The most infamous breakups in sports

Magic Johnson is not afraid to speak his mind. The Lakers probably wish their franchise legend would be a little less forthright. It was bad enough when Magic decided to resign from his job in L.A.’s front office in a lengthy talk with the media before telling anybody with the team. Then he went a step further by going on ESPN and calling Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka a “backstabber.”

Roy won two Cups with the Montreal Canadiens, but he and head coach Mario Tremblay didn’t get along. This came to a head when Tremblay didn’t pull the netminder from a game until he had allowed nine goals. Roy was understandably furious and told the Canadiens president that it was his last game with the team. That turned out to be true. Roy basically forced a trade to the Colorado Avalanche and immediately won another Stanley Cup.

Great receivers don’t tend to get traded unless they leave a team with no choice. That certainly became the case for the Pittsburgh Steelers when Brown made it clear he did not want to stick around. Seriously. He talked about wanting to be traded seemingly all the time. He talked trash about the organization, about quarterback Ben Roethlisberger — you name it. The squeaky wheel got the grease, though, as Pittsburgh bit the bullet and traded Brown to Oakland. Pittsburgh came out of this looking pretty good, though, given the professional and personal issues for Brown since.

These days we know how serious concussions are. Frankly, we had a sense back in the ‘90s, but sports tried to push it under the rug in the name of “toughness.” Unfortunately that made Eric Lindros a more polarizing figure than necessary. Lindros and Flyers general manager Bobby Clarke took their feud into the media fairly often. Clarke would question Lindros for not playing through his numerous concussions. One time Lindros literally almost died due to a collapsed lung, and he would have if team orders had been followed and Lindros had been put on a plane back to Philly. Eventually Lindros was traded to the Rangers, but the bad blood lasted with Philly for a while longer.

Which Shaquille breakup should we talk about? The one when he left the Magic and trash-talked Penny Hardaway? The one when he left the Lakers and went after Kobe, Phil Jackson and the organization? Shaq has giant feet, and he seems to have an issue with keeping them out of his mouth whenever he decides he wants to move on, an event that happened unusually often for such a talented player.

Barber was the focal point of the Giants offense for several years, but he decided the time had come to hang up his shoes so that he could work in the media. Of course, while in said media he was happy to talk about his old team, often critically. That includes shots at Eli Manning. This rubbed a lot of Giants fans and players the wrong way, so it was awkward for everybody involved when the Giants won the Super Bowl the year after Barber retired, and he was there to cover it as a member of the media.

The stars of the Boston Celtics title-winning team of 2008 tended to get along well — Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and the rest of the gang. That is, except for Ray Allen. Allen became a bit of a pariah with his old teammates after he decided to shun an offer from the Celtics to join LeBron and the Miami Heat. It got Allen another title and a lot of bad beef with Garnett, who isn’t the easiest guy to get along with.

Kinsler was a fixture for the Rangers for many years, and he seemed pretty peeved when he got traded — as in, when Texas dealt him to Detroit, Kinsler went as far as to call Rangers GM Jon Daniels a “sleazeball.” He also said that he hoped the Rangers would go winless.

The Cavaliers had a good thing going. They had LeBron, Kevin Love and Kyrie, a trio that helped them to a title for Cleveland. However, Irving wanted more than that, which led to him ditching Cleveland for Boston. Kyrie is also never a guy who is shy about speaking his mind, so we got to hear a lot from him about the decision, and also from LeBron, who didn’t seem too happy about things. Irving has since expressed some remorse for not “understanding” where James was coming from, but the situation is still frosty. Kyrie then had issues in Boston as well, and is now with the Nets.

Speaking of frosty relationships between old teammates, there's Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. When Durant decided to leave Oklahoma City for the Warriors, it upset…seemingly everybody and not just Thunder fans, but fans of the league as a whole who feared a juggernaut in Golden State. The guy who seemed most peeved, though, was Westbrook, which led to the two trading barbs for a while. Sometimes cupcakes were involved. KD won a couple of titles with the Warriors before moving on yet again, this time to the Nets.

Kiffin has had a couple of ugly breakups. At USC he got the worst of it, as he was reportedly fired at the airport after a loss. However, the situation in Tennessee was much uglier. Kiffin was there for only one season and when he left for the Trojans, fans didn’t take it well even by college sports standards. Students rioted, and fires were started around the stadium.

