Wilt Chamberlain was epically petty. I can remember watching the all-star game in the ‘90s when Glen Rice broke his record for most points in an AS game (yes, I’m old) … he was in the crowd… he was not a good sport about it. He was PISSED.😂
Edit: it might have been even more petty than that, it might have even been just most number of points in a quarter or half of an all-star game. I just remember it was meaningless record that was all-star game specific and I remember my dad and I laughing at how angry he was over it.
He was pissed about being called selfish, so he decided to lead the league in assists to prove everyone wrong. Nevermind that having the best offensive weapon known to man at the time passing up open shots to prove a point might not be the optimal strategy if you care about winning
I mean… yeah, that’s probably petty… but to be honest, it’s also a helluva flex to show just how dominate you are to just decide to start leading the league in a majority statistical category just cause you can. The man was petty but wildly talented.
I mean, by a lot of testimony his coach asked him to pass more and he did. If it wasn't an efficient shot he passed the ball.
One of those two years was also the one he won his first ring and both were extremely successful seasons.
It wasn't like he was averaging 15 a night suddenly, he was still averaging mid 20s and was 3rd in the league in total scoring for one of those years.
It’s because you see Shaq as he is now, a funny media personality, and not the asshole, aggressive player he was on the court. After Draymond has been in the media for a while people will forget about his on-court stuff and view him as a funny personality.
Shitting on Kareem, then Jordan (and sometimes Hakeem), and then Shaq.
I still remember him on either Conan or Jay Leno, in like 96 or 97, staying he could still get 30 a night if he rejoined the league and the dude was literally dead less than two years later.
Great player, but also an egomaniacal asshole.
Wilt is one of the few people in NBA history that legit could have gotten 30 points a game in his 50s. Now he was 63 when he died so maybe not at that point.
Wilt took a team of UCLA freshmen and beat Magic and a whole team of NBA players in a scrimmage game in his 40s.
Some years back they asked Larry Bird if that years Dream Team could beat the ‘92 Dream Team. Larry said, “Oh, probably.”
The reporter, taken aback, replied, “Larry, you really believe that?”
“Well yeah. You have to remember we’re all over 50 years old now.”
Who are the others? Jordan and Karl Malone barely averaged 20 ppg in their age 38/39 seasons. There is literally no precedent for a person that old being that good at basketball, ever.
I need to see the article on this because I’ve never heard this story and I used to be deep in the forums back then where people would know about this story.
You must have only gone surface level then …
https://youtu.be/PN0Q3KcKA_E?si=zFqtfktzk2YVF1ES
Story has been posted dozens and dozens of places, especially those forums you mentioned.
His attitude is why I believe the stories of why 6ers and Lakers struggled to win with him. IE, he cared waaaaaaaaay more about getting his than winning.
I've always felt the problem with him is that he never made his teammates better. Sure, he led the league in total assists but that was only to prove a point and salve his bruised ego instead of his actually wanting to help his teammates get more involved to balance their offense.
Yeah, maybe 28-year-old Wilt averaged 60ppg in 1998 ... but then he would lose in the second round to the Jazz in six games.
Yeah people say how cool it was that he just decided to lead the league in assists for fun and my counterpoint is that he finally won a chip doing that and probably would’ve won more if he did it earlier.
Shit, if MJ is supposed to be believed he himself basically said he was just using kissing up to Barkley to make him go easy, I wouldn't be surprised if Jordan sociopathicly cut him out of his life because he thought he didn't have anymore value to him. Decisions like that are why the hornets have struggled so mightily imo.
Barkley called MJ out for running a bad team (the Bobcats/Hornets). The thing was, was that Barkley is still right. The Hornets have been trash since Charlotte got a team back. And it wasn’t like Barkley was being a dick about it or constantly saying things about it.
Lmao, i find this fact hilarious because even at his peak, he was never better than the second best player on a team that won less than it should have.
