The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the word “villain” four different definitions: a character in a story or play who opposes the hero; a deliberate scoundrel or criminal; one blamed for a particular evil or difficulty; an uncouth person.
Having villains in sports is nothing new, they’ve always played a role in sports and will continue to do so. Unanimous villains can be harder to come by though. Let’s take Lebron James for example, who basketball fans seem to be very split on. Some fans will say he is the best thing about basketball and there is nothing wrong with him, others will criticize every little aspect of the man’s life. Both sides of this argument have good points, and both sides have clearly biased points.
The NBA playoffs are a time when people and fans will pay closer attention to what is going on in the game on a game by game level. With this new storylines are made, old stories are resurrected, and viewpoints on players can change.
I wanted to take a look at some of the standout villains from the first round of the NBA playoffs and before I jump in I want to remind everyone that being a villain is not always a bad thing. People LOVE a great villain. The first two examples that came to mind of recent villains who fans fell in love with were Heath Ledger’s Joker, and Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger. You can’t deny that these characters were the villains in their respective movies, but it is also hard to find people who don’t recognize them as the best character from their movie.
Russell Westbrook
Outside of one game, the Portland Trailblazers led by Damian Lillard had their way with Russ and the rest of the Thunder. You wouldn’t know this by the way Russ and the rest of his squad were acting. After losing the first two games they came back home and won game 3 in fashion and the whole team seemed to adopt Russ’ swagger.
They were chirping, talking trash, trying to show up everyone on the Blazers. They were mocking them and this wasn’t just when they won, but also when they were losing games in the series. These actions made a lot of people turn on Russ. Of course some of this is because it is easy to look at Dame and how he carries himself and get even more annoyed with Russ bobbing his head and talking trash after seemingly every shot that he made. He also did not help himself by “Next question’ing” the reporters during a post game press conference.
Russ has been a villain in the eyes of many for some time now, but even his biggest fans are starting to recognize that he may be the root of all his questions and problems.
Patrick Beverley
Mr. Beverley is the beloved villain. He was without a doubt a villain in the Warrior/Clippers series, but he didn’t lose fans like Russ did, but instead gained many fans because of his heart, passion, and ability to get under the skin of one of the league’s top Villains, Kevin Durant. Beverley along with his teammate, Lou Williams who is probably at the top of the good guys chart captivated fans as they stole 2 games from the almighty Warriors.
They never rolled over and gave everything they had and we as fans were very grateful of that. But Pat Beverley was annoying, he was a pest, he was a jerk, but that is who he is and people fell in love with him for that. After their game 6 loss he was asked “what more could you have done to slow Kevin (Durant) down?” Beverley responded by saying “What you think? You played basketball before?” then later said “It’s Kevin Durant, we didn’t roll over. If you was the coach what would you tell us to do?” His teammate chimed in by saying “we had several different coverages” and Beverley interrupts him saying “It didn’t work!” Beverley was a smart ass, but not in a harmful way.
He concluded his part by saying “If that answers your question” then “next question” which is assumed to be a jab taken at Russell Westbrook. Beverley played the perfect villain to try and get inside KD’s head and it worked until KD remembered he was KD.
Jared Dudley
Dudley was the bully villain and he made people who had no real rooting interest in the Sixers/Nets series tune into what was going on. The series ended 4-1 so on paper it didn’t look that fun, but in reality it was a very entertaining 5 game series even though it was not as close as it felt like.
Dudley made comment about Ben Simmons saying he was a great player in transition, but an average player in the half court game. This set Sixer fans off and they did not forget about those comments as Simmons went on to have a great rest of the series. Simmons responded by saying “its coming from Jared Dudley, c’mon.” Dudley in game 3 airballed a 3 and Ben Simmons reacted by just turning around looking towards with his arms spread wide. Dudley took notice of this and in game 4 he came back and hit that same shot and responded by mimicking the same pose Simmons ahd the prior game.
Later on in game 4 Joel Embiid fouled Jarrett Allen and from behind it did look much worse than it actually was and Dudley did not take kindly to that. He came out of nowhere and just shoved Embiid in the back a couple seconds after the foul had occurred. Embiid did not react much, but Sixers teammate Jimmy Butler came in and shoved Dudley which led to the start of a pushing and shoving match that ended up in the crowd and Dudley grabbed Simmons and brought him down with him. Dudley and Butler were ejected from the game and Dudley was pegged as the man who started it all. Dudley knew he was just some average role player and at that point maybe his greatest strength to a playoff team is to start stuff with other players and just try to get under the skin of the other team.
Dudley has been the biggest villain of the NBA playoffs so far because this was the first time people have talekd about him since he undeservingly won the ACC POY award in 2007.