on the razors edge of passion/jackassery, but always gets favorable coverage because baseball is in dire need of marketable stars.
Deadspin did a really great write up about how he and Puig are essentially the same player, but what Puig gets roasted for (over running bases, yelling at jumps, throwing the ball miles over the cut off), Harper is praised for because he's so "passionate".
This weekend, it's Tyreke Hill.
You MEAN this weekend you found out!
He's clearly been a jackass (that word is really too mild for his offenses tho!!!)
Every weekend it's Tyreek Hill. Always a sad reminder of humanity's passiveness when a franchise player is revealed to be an abuser and the fans still support him because he scores TDs for them. Way to take a stand on Hunt, KC, only after video was released. Following in the footsteps of Baltimore and Ray Rice. Hopefully it doesn't take video of Hill abusing someone for you to toss him out like Hunt
Tyreke Hill is a criminal an abuser, and a coward of the worst kind.
That's outside the sphere of "jackass." You may as well say OJ.
reminding me of a funny t-shirt that came around last election cycle:
'i wish OJ had married hillary'
So Does Bill
Antonio Brown is another pretty childish candidate for this. Guy is a jackass.
We have a winner. AB is the most narcissistic asshole I’ve ever seen. It’s bad when the local paper wasn’t even trying to cover it up.
All of the Philadelphia 76ers except Tobias Harris are pretty jackassy
April 28th, 2019 at 10:26 AM ^
Embiid is hilarious to me. The accent completes it all
April 28th, 2019 at 12:47 PM ^
Him hitting on Rihanna on Twitter while high off laughing gas at the dentist is probably my favorite viral moment of all time
April 29th, 2019 at 12:19 PM ^
I'm guessing a Celtics, Nets, or Pistons fan?
April 28th, 2019 at 10:01 AM ^
Sean Avery has to be on that list. The NHL literally made a rule change during the NHL playoffs to be his actions. I remember watching it live and thinking about what a jackass the dude was. He once also referred to his ex girlfriend as his "sloppy seconds" because she was then dating another player in the league. Dude is a piece of work.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:12 AM ^
Draymond Green.
Green is the first guy to come to my mind. I assume we're considering only in game antics and not when guys punch women or taxi drivers on their days off
April 29th, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
And to think he was one of the less despicable people on his MSU teams.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:13 AM ^
I could list several, but I’ll hit my big ones.
Growing up during the Wings/Avs rivalry Claude Lemieux and Patrick Roy come to mind instantly. William Gholston, the Denard head twist still pisses me off.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:17 AM ^
Chris Chelios used to be on my list for the way he abused Federov.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:26 PM ^
Totally forgot about Patrick Roy. He definitely is up there.
Also, Rasheed Wallace. Don’t get me wrong, I loved having him on the pistons but his on court antics were absurd.
April 28th, 2019 at 10:15 AM ^
There was, is, and always will be one to whom all other asshole athletes are compared: Michael Jordan.
April 28th, 2019 at 12:46 PM ^
Underrated answer (so far). GOAT and all that, sure, but Jordan the person leaves a lot to be desired.