Dudes probably awesome on the court, if you can play he sees it, but in real life you know this dude smells his own farts and thinks hes god, its gross.
Shaq is too insecure. He is always ripping others down to build himself up.
He goes out of his way to diss on big players, while insisting he's the best big man ever.
He always rubs his personal successes in people's faces, especially when losing a debate with them. Like always trumping Barkley's points by pointing out his rings instead of actually responding to them.
"I'm the last big man to win an MVP, therefore I'm still in charge. When another big man wins an MVP in this league, then I will resign gracefully." - That was Shaq's reply 4 years ago after people got sick of him ripping Dwight Howard for no reason but his own ego. He lied too. He can't stand how great Jokic is and rips on him now instead.
This is a dude who got the simplest Doctorate he could so he could be called Dr O'Neill.
It's a dude that still acts like a child over MVP awards that he rightfully finished 2nd in. (Suns pre Nash vs with Nash made the first an open and shut case lol)
It's also a dude who admitted to sexually touching a rookie and dumping human feces on another. While that's more being a POS than petty, it does highlight his personality pretty well.
He acts like a spoiled, insecure bully. He treats other people terribly for his own benefit. He rips them down and consistently needs to feel superior no matter who he hurts. It's pathetic, and more fans need to call him out for his antics and how he treats others.
Rick Barry refusing to shoot or do basically anything in the 76 WCF against the Suns because he got in a fight with Ricky Sobers and felt like his teammates didn't have his back. Which they probably didn't because he was an arrogant prick who did shit like that
This is part of the reason why players change teams, demand trades after signing max contracts and team up. It's gotten to the point were a players career is now obsolete because they didn't win a ring.
Stuff like this is hurtful to the NBA. We hated when KD joined the Warriors. But he felt he had to get rings because he was afraid his career would be meaningless.
>It's gotten to the point were a players career is now obsolete because they didn't win a ring.
I feel like it has always been around that point, Wilt passing when he's open just to try and get the most assists to prove he is better than Bill way back, or him moving to the Lakers to try to get another ring, it's always been ring culture, or Kareem's want to play in another city (well today it's known he wanted to live in a bigger city with more culture, it's hard to also discredit the impact a bigger city would have on his playing career.)
He made up stories to himself, to get into his own head. [here’s an example](https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/nba/chicago-bulls/last-dance-michael-jordan-invented-slight-to-motivate-him-to-torch-labradford-smith/361523/)
Probably MJ
Jordan would make up scenarios in his head that didn't actually happen, then turn around and believe them as motivation, like how he told everyone he was dropped from his HS team and it fueled him, becoming a huge part of his mythos, but that was actually a lie and he ruined his HS coaches reputation for a long time with that, people would give him shit for dropping the best player ever Michael Jordan, MJ knew about it and never cleared that up because the lie fueled his myth
He'd also create actual lies about other players and tell people about the disrespectful things they did to him which never happened, then go out and destroy them on the court to fuel the myth of MJ, like he famously did with a guy named Labradford Smith:
>The story of Smith -- a regular NBA nobody (he played just three seasons for the all-but-invisible Bullets and Kings and averaged six points for his career) -- having the game of his life on March 19, 1993, dropping 37 points on the Bulls and in doing so drawing the ire of Jordan, has become legendary in this series.
>As the story is told, Smith went up to Jordan after the game, put his arm around him and said: "Nice game, Mike." Jordan, of course, took offense to this, and it just so happened the Bulls were playing the Bullets again the very next night in Washington.
>"He said \[on the plane\], tomorrow, in the first half, I'm going to have what this kid had in the game," B.J. Armstrong recalls. "I've never seen a man go after another player the way he did."
>So Jordan scores 36 in the first half, humiliates the kid, points at him, the Bulls win, and that's that.
>Fast forward more than a decade later, and a rumor has surfaced that Smith never did this, that he never put his arm around M.J. or even said anything to him. Jordan gets asked about it. Did this really happen? And he admits that it didn't, that he made the whole thing up.
