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10. Lleyton Hewitt
9. A. J. Pierzynski
8. Phil Mickelson
7. Bonzi Wells
6. Michael Iaconelli
5. Kobe Bryant
“I’d be the first to tell you that Kobe has not helped himself with a lot of what’s gone on,” says Greg Anthony, former NBA player and current ESPN analyst. “He’s never been the type to do things that would endear him to his teammates.” Maurice Carter, one of Bryant’s former Laker teammates, agrees: “He’s to himself. You’re not in Kobe’s life outside basketball; you just have to accept that.” But it’s not the off-court cold shoulder that rubs his teammates the wrong way; Bryant’s on-court behavior is the real problem. “As a player,” explains Anthony, “first and foremost, it’s shot selection. You’ve gotta understand that when you’re not playing the game the right way, it’s going to negatively impact you toward your teammates. And there were a lot of complaints about Kobe being selfish, not caring about anyone other than himself. Even his coach said he was uncoachable. If your coach is saying it, you can rest assured the players are saying it.”
Shaquille O’Neal was the focal point in Phil Jackson’s vaunted triangle offense, but Kobe’s refusal to take a backseat to the Diesel sunk what could’ve been the most dominant basketball dynasty ever. “I’ve talked to Scottie Pippen and Michael,” says Anthony, “and if Michael Jordan played with Shaq, he would have found a way to let Shaq be the man.”
“They could have won six in a row,” says one NBA insider, but Shaq and Kobe “wouldn’t even speak to each other. I mean, that’s almost unheard-of. You’re talking about teammates, the two best players at the time—not only on the team, but in the league—and they had no personal relationship. None. And I’m not talking about a day but an entire season!”
4. Curt Schilling
“Between the white lines, it’s all real,” says one reporter who has covered Schilling. “But outside the white lines, there’s a huge gap between the man and the image he projects.” Take, for instance, Schilling’s self-glorifying display during Congress’s steroid hearings last March or his absurdly patriotic open letter to America on ESPN.com after 9/11, for which his teammates mocked him on a late-night bus ride with a chorus of “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.” “They know what he’s about,” says the sportswriter. “I’d say a large percentage of them like him—every fifth day. He wears on people.”
On days he doesn’t pitch, Schilling is notorious for striking TV-ready poses on the dugout stairs. (His manager in Philadelphia, Jim Fregosi, dubbed him Red Light Curt.) “He’s somebody who’s always positioning himself in terms of what’s best for Curt Schilling,” says ESPN’s Pedro Gomez, who described Schilling as “the consummate table for one.” (Speaking of which, Schilling also has a reputation for sneaking into the clubhouse late in games to get a head start on the buffet.)
So avid is Schilling’s longing for the spotlight that some of his peers raise doubts about his now legendary turn in the 2004 postseason, when he pitched on an ankle tendon that had been sutured in place. During Game 6, cameras cut repeatedly to the bright red stain on Schilling’s sock. It was blood, right? “The Diamondbacks people think he definitely doctored that sock,” says the sportswriter. The ex-teammate laughs: “All around baseball, people questioned that. It was funny how the stain didn’t spread.”
3. Kurt Busch
2. Barry Bonds
At no time in recorded history have coaches and teammates spoken admiringly of Barry Bonds’s interpersonal skills. Bonds himself concedes that at every level he’s played, from high school to the pros, people have said he’s had a bad attitude. His coach at Arizona State described him as “rude, inconsiderate, and self-centered,” adding, “I never saw a teammate care about him.” In 1989, beat writers dubbed Bonds, then a budding star in Pittsburgh, his team’s “MDP”—most despised player.
“He has the world’s biggest chip on his shoulder,” says a reporter who’s covered him. “He’s got a screw loose. One day he’ll be smiling and friendly.
The next he’ll be ******* Barry.” The fact that we know of only a handful of occasions on which Bonds has brawled with Giants teammates (e.g., Jeff Kent, 2002; Jason Christiansen, 2005), the reporter says, is a credit to the Giants’
PR machine. “There have been hints that there have been more altercations and more problems behind closed doors.” To what degree Bonds’s alleged steroid use has affected his performance, not to mention his moods, is anybody’s guess. Ours is that at the very least, he comes by the attitude naturally.
1. Terrell Owens
Congratulations, Terrell!
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OT: GQ 10 Most Hated Athletes
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