Westbrook was never one of my favorite players during most of his prime, but seeing how Westbrook has handled his last few years helped me gain a lot of respect for him.
Sure he never was the lead guy on a championship team, but his competitiveness is amazing. He played his best through all the Lakers drama. Westbrook also put up 37 in a playoff game in the most recent playoffs. I’m quite a huge fan of this late-career Westbrook.
Kobe - when I first started following the NBA as a kid, Kobe was the player I liked to root against. Near the end of his career I had nothing but love for him.
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Jokic. While everyone was high on jokic the last 5 years i wasn’t because i thought embiid giannis and ad were better. I can humbly say i was wrong as fuck. Dude is literally looking like a top 3 offensive player ever.
KD. Thought he was a boring goody-two-shoes with the Thunder. I like how he embraced the villain role with the Warriors and subsequently. Now he’s my favorite player
When has KD ever embraced the villain role lmfao all he does is act like a poor widdle victim. Look at his recent comments about his Nets exit. Or anything he has said about his leadership on his teams.
This is wild
I’ll never forget the story of KD crying in his room afterwards and accusing his agent of ruining his life lol
I never really saw him as a villain and still don’t. Just a regular ass dude who happens to be a god at basketball.
Hopefully that last season will be in Seattle
I pray for this.
Yeh agreed. Im the exact opposite. Favorite player on the thunder and tben broke basketball for 3 years cuz hes a lil bitch who joined the 73-9 warriors after not being able to beat them. And he DIDNT embrace the villain role. He constantly played the victim card and tried improving the publics image of him with burner accounts on Twitter. Like, the exact opposite of embracing the villain role lol
I will never, ever understand why KD is a bitch for joining the Warriors, but Steph isn’t a bitch for recruiting him there. It’s the same exact thing.
I used to freakin hate Lebron
Specifically, taking his talents to South Beach is more understandable in retrospect.
Me too. I still do. But I used to also.
Two 180s
LeSchrodinger’s Hate.
I really didn’t hate him until he joined the heat. Now I hate him.
I was such a spiteful little shit about the Heatles. LeBron is one of my favorite players ever now.
Tbf, except for Heat fans, who wasn’t? Lebron having a PBS special to announce it. Bosh was in his prime, Wade had injuries but still in prime. They did the whole “how many rings we gonna win?” shit lol. Lot’s of fuel for that fire.
The “how many rings” thing was entirely Lebron lol
As a casual fan at the time, the Heatles got me way more interested in the league than anything else
I was actively rooting against him and laughing all the whole those first two years. Thought the Celtics had him and the embarrassment would never end for him, then he silenced me and everyone else with that game 6. After that, everything flipped, really enjoyed watching him and I really respect his mental fortitude.
Some of his shit annoys the fuck out of me “spiritually, financially” gtfoh, but he’s been untouchable as a baller for a decade.
Miss hating the Heatles
Dillon Brooks recently. It might have been the Grizzlies that were keeping me from liking him.
Begrudgingly started likening him after he balled out on the Canadian National team.
Everyone likes you more when you’re shooting the hall well 😂
They only care when u r doing well lol.
No joke I was totally ok with him aside from he just needed to shoot way less. Seems like he’s figured that out or someone figured it out for him.
Yeah, he’s really won me over too. I like that he’s kept up some of the antics, but he also seems to be a hard worker and solid player.
Brown. Used to think he’s gonna be a better player than Tatum, thought he was way more consistent than Tatum. Instead somewhere along the way he started playing extremely stupid basketball.