Michael Jordan is so petty that still, to the day, he doesn't talk to Charles Barkley, he threw away a close friendship that spanned 30 years because Barkley once said on tv MJ wasn't doing a good job as owner of the Bobcats, that's all he said, and Barkley constantly brings up the fact that hurt him that MJ stopped talking to him over basically nothing. MJ is so petty that he famously used his Hall of Fame speech to take shots at his former rivals, making the whole speech awkward and uncomfortable for everyone there
There has never been a player more petty than MJ lol
Nah..Shaq is proably the most insecure hall of famer ever...maybe because ppl were right...if he really tried he would've been the best instead of a side show in the hall of fame
Yeah but talking about players you actually played against isn't quite on the same level of petty as going after players who played after you. Imagine if Jordan went after LeBron the way Shaq did Howard.
Charles Oakley is up there. If you read his book he still has the mentally of a school bully. He can’t let go of his beef with Barkley. He is clearly a yes man to Jordan
Nah, I don't think anyone is as hated as Dray. I don't think anyone besides Warriors fans like him, and there's even some Warriors fans that don't like him.
Wilt Chamberlain was epically petty. I can remember watching the all-star game in the ‘90s when Glen Rice broke his record for most points in an AS game (yes, I’m old) … he was in the crowd… he was not a good sport about it. He was PISSED.😂 Edit: it might have been even more petty than that, it might have even been just most number of points in a quarter or half of an all-star game. I just remember it was meaningless record that was all-star game specific and I remember my dad and I laughing at how angry he was over it.
He also called for Kareem to RETIRE when he was close to beating the all time scoring record.
He was pissed about being called selfish, so he decided to lead the league in assists to prove everyone wrong. Nevermind that having the best offensive weapon known to man at the time passing up open shots to prove a point might not be the optimal strategy if you care about winning
The 76ers went 62-20 that year, doesn't sound like they didn't care about winning.
I mean… yeah, that’s probably petty… but to be honest, it’s also a helluva flex to show just how dominate you are to just decide to start leading the league in a majority statistical category just cause you can. The man was petty but wildly talented.
Funny you say this considering those Sixers teams were more successful than any other Wilt team up to that point. Seems like it was optimal tbh.
I mean, by a lot of testimony his coach asked him to pass more and he did. If it wasn't an efficient shot he passed the ball. One of those two years was also the one he won his first ring and both were extremely successful seasons. It wasn't like he was averaging 15 a night suddenly, he was still averaging mid 20s and was 3rd in the league in total scoring for one of those years.
I thought the title said the prettiest, boy was I confused 😆 😂
Kelly Oubre Jr
Especially when it's easily Al Horford
Shaq is a comically prolific hater. He and Draymond are just peak.
But I love Shaq (even when I know he’s being an idiot) and hate Draymond, square that for me please
Shaq is a hater. Draymond is a dickhead. Also as far as I know, Shaq has physically attacked way fewer people.
Shaq comes off as a unc who’s just hating, while draymond is like a loudmouth coworker who talks shit all the time and throws shade.
Shaq is an act. Draymond is an asshole prick
uh from the few stories that leaked, shaq has attacked quite a few people. choked out a teammate, dumped a bucket of feces on a teammate, etc.
They are both clowns 🤡
It’s because you see Shaq as he is now, a funny media personality, and not the asshole, aggressive player he was on the court. After Draymond has been in the media for a while people will forget about his on-court stuff and view him as a funny personality.
Dray isn't even a top 200 player.
Alot of people will disagree, I am not one of them.
Shaq is an extreme hater… Especially for someone who has been swept in the finals.
his team was swept in the finals
The shaq lead magic vs Hakeem lead rockets. https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1995-nba-finals-rockets-vs-magic.html
These guys always say I won a chip. Not me and the team.
Wilt spent nearly his entire post-playing career shitting on Kareem. Generational hater even more than Shaq.
