Who was the biggest prick athlete you ever encountered in person?

[JohnnyB]

A**holes: Bob Uecker

Would love to hear the story behind this. I've never met him, but he comes across as a very down to earth, nice grandfatherly type figure on the radio, who'd talk baseball with anyone. Of course the way people act on the radio and the way they act in real life are completely different, but that really suprises me.

:Sad Face:

 

[stump]

Nicest - believe it or not O J Simpson and George Foreman, and John Daly

Dirtbag - rocket ismail,

 

[VIEJODINOSAUR]

Just about any NBA player under 23 years of age....classless and they figure the NBA already owes them...

 

[SkinsRaj28]

Funny this thread got bumped...

I actually met Sean Salisbury at the airport a few weeks ago. Dude was standing near this trash right right outside the gate for his flight, eating a burger...I walked up to him and said hey, we talked for a little while. He was really nice, and actually thanked me for coming up to him and saying something, said he appreciated it. Class act, as far as I could tell.

Good thing I didn't tell him that half the time I think he's a fucking retard. hahaha

 

[da1prophet]

Have had the privilege to come across many boxers in my work and have some thoughts:


Butterbean was the biggest prick I ever encountered. He thought I'd kiss his ass and give him whatever he wanted. Actually almost came to blows with him when I told him "you better calm down or I'll get Mitchell Rose over here".

I've actually heard this from a number of people--you think from his attitude that he was a real boxer or something instead of the sideshow freak/train wreck that he is. I've disliked him ever since I read a few of his interviews--you'd think that he'd be thankful that he's able to pull a paycheck from boxing but guess again: he went on and on about how he would have destroyed every heavyweight champion from Joe Louis through Lennox Lewis, but they were all afraid to fight him because they couldn't deal with his ungodly power. I wrote an article at the time that Butterbean had no business even *thinking* that he even deserved to be in the same ring as legitimate heavyweight champions.

I have no clue why the PRIDE MMA organization defiled their otherwise excellent show in Las Vegas this past weekend by putting "The Bean" on the event. He was originally supposed to fight Mark Hunt in a MMA fight, but the Nevada Commission wouldn't sanction it for fear that Butterbean would get beat down too bad. It was then supposed to be held under boxing rules, but Hunt had some visa issues so Butterbean fought a former pro wrestler instead. He beat the guy by KO, and no one cared. He's a bigger farce as a MMA fighter than he was as a boxer.....

 

[da1prophet]

Would love to hear the story behind this. I've never met him, but he comes across as a very down to earth, nice grandfatherly type figure on the radio, who'd talk baseball with anyone. Of course the way people act on the radio and the way they act in real life are completely different, but that really suprises me.

:Sad Face:

I've actually got a Bob Uecker story--back when I was 19 or 20 I was living in Washington, DC for a summer with my girlfriend at the time. I had some internship during the day and picked up a little extra money at night by working in the suit department at Lord and Taylor. So I'm there one night and here comes "Mr. Baseball" and a woman that I presumed to be his wife. He's flapping around and waving his arms looking borderline hysterical. Before I could approach him with my usual "Can I help you?" speil Uecker turns to me red faced and asks "Do you have any suits here that don't look like sh*t?" I deadpanned with "No, sir, I'm afraid we don't" and he stomps out swearing under his breath with his female in tow.

Classiest athletes--George Foreman, Greg Maddux, Jeff Hornacek were all just incredibly cool. Former Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton is incredibly down to earth. Probably the biggest stars I ever met were Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from KISS (who were really cool to me too) and Robert Redford (also cool).

I knew a lot of people in Salt Lake who had stories about what a big prick Hot Rod Hundley is, and here in Columbia everyone has stories about our local "legend" George Rogers who's often seen trying to extort $10 out of people for cellphone camera pictures...

 

[da1prophet]

Jerks: Top the List with Barry Bonds, Matt Williams, Tony Gwynn,Charles Barkley,Wilt Chamberlain, Just a few to the Biggest.

Nice Guys:Clyde Drexler,Shaq,Believe it or not Allen Iverson. Most Football Players our pretty nice. Baseball player a few A Shane Reynolds,Alex Rodriguez,Derek Jeter.

Think their sh*t don't stink #1 Pete Rose,#2 Pete Rose,Charles Barkey.

Worst tippers Anyone playing the MLB.

Best Tippers Robert Horry and most Basketball Player.

This could go on for hours so I will stop with just a small sampling.

Drexler was a class act. My ex-wife and I lived in Portland while she was in culinary school and she worked at a restaurant frequented by Jerome Kersey. He was always really sweet, tipped well and once he found out that I was a big hoops fan was always hooking me up with Blazer ducats. He was just totally cool--he actually approached my ex-wife and asked her if she thought that I'd like some free tickets to see the Blazers. This was back in the day when they were still playing in Memorial Coluseum and you flat out couldn't get tickets anywhere. After that any time he'd come in he'd tip really well and leave tickets for me. This was really impressive IMO. Kinda ironic thinking about the "JailBlazers" of recent vintage but most of the Drexler/Porter era players were cool when you encountered them out and about...

 

[quantumleap]

Troy Aikman, a few years back at the SB in San Diego he was walking out of the hotel in back, no one else around, i see this kid about 12 try to get an autograph, Aikman didnt even look at him. @sshole!!
George the Boomer Scott was super nice and no one could top Steve Young.
Billy Sample is great as well.

I used to work at the Ping golf club plant in Phoenix. We would get golf celebrities in their all the time. I was giving this teenage kid a tour of the place and we heard that Jim McMahon was onsite. This was in the late 80's shortly after he retired. The kid wanted to get his autograph so we went over to the building where McMahon was.