I think probably Rondo or Pat Bev. I always hated Rondo on that Celtics teams but really appreciated the insight and leadership he brought to the court. Pat Bev, well, he’s one of those enforcer dudes that backs up their teammates every team loves to have. I think it’s a shame his time on the Lakers were short but, with us so heavy on guards to start last season, his contract was going to be moved regardless. When he’s not on your team, it’s easy to hate him lol
I didn’t like Pat Bev until he came to my Bulls.
james harden
he was on the trash rockets but still making the playoffs and dropping 50 or 60 a night
then tried to form a super team in brooklyn and basically has turned into a pre madonna or whatever
mad lame but i lost all respect for him lol
*prima donna
I think the sixers stuff was kinda crappy on his behalf but I don’t think he was wrong about Houston and Brooklyn. Houston didn’t have much left by the time he was traded, not really his fault they wouldn’t trade him. Brooklyn was tough too because he did all the right things but then had Kyrie squander it all away, meanwhile KD was hurt like 65% of the time.
Philly did their best to accommodate him and brought in a coach who would’ve utilized him pretty well. He kinda just bailed on that because Morey wouldn’t pony up the super max (which he doesn’t really deserve).
LeBron. Hated the media-centric “decision”. Titles w 3 teams!! And, so far, seems to not have become an evil villian off the court.
The other way? Used to like Karl Malone. The HIV phobia I could kinda get early on…not a lot of evidence that it was not a concern. But the disavowing kids a la Larry Bird. Loser.
Hmm I wonder what made you stop hating lebron
I used to dislike KD, but for whatever reason a little less than a year ago, I became a huge fan. So weird.
I had the exact opposite thing with Bron. I though he was unfairly criticized for moving out of Cleveland as a free agent. He didn’t do anything wrong, and didn’t bitch out with a trade demand - he simply used the proper tools available in his disposal. I didn’t even really hate The Decision, the man did it for charity iirc.
But now I actively dislike him, because it’s hard to find someone with more misguided opinions. Every time he opens his mouth, he just vomits stupidity and hypocrisy.
because it’s hard to find someone with more misguided opinions
Haaave you met Kyrie? or Jonathan Isaac? or Jaylen Brown?
Yeah. Him playing GM and head coach ever since he left Miami makes me fucking hate him.
Lmao your biggest problem with Malone is that he disavowed his kid?? Scummy for sure but LOL
Sorry, thats what made you stop liking Karl Malone?
That’s not really your problem with Karl Malone, is it?
It’s just become so hard to hate LeBron, he’s really had the ideal career from a media standpoint. Besides the fact that’s he’s still undeniably great at 39 fucking years old, he’s just never really had any big scandals or anything and comes off like a decent guy at all times, and over a 20 year career if you’re a piece of shit it’ll come out.
Ben Simmons.
Not only did I used to think that he didn’t suck and that he wanted to be in the NBA, but I even used to think he was good and that he wanted to be great.
There was a time when Philly fans were debating trading embiid and building around Ben Simmons.
Lol I love how people just pretend that didn’t happen. Everyone just acts like they don’t remember. The majority of people were on the trade Embiid side too. I was alway so confused by it, like are we watching the same players?
In Philadelphia, the majority of us were very much not in favor of trading Embiid.
I’m sure you had a handful of WIP callers saying that, but that’s a constant in Philly media.
Embiid was pretty much always preferred over Simmons by our fan base.
Yeah it was an opinion plenty of people had, but the majority was in favour of trading Embiid
The majority of folks here were definitely NOT in favor of trading Embiid. I’m sure there were people who thought it. But that was absolutely not the majority in town at the time. Or ever when the two were here.
Simmons was always scrutinized here for his refusal to shoot.
My dad went sour on Simmons within like two years of Simmons entering the league. I thought my dad was just on some boomer shit, but he called almost all the problems Simmons had from a mile away
I wish they would have traded him after 2018 or 2019 when his value was really high.
All it takes to build a contender around Embiid is a PG and wing players who can defend and shoot.
He called Ben’s nerve issue in his back? That’s interesting. Your dad must be a fucking wizard or something
Even if Ben was always 100% healthy they could have never won with him. You can’t win when every time your pg brings the ball up his man is standing under the basket.