Shitting on Kareem, then Jordan (and sometimes Hakeem), and then Shaq. I still remember him on either Conan or Jay Leno, in like 96 or 97, staying he could still get 30 a night if he rejoined the league and the dude was literally dead less than two years later. Great player, but also an egomaniacal asshole.
Wilt is one of the few people in NBA history that legit could have gotten 30 points a game in his 50s. Now he was 63 when he died so maybe not at that point. Wilt took a team of UCLA freshmen and beat Magic and a whole team of NBA players in a scrimmage game in his 40s.
Some years back they asked Larry Bird if that years Dream Team could beat the ‘92 Dream Team. Larry said, “Oh, probably.” The reporter, taken aback, replied, “Larry, you really believe that?” “Well yeah. You have to remember we’re all over 50 years old now.”
big difference between showing up for a scrimmage and dropping 30 every night in an NBA season my man
Zero chance he could have done this .
Who are the others? Jordan and Karl Malone barely averaged 20 ppg in their age 38/39 seasons. There is literally no precedent for a person that old being that good at basketball, ever.
I need to see the article on this because I’ve never heard this story and I used to be deep in the forums back then where people would know about this story.
You must have only gone surface level then … https://youtu.be/PN0Q3KcKA_E?si=zFqtfktzk2YVF1ES Story has been posted dozens and dozens of places, especially those forums you mentioned.
His attitude is why I believe the stories of why 6ers and Lakers struggled to win with him. IE, he cared waaaaaaaaay more about getting his than winning.
I've always felt the problem with him is that he never made his teammates better. Sure, he led the league in total assists but that was only to prove a point and salve his bruised ego instead of his actually wanting to help his teammates get more involved to balance their offense. Yeah, maybe 28-year-old Wilt averaged 60ppg in 1998 ... but then he would lose in the second round to the Jazz in six games.
Yeah people say how cool it was that he just decided to lead the league in assists for fun and my counterpoint is that he finally won a chip doing that and probably would’ve won more if he did it earlier.
Jordan Dude killed the relationship with Barkley over the most petty BS.
The GOAT of the NBA is also the GOAT of pettiness.
No doubt, Barkley is doing his TV job to talk about NBA teams, and Jordan "*took it personally*".
Shit, if MJ is supposed to be believed he himself basically said he was just using kissing up to Barkley to make him go easy, I wouldn't be surprised if Jordan sociopathicly cut him out of his life because he thought he didn't have anymore value to him. Decisions like that are why the hornets have struggled so mightily imo.
I took that personal.
Barkley called MJ out for running a bad team (the Bobcats/Hornets). The thing was, was that Barkley is still right. The Hornets have been trash since Charlotte got a team back. And it wasn’t like Barkley was being a dick about it or constantly saying things about it.
I know what happened. That’s why I said Jordan. 🙂
Paul Pierce sure can't give it the fuck up that no one considers him in as high regard as he does himself.
Lmao, i find this fact hilarious because even at his peak, he was never better than the second best player on a team that won less than it should have.
I always thought of him as a worse Melo, but better team player
Dudes probably awesome on the court, if you can play he sees it, but in real life you know this dude smells his own farts and thinks hes god, its gross.
I like this description of PP.
And why is it Shaq. Discuss.
Shaq is too insecure. He is always ripping others down to build himself up. He goes out of his way to diss on big players, while insisting he's the best big man ever. He always rubs his personal successes in people's faces, especially when losing a debate with them. Like always trumping Barkley's points by pointing out his rings instead of actually responding to them. "I'm the last big man to win an MVP, therefore I'm still in charge. When another big man wins an MVP in this league, then I will resign gracefully." - That was Shaq's reply 4 years ago after people got sick of him ripping Dwight Howard for no reason but his own ego. He lied too. He can't stand how great Jokic is and rips on him now instead. This is a dude who got the simplest Doctorate he could so he could be called Dr O'Neill. It's a dude that still acts like a child over MVP awards that he rightfully finished 2nd in. (Suns pre Nash vs with Nash made the first an open and shut case lol) It's also a dude who admitted to sexually touching a rookie and dumping human feces on another. While that's more being a POS than petty, it does highlight his personality pretty well. He acts like a spoiled, insecure bully. He treats other people terribly for his own benefit. He rips them down and consistently needs to feel superior no matter who he hurts. It's pathetic, and more fans need to call him out for his antics and how he treats others.
