SI: Top 25 most hated teams of all-time

A good line, and perfectly understandable.

But we either give fans carte blanche to say and do whatever they want ("because they make it possible for the players to have a career") or we try to separate rational from irrational and "boo" from "Go die you motherfucker!" and shouting "PLO" to a player whose dad was murdered by that group.

 

So far, the distaste for LeBron James hasn't come close to the latter. LeBron James is an entertainer, first and foremost. He exists in the public for the attention of the public. The fact that he has become a person whom the public (many) love to hate does not detract from his purpose on the public stage. He still entertains, though he is too dim and self involved to understand it.
Sports needs the clash of opposites, opposing teams (Wolverines-Buckeyes), opposing cities (New York-Boston), opposing players (Magic-Bird).

Fans are entitled to irrational decide who they'll cheer for and adore and who they'll boo and disparage. Some players get the experience of being both. Kobe, for example. And James becomes another. But again, he's too much of a moron to see any context to his career.

 

I know it's crazy to compare what Kobe did or allegedly did or was cleared of doing to what LeBron has done, but I don't think Kobe ever experienced the fan hatred that LeBron did this season.

Part of that is for better or worse, Kobe frequently seems likable. The LeBron we've seen this year does not. Maybe that all magically changes if/when he wins a title.

 

I love how they have the 2004 LeBronze-led Nightmare Team. I remember laughing during that blowout loss to Puerto Rico and telling my wife, "We don't even have the best basketball in this country. Puerto Rico does."

 

I remember watching that team and thinking, this is why I now hate the NBA (among other reasons...).

 

KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!

 

OK, that made me laugh a lot more than it should have.

 

Don't we have a Tebow babe pic we could be constantly quoting instead?

 

"Take this quarter, go downtown and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face."

 

2007 Florida. Perhaps the most hyped 4-loss team in college football history.

 

Yeah, the Tebow Florida teams to me are as bad as the Laettner Duke teams.

I must admit I like Tebow a lot more now that he's in the NFL and I definitely would not have said that about Laettner.

 

Would have been a solid top 10, but once Buff Bagwell joined, their place off this list was sealed.

Amazing how 26-year-old LeBron James sounds a hell of a lot like the excuse-making 19-year-old on the '04 squad of Ugly Americans.