Don’t Hate The Game, Hate The Player: The Most Hated Athletes Of All Time

Kobe Bryant

Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images

Kobe “Bean” Bryant or “the Black Mamba” is arguably the best basketball player since Michael Jordan but that doesn’t stop the hate. The year that Bryant retired from the NBA, Nike put together a commercial of fans, players and coaches expressing their hate towards him in musical form, as Bryant played the role of the conductor.

Just to give you an idea of how much the basketball guru is hated, people in the commercial were singing, “I’ve been hating you too long to stop now.” The breakthrough that really turned folks against him was when he drove Shaquille O’Neal out of Los Angeles after winning three of four trips to the finals. And who can forget his case in Colorado from 2003? He was dismissed from the sexual assault charge but did confess to cheating on his wife.

If you think these guys are hated, keep going and you’ll find out who is really despised.