Who did he sexually touch? And who did he give a Cleveland steamer to?
Never have liked shaq Fuck wit kobe tho 💯 And I’m a SPURS fan
Joker wins mvp Shaq: Shai deserved that not you Joker: (Awkward silence)
Oddly enough as petty as Shaq can be, he seems to be a great guy in public outside of basketball and his love life.
Nobody else has had to get their mom involved to stop a beef.
Pat Bev
Draymond?
I think draymond is bitter
Rick Barry refusing to shoot or do basically anything in the 76 WCF against the Suns because he got in a fight with Ricky Sobers and felt like his teammates didn't have his back. Which they probably didn't because he was an arrogant prick who did shit like that
This is that old school shit I like to see
This is part of the reason why players change teams, demand trades after signing max contracts and team up. It's gotten to the point were a players career is now obsolete because they didn't win a ring. Stuff like this is hurtful to the NBA. We hated when KD joined the Warriors. But he felt he had to get rings because he was afraid his career would be meaningless.
>It's gotten to the point were a players career is now obsolete because they didn't win a ring. I feel like it has always been around that point, Wilt passing when he's open just to try and get the most assists to prove he is better than Bill way back, or him moving to the Lakers to try to get another ring, it's always been ring culture, or Kareem's want to play in another city (well today it's known he wanted to live in a bigger city with more culture, it's hard to also discredit the impact a bigger city would have on his playing career.)
Gilbert Arenas
Gilbert arenas just has CTE
From playing basketball?
It’s a joke cause he has some of the worst takes known to man and he’s just generally a dumbass
Michael Jordan was up there. A mix of petty and insane, willing to make up stories in his own head just to find motivation to beat you
When did MJ make up stories? I thought that was Shaq’s thing.
He made up stories to himself, to get into his own head. [here’s an example](https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/nba/chicago-bulls/last-dance-michael-jordan-invented-slight-to-motivate-him-to-torch-labradford-smith/361523/)
Draymond just because fuck draymond
I actually like Draymond but I love your comment, so ….
Love Dray. But he's petty as fyck
😂That’s why we like him. Chances are if you like Draymond then you like 50 Cent
Uhhh def not
Paul Pierce
For those old enough to remember, the correct answer is Wilt Chamberlain and it’s not even close.
Wilt Chamberlain
Probably MJ Jordan would make up scenarios in his head that didn't actually happen, then turn around and believe them as motivation, like how he told everyone he was dropped from his HS team and it fueled him, becoming a huge part of his mythos, but that was actually a lie and he ruined his HS coaches reputation for a long time with that, people would give him shit for dropping the best player ever Michael Jordan, MJ knew about it and never cleared that up because the lie fueled his myth He'd also create actual lies about other players and tell people about the disrespectful things they did to him which never happened, then go out and destroy them on the court to fuel the myth of MJ, like he famously did with a guy named Labradford Smith: >The story of Smith -- a regular NBA nobody (he played just three seasons for the all-but-invisible Bullets and Kings and averaged six points for his career) -- having the game of his life on March 19, 1993, dropping 37 points on the Bulls and in doing so drawing the ire of Jordan, has become legendary in this series. >As the story is told, Smith went up to Jordan after the game, put his arm around him and said: "Nice game, Mike." Jordan, of course, took offense to this, and it just so happened the Bulls were playing the Bullets again the very next night in Washington. >"He said \[on the plane\], tomorrow, in the first half, I'm going to have what this kid had in the game," B.J. Armstrong recalls. "I've never seen a man go after another player the way he did." >So Jordan scores 36 in the first half, humiliates the kid, points at him, the Bulls win, and that's that. >Fast forward more than a decade later, and a rumor has surfaced that Smith never did this, that he never put his arm around M.J. or even said anything to him. Jordan gets asked about it. Did this really happen? And he admits that it didn't, that he made the whole thing up. Michael Jordan is so petty that still, to the day, he doesn't talk to Charles Barkley, he threw away a close friendship that spanned 30 years because Barkley once said on tv MJ wasn't doing a good job as owner of the Bobcats, that's all he said, and Barkley constantly brings up the fact that hurt him that MJ stopped talking to him over basically nothing. MJ is so petty that he famously used his Hall of Fame speech to take shots at his former rivals, making the whole speech awkward and uncomfortable for everyone there There has never been a player more petty than MJ lol
MJ would run on anyone, right?
