First Order: The 3 most hated stars in the NBA
The NBA is a star-driven league, but not all of its stars are universally loved. These three individuals make up the NBA's First Order of bad guys as the league's most hated stars.
LeBron James
The man's won four MVP awards, a scoring title, been on the All-NBA First Team nine times, and appeared in the NBA Finals in five consecutive seasons. But it's still not enough. It will never be enough.
Since his days of throwing down at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, LeBron's drawn comparisons to Michael Jordan, and the comparisons have followed him throughout his career. Anytime he makes even the slightest misstep, it's instant fodder for sports talk shows across the country.
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And who doesn't remember The Decision? Sure, the blame for that catastrophe belongs on the people around LeBron, but he was still the one in front of the camera taking questions from Jim Gray.
His return to Cleveland has done some good for his image, but LeBron will never be able to evade the unfavorable comparisons to MJ, and so he'll never be accepted as the transcendent talent that he is.
Chris Paul
Star or not, Paul may be the single most hated player in basketball. The Clippers roster alone could have been used to populate this list, but Paul gets the nod as the ringleader of that circus.
That's not to speak to Paul's ability as a player, but he flops, instigates dirty plays, and whines to the officials all too regularly. On a team short on depth, his antics nearly forced the third banana in the Clippers' big three, DeAndre Jordan, out of town this past offseason.
Players that go all out for the win aren't often criticized for doing so, but Paul crosses the line with such regularity that his list of friends in the league is dwindling fast.
Dwight Howard
The No. 1 overall pick in 2004, Howard entered the league with a lot of promise. But he hasn't shown the desire to win that other elite players have, instead, doing his best work in the Slam Dunk contest.
It's also difficult to ignore the path of destruction he's left behind him as he's marched through the league. He was the architect of Stan Van Gundy's demise in Orlando, then left shortly thereafter for a one-year stint in Los Angeles, only to seemingly not give it his all as a Laker.
Howard's flown under the radar to a certain extent during his time in Houston, but his troubles resurfaced during the team's early season slump. He'll go down as a player that was never able to live up to his potential.