NBA History: 5 dirtiest players of the 21st century
The release of Netflix’s Untold: Malice at the Palace documentary early this month showed the ugly side of the NBA, with Metta Sandiford-Artest, aka Ron Artest at the center of the disgraceful incident.
Also formerly known as Metta World Peace, Artest may have had a change of heart towards the latter part of his career. But he is definitely in the running for one of the five dirtiest players of the 21st century. However, there are more.
Throughout NBA history, there have been many players who have done some of the foulest deeds in the game. These players would stop at nothing to win a basketball game even at the expense of an opponent’s well-being.
The dirtiest NBA players are also excellent defenders
What’s ironic about these so-called dirty, unscrupulous players is that they are also among the best in the game defensively. Interestingly enough, their sully reputation doesn’t diminish the effectiveness of their defense.
Sometimes, though, their activities on the court take away from the game, and hinders their team’s success. In fact, as successful as their teams have been, they have cost their teams an NBA championship or two in the process as well.
On that note, here's a look at the five dirtiest NBA players of the 21st century:
#5 Draymond Green
For some reason, Draymond Green ends up hitting opponents in the nuts with his extremities.
Draymond Green had previously targeted and hit Steven Adams in the groin area more than once. Plays such as these have resulted in Green earning a technical foul or suspension from the NBA office.
His most famous 'ball-hitting' incident may have been in Game 4 of the 2016 NBA Finals, when he hit LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the crown jewels. That earned him a suspension because of the accumulation of playoff technical fouls. As a result, Green was suspended for Game 5, and his Golden State Warriors team didn't win another game in that Finals series.
That completed the biggest collapse in NBA history, after the Warriors surrendered a 3-1 series lead, only to squander it. Thanks to Draymond Green’s dirty play, we’ll never know if the Warriors would have won Game 5 had he been on the court.
#4 Kevin Garnett
As good as Kevin Garnett was, he was also one of the NBA players who did some nasty stuff on the court.
The former Defensive Player of the Year knew how to intimidate and get in his opponents’ face. He did so by not just playing straight-up defense, but also by sneaking in an elbow or two to 'soften' up the competition.
One of the most notorious trash talkers during his heydays, Garnett made his opponents feel the difficulty of playing against him by setting screens that would cause many players to curl up and fall down in pain. Like Draymond Green, the Big Ticket was known to target an opposing player’s balls, too.
But his speciality was talking trash and letting opposing NBA players cringe at the foul words coming out of his mouth. Virtually nothing was sacred to Garnett, who intimidated opponents night in and night out with his words and actions at the same time.