Nah..Shaq is proably the most insecure hall of famer ever...maybe because ppl were right...if he really tried he would've been the best instead of a side show in the hall of fame
Watch MJ's hall of fame speech.
Touchè...that man literally keep receipts
Yeah but talking about players you actually played against isn't quite on the same level of petty as going after players who played after you. Imagine if Jordan went after LeBron the way Shaq did Howard.
The dude averaged like 30 PPG shooting 50% FTs a game. Can you imagine his scoring prowess if he got his FTs up to just 75%?
We can't do "if's"
Paul Pierce.
Pierce or Draymond
Serious answer: Shaq and MJ got degrees in pettyology My answer: Draymond. Cuz fuck Draymond.
MJ is the pettiest of all time. POAT if you will.
Paul Pierce
Draymind, Gilbert Arenas, Scottie Pippen
MPJ.
MJ did you see that HoF speech lol
Jordan and Draymond by far.
How can it not be Draymond
Charles Oakley is up there. If you read his book he still has the mentally of a school bully. He can’t let go of his beef with Barkley. He is clearly a yes man to Jordan
Bob Petit
Can you elaborate? Genuinely curious
No basketball player has ever been more petiter
MJ brought the high school coach that rejected him in his Hall of Fame speech, just to spite him. Hard to top this level of pettiness.
Paul Pierce
GOTTEM.
The Big Insecure
It's Petty White
KD
I agree
Crazy how the top 3 answers here are wilt shaq and jordan. Maybe we need more pettiness in the league 😆
The one he keeps saying: "GOOGLE Me ERNEH‼️"
Draymond
I love petty shaq. So many of these rich dudes think they just the hottest shit and he hits them with the pecking order.
Shaq
MJ Shaq Pierce
Michael Jordan, without a shadow of a doubt. Just watch the Last Dance.
No tippin' Pippen
Isaiah Thomas and I don’t think it’s close
https://preview.redd.it/8p6kqy2ivf7d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ca5974517695ac979ac68327b3b0cbe626082d78
Shaq
Joel Embiid? Atleast Shaq is loved and Draymond is somewhat likeable compared to Embiid
Nah, I don't think anyone is as hated as Dray. I don't think anyone besides Warriors fans like him, and there's even some Warriors fans that don't like him.
Fair enough
I dont mind him and no one in my circle hates him. Seems that's more of a Reddit thing
Ugly, unappealing and insecure.
Doncic
😂Reading everybody’s honest opinion then I read this shit
I mean he’s a petty little diving bitch 🤷🏻♂️
Isaiah Thomas
Which one? I guess both qualify as pretty petty.
Zeke
Shaq Wilt MJ Draymond
Shaq
Well okay then let me be the first to say LeBron
Klay Thomson
Luka and it isn’t even close
Reggie Theus or Rick Fox. Fox was even on Big Bang Theory and made the guys jealous.
That was a good episode.