The most ridiculous feuds in NBA history

The NBA is full of talent, and ego. And when egos clash it can lead to some pretty spectacular bust ups.

NBA Fued

There’s no doubt the biggest NBA superstars have a healthy ego. And when that clashes with another the results are spectacular.

GOLDEN State Warriors fans have been holding their breath for much of this season. The club has had an enviable run in recent years: right now they’re chasing their fourth title in five years.

Like many dynasties it’s been built on the back of a group of superstars lead by Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. They’ve been supported by some huge names in their own right, including Draymond Green.

But one locker room isn’t much space for all those superstars and their egos.

And that ego clash spilt over on court recently, with disastrous results.

When Green refused to pass the ball to Durant in the dying seconds of regulation play, his teammates were furious.

The bust up was caught on camera, and Green ended up suspended by the club “for conduct detrimental to the team.” What hurt most was Green’s comment to soon-to-be free agent Durant “We don’t need you. We won without you.”

Whether Durant leaves the club at the end of the season remains to be seen, but it’s not the first time two supersized egos of the NBA have clashed.

One of the most famous ongoing feuds in recent years was between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

At the centre of it, workhorse Kobe was convinced superstar Shaq was lazy. He often appeared overweight and struggled to run through a match, especially in the early part of the season. In 2002 he actually chose to have an operation on his foot during pre season rather than the off season as he claimed “I got hurt on company time, I’ll rehab on company time.”  For his part, Shaq was furious at Kobe for hogging the ball and trying to position himself as the #1 player in the Lakers, even though Shaq had lead the team for years. Despite their differences, they were the players that lead the LA Lakers to their championship dynasty - winning championships for three years running.

Perhaps the biggest name in basketball of all time is Michael Jordan. For years millions of kids around the world ran around in a red Chicago shirt with number 23 on the back. While the superstar had many beefs in his career, the biggest was no doubt his ongoing feud with the Bulls’ manager Jerry Krause. It stemmed from Krause’s refusal to allow Jordan to help him draft other players and it simmered along for years. GM Krause had helped build the club up through its incredible dynasty - winning 6 championships in the 1990s. But by the latter years of that decade Michael Jordan could no longer cop Krause’s actions: When the GM announced he was removing head coach Phil Jackson at the end of the 1998 season (which the Bulls won), Jordan walked too. While officially they both ‘retired’, they made comebacks in later years.

Another superstar player to have a long running beef with an off-court official is LeBron James. His conflict with Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert blew up in spectacular fashion in 2010, when Gilbert published an angry 427 word rant about LeBron when the multiple MVP award-winner walked out of the club as a free agent.

The bizarre letter was posted on the club’s website and gave a personal guarantee that Cleveland would win a title before LeBron did. That didn’t eventuate - LeBron won in 2012 with the Miami Heat, and Cleveland didn’t win until 2016, when LeBron was back playing for them.

Gilbert wrote “Some people think they should go to heaven, but not have to die to get there”, before calling LeBron’s departure a “cowardly betrayal.”

Ultimately James returned to his home town of Cleveland for a couple more seasons (and helped them break their championship drought in 2016), but earlier this year he again left the club (still owned by Gilbert) to play for the LA Lakers.

Perhaps the most bizarre beef between two NBA superstars was the ongoing feud between Dennis Rodman and Karl Malone.

Rodman was a showman, one of the superstars during Chicago’s incredible 90s run of championships. Karl Malone was Utah Jazz’s power forward and was constantly in battle with Rodman each time they played.

While their on court battles were followed closely by fans, it was what spilled off court that got the most attention.

About a month after the NBA finals series in 1998 a battle of a different kind garnered attention. It probably would have gone viral if ‘going viral’ in 1998 was a thing.

Two of basketball’s biggest stars had stepped off the court and into a wrestling ring. And not just any ring either - they were tag teaming for Hulk Hogan and Diamond Dallas Page in the WCW (now the WWE).

What is truly remarkable about this match is that it was actually filmed in the middle of the finals season - when Rodman’s Bulls were up against Karl Malone’s Jazz.

Rodman had flown out to film the match and missed a training session in the middle of the finals to play his part in the pay-per-view event.

When it finally screened in July, the ‘feud’ between Rodman and Malone was depicted as ‘The Bash at the Beach’ in San Diego, with Rodman and Malone pulling out some crazy wrestling moves. Like on the court, Rodman came out the ‘winner’: his tag-team effort with Hulk Hogan taking 23 minutes of antics to defeat Page and Karl Malone.