The kid asked him for an autograph and McMahon had a sour look on his face the whole time. He just shoved the paper back without even looking at the kid.

Fuck you Jim McMahon.

 

[da1prophet]

Jerks: Mike Greenwell and Chad Durbin
Nice" Reggie Jackson, David Cone, Ozzie Smith, Clemens
Unbelievable Great guys: Deion, David Wells, Matt Kinney, Jim Thorpe (old black golfer), Matt Geiger

I've heard nothing but good stuff about Reggie Jackson, whom you'd think from his "persona" would be a prick. Ozzie Smith, meanwhile, is just as much of a class act as you'd have thought based on the way he played the game.

 

[Railbird]

Was at the Great Western Forum parking lot 1991 waiting for Laker Playoff tickets to go on sale about 7am, to kill time was throwing football around in the parking lot, freind over threw pass and ball hit a sports car with guy getting out of it, was Jerry West. Jerry laughed it off and joined us playing catch with football, he ended up throwing us post patterns for about 20 minutes. very cool guy.

Someone I know who is not nice to public, that would be Lindsay Davenport she is very snoody unless you are a little girl or something.

 

[CSFBB]

Great: Nomar, Frank Thomas, Steve Yzerman, Rob Blake, Bryan Berard, Darren McCarty, Charles Barkley, Oscar de la Hoya, Chris Chelios, Darryl Strawberry (1985-Mets), Allen Iverson and Rod Smith

Worst Ever: Chris Pronger, worst encounter with any athlete ever

CSFBB

 

[PatrickMcIrish]

Those talking about Sapp are right on, I think he's a real prick and I liked him as a player. I went to a Devil Rays game once and he sat right in front of me. I never even made a move to talk to him, frankly I wasn't interested in anything he had to say. As the game wore on kids would come down though, each time the kid would ask (always politely) for an autograph and Sapp would stare straight ahead like he didn't hear them. They ask again, and Sapp would refuse to even turn his head to even acknowledge their existance. He did this every time until the kids would eventually walk ago, then he would exchange a round of high 5's to his crew like he had done something to be proud of. Just a real asshole, I guess you had to see it to get the full intent of what a jerk he was being.

 

[PatrickMcIrish]

As for other local athletes I've met I don't have a bad opinion on any of them, most went beyond cool though I never try to get an autograph from them. Even Wade Boggs that some people think is an asshole went out of the way to be a helluva nice guy with us. Same with David Magadon, McGriff, Alstott, Lecavalier, Derrick Brooks and a lot more.

Oh one other jerk, I almost got in a fight with Chris Gratton when he played for Tampa a few years back. Ran into him at a downtown bar and he was a total ass, he might have been drunk though. He walked up to me and said you look like the biggest guy in here, you want your ass kicked? LOL.

Fortunately for both of us his buddies got between us once I stood up. The other two were also puck players, if I think long enough I will remember the scrubs name as well.


:lolBIG: :lolBIG:

 

[Fishhead]

Those talking about Sapp are right on, I think he's a real prick and I liked him as a player. I went to a Devil Rays game once and he sat right in front of me. I never even made a move to talk to him, frankly I wasn't interested in anything he had to say. As the game wore on kids would come down though, each time the kid would ask (always politely) for an autograph and Sapp would stare straight ahead like he didn't hear them. They ask again, and Sapp would refuse to even turn his head to even acknowledge their existance. He did this every time until the kids would eventually walk ago, then he would exchange a round of high 5's to his crew like he had done something to be proud of. Just a real asshole, I guess you had to see it to get the full intent of what a jerk he was being.

His acts of unkindness are legendary in the Tampa area.......as you well know.

 

[REDEYE]

Lee Trevino basically was a asshole. Was watching a senior tournament in Maui a few years ago. and he wasn't pleasant to be around to say the least. To bad he wasn't paired up with Arnie that day and he would have found out what class is all about.

 

[Fishhead]

Lee Trevino basically was a asshole. Was watching a senior tournament in Maui a few years ago. and he wasn't pleasant to be around to say the least. To bad he wasn't paired up with Arnie that day and he would have found out what class is all about.

Wow, been to a few senior events myself and got the same impression from Lee.

Interesting.

Definetly a lot different than his persona on TV.

 

[RobFunk]

Wayne Gretzky, as kids we used to go to the Oilers practices and watched them. He would never give away his stick or rarely sign an autograph.

Once however, he was the last one on the ice so I figured I would again ask him for his hockey stick, he said "yes". So I waited patiently, he kept taking slapshots until his stick was completely shattered in pieces. As he was going off the ice he handed me his stick, I told him to **** off.

He may be the best hockey player ever but is a complete jerkoff.

This story just might take the cake. My goodness, that is awful.

 

[savannahslim]

yeah, ol' Lee Buck could be a big jerk, but some of the funniest stuff was between him and his caddy Herman.

One of the nicest guys was Larry Mize. (won masters in 87)

and lastly the one 'nice guy' that I didn't see mentioned in here that I doubt anyone can say anything bad about is NBA player David Robinson.

 

[THEPOSTMAN!]

Jaime Foxx and Shane Mosley are great guys took pictures w/ the family one year, we were all in Vegas.

Most of the Redskins are pretty nice, had breakfast at a Marriott in Greenbelt MD last year the morning they smashed the NY Giants. Most took pictures w/the kids and signed autographs.

 

[WVU]

I might rather keep a shattered gretzky hockey stick than a complete one. You wouldn't want to use it anyway.