I still think he’s good he’s just who he is. It would be nice if he took more shots tho
That 14 game stretch or whatever without embiid before the playoffs legit made me think we were seeing the birth of the next superstar. The shit he pulled in that lakers game was insane.
Dray. Used to think he’s just always fired up. Now he’s just an asshole
The problem is most of our fans seem to think he can’t perform without the antics. He absolutely can… there have been periods where he has calmed down for a while, and there are periods where he’s had incident after incident in a short span.
When he comes back in a few days I’m guessing he’ll be incident free for a few weeks then it will all all start again.
Dray is the dramatically correct answer for me.
Generational shithead
Dramatically correct
*Draymatically correct
As a warriors fan agreed lol
There are dozens of us
Right there with you. Fuck him
Fake ass fan
I’ve never been an ass fan.
Take that flair off you traitor
the amount of insane homers in r/warriors that actually support Draymond’s objectively stupid antics is wild to me lmao - talking about how punching people is normal because they’re pro-athletes lol
I agree but I never thought he wasn’t an asshole
Me too. I used to find his antics somewhat amusing. Now I just see him as a huge bully and I will forever stan Jarrett Allen for kicking him in the nuts.
Joker
Lonzo Ball, all of the talking Lamar did when he was coming into the league made me want to see Lonzo fail badly. But Lonzo himself seems to be the opposite of his dad. He’s more quiet, hardworking, and improved his game every year he was healthy.
Honestly I’ve had a 180 Lavar himself, now that I’m a dad. Sure, he is obnoxious, but he’s only ever tried to pump up his children and set them up to be more successful than he’s ever been.
but he’s only ever tried to pump up his children
I would argue his training methods were absolute shit and you could argue is one of the reasons Lonzo couldn’t stay healthy (Such as improper technique when lifting weights). Also add in the controversy of the BBB sneakers.
Too bad he’s one of the worst cases of a career ended by injury
Yeah it’s too bad. Lonzo could have had a Jrue Holiday type of impact fro teams looking to compete for a chip. I hope he somehow get healthy again.
And if you notice, his dad basically shut up once his kids got drafted. I haven’t seen him anywhere.
One of the reasons his dad shut up was because of the fallout due to Big Balla Brand. Arguably Lonzo’s leg issues stem from wearing those shoes.
Most definitely. I never had the hate for him because I seen his whole comeup. Hes way closer to a d rose attitude than like his dad or his brothers
Similarly, LaMelo. Dude is a baller. Thought he was a flashy, selfish player who would never win. But he’s a baller and I love watching him pass
100%. After the first few games of his, I wanted him to succeed and become an alltime great laker and lead them in the next big rivalry.
Especially with Tatum going third.
I really hope he can stay healthy some time.
…you wanted the lakers to get a new great?
The most fun times for me were the big 3 vs Kobe and Pau. Also bird vs magic was really nice getting into basketball at a young age.
Those were special rivalries. They really hated each other. I loved it!
Honestly crazy you wanted to see a kid fail who was entirely unproblematic because his dad has a loud mouth
People say that now because he’s been severely injured (and, even if he plays again, will never live up to his draft position.)
His daddy was just a self-marketing machine. Obnoxious? Sure. But, the 45th ad you see for Nike or Adidas or whatever the fuck isn’t annoying?
his dad’s sneaker is what ruined lonzo from an injury perspective so i guess that’s the big difference between lavar and nike or adidas.
Those aren’t mutually exclusive, it’s all annoying
100% agree. I assumed he was an ass because of all the talking his dad seemed to do for him, but not only do I think he’s a better player than I have him credit for being, but seeing interviews and clips of him off the court makes me think he’s a better person than I gave him credit for being as well.
I actually had the exact opposite feelings about Kobe - I loved the #8 kid with hair playing as Shaq’s Robin, but I always thought bald black mamba rapist #24 Kobe was the most overrated player in sports.
Yeah, people just kind of forgot about that little “incident”.
Players like Ray Allen and Jimmy Butler who went from rival teams I absolutely loathe to Miami