NBA stars earn a lot of money, enjoy fame and therefore have big egos too. So, when one of their opponents tries to get under their skin or doesn’t play by their rules, tempers are bound to flare. Here for the 10 top NBA players who do not like each other during the 2021-22 season.
Rajon Rondo & Chris Paul
One of the most talked-about hate-hate relationships in the league for years, it is clear as day that Rondo and CP3 can’t stand each other one bit. They have gotten into each other’s faces, being spat on “allegedly” and have even traded punches.
According to Tyronne Lue, the beef started back in 2008 while Team USA was being selected for the Beijing Olympics. Rondo had just won the NBA championship, while Paul had missed out on making it to the Playoffs. Still, it was CP3 who got selected in the team while Rondo wasn’t.
“Everyone wants to believe Chris Paul is a good guy. They don’t know he’s a horrible teammate. They don’t know how he treats people,” Rondo had addressed Paul’s character in an interview with ESPN back in 2018.
Russell Westbrook & Patrick Beverley
Beverley has made a lot of enemies over the years. While some feel he is only of the most battle-hardened players in the league, other critics feel he is just another dirty hustler who is trying to stay relevant in the basketball community by creating controversies. Russell Westbrook belongs to that second group of people.
The feud between the two can be traced back to the 2013 Western Conference Matchup between the Houston Rockets and The Oklahoma City Thunder. During Game 2, Westbrook, who was the OKC leader at the time, was approaching the sideline for a timeout when Beverley dived for the ball for a steal and ended up tossing Westbrook off his feet and in agonising pain.
Even though Westbrook managed to get the win that day, the MRI scans soon revealed that Beverley’s little “hard play” had caused his foe a torn meniscus. It took Westbrook three surgeries to get his knee fixed.
Rudy Gobert & Hassan Whiteside
Things between Whiteside and Gobert needed to be watered down after the former signed a contract with the Utah Jazz, a franchise where Gobert is an absolute star, ahead of the 2021-22 season. However, things were also so friendly between the two as they have shared a past of social media battles.
Back in 2016, Gobert had called Whiteside a stat padder and suggested that his quest for personal numbers didn’t necessarily translate into good things for his team. Later in 2019, when Damian Lillard had called his then-teammate Whiteside the “best defensive center In the league”, Gobert responded by saying “Tell his coach to put him in at the end of the game.”
However, now that the two giants are teammates, Whiteside has tried to quash down his beef with the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year: “There’s no rivalry or anything,” Whiteside said, via Ryan McDonald of DeseretNews. “We’re just competing. At the end of the day, I’m always happy to see a big man succeed in this league, especially somebody that blocks shots the same as I do. “There’s never been any rivalry. It’s been always just competing against each other, and we’re going to talk.”
Joel Embiid & Karl-Anthony Towns
Back when Ben Simmons wanted to be a part of the Philadelphia 76ers, one of the most memorable fights of 2019 saw Embiid and KAT getting into a big-men brawl in the middle of the court and Simmons eventually getting the Minnesota Timberwolves star in a chokehold.
The fight between the two was also seen online when Embiid had shared a picture of himself going for a lay-up against Towns with a peculiar dig at him in the caption.
“Euro stepping our way through Minnesota and we ended up raising the cat last night #TheProcess,” he wrote. Towns commented on his post. “That caption was as trash as your picture quality” to which Embiid replied: “Better quality than your defense.”
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