Al Davis and Marcus Allen were one of those breakups that just needed to happen. A contract dispute destroyed their relationship. Davis called Allen a cancer. Allen accused Davis of trying to ruin his career. Finally, after a few years of this, Allen got out and headed for Kansas City.

The relationship between Smith and the Carolina Panthers seems to have already cooled a bit, but Smith is a guy known for his fiery personality and temper. After the Panthers decided to release their franchise’s all-time best receiver, Smith had a warning if he ever faced off with his old team again, saying simply, “put your goggles on ‘cause there’s going to be blood and guts everywhere.”

Owens had problems in San Francisco, which led to him ending up in Philly. There he talked trash about Donovan McNabb, got suspended for it and ended up being released unceremoniously. Then he landed in Dallas. When the Cowboys released him, TO said he was blindsided. Of course, he’s talked some trash about Tony Romo as well. Basically, wherever Owens went, nasty breakups seemed to follow.

You can forgive Stanton for wanting to get out of Miami. Who wants to be a Marlin, given that the second you show promise you wind up traded? The big slugger was one of those players, and in an Instagram post when he left the Marlins he let his frustrations be known. After telling the fans of Miami that he felt for them, he took a shot at the “unprofessional, circus times” he experienced in Florida.

Roy Keane would eventually return to playing for the Irish national team, but this one still belongs because the hard-charging soccer player absolutely scorched the earth when he split with the team briefly. In short, Keane hated Ireland’s manager Mick McCarthy. During the 2002 World Cup, there were a lot of issues that came to a head when Keane absolutely let loose on his manager during an argument about an interview Keane had done slagging off McCarthy. We can’t really quote it here because it’d be mostly censored, but you can find it online if you want.

Sometimes actions speak louder than words. It was largely believed that Thomas was in his final season with the Seahawks in 2018. Unfortunately, that season ended early when Thomas broke his leg. As he was being carted off the field, Thomas turned to Seattle’s sideline and simply flipped it off. He’s now a Raven and has recently made the news after his wife confronted him with a gun.

“The Decision” may have led to the ugliest breakup in sports. LeBron, for his part, seemed pretty guileless when choosing the Heat as his new team in a televised event. However, Cleveland fans flipped out, burning jerseys and turning LeBron into a pariah in his hometown. The pinnacle of the bad vibes, though, came when Cavs owner Dan Gilbert wrote an angry letter, in Comic Sans, vowing the Cavs would win a title before LeBron won one in Miami. That proved incorrect.

We could talk about Howard’s time with the Hawks, which reportedly ended with his former teammates cheering in the locker room at the news that Dwight was gone. That being said, we’ve got to focus on the end of his time in Orlando. You surely remember the immensely awkward press scrum where Stan Van Gundy said to reporters that he had been told that Howard wanted him fired. An oblivious Howard then showed up to put his arm around SVG like nothing had happened. Van Gundy would be fired to appease Howard, who would then refuse to re-sign with the Magic and got traded to the Lakers.

Vince Carter helped put Toronto basketball on the map. The sport failed in Vancouver, and it may have failed in Toronto as well if not for Vinsanity. However, Carter grew tired of being with the Raptors, and he basically forced his way into a trade by loafing through games. Vince has not really denied that he stopped giving it his all. It got him traded to the Nets and infuriated Raptors fans for years. Only now, as Carter has become an elder statesman, have cooler heads prevailed.

When Pujols left the Cardinals for the Angels, he didn’t say much. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, his wife, Deidre, had plenty to say. She went on a radio station to say that her husband had been offered a five-year, $130-million deal that was an “insult.” Mrs. Pujols also said she was “mad at God” about the Cardinals’ offer. Lots of players end up mad at their old teams. Few also save some of their anger for God.

How many bad sports breakups become the focal point of a movie? Brian Clough’s tumultuously time with Leeds United got that treatment in “The Damned United.” Michael Sheen starred as Clough, so you know it was a meaty story! Clough was considered one of the best — perhaps the best — managers in England. Leeds was an elite team in the ‘70s. The only problem? Clough hated Leeds United and talked endlessly about their dirty, cheating style of play. He reportedly told his players when he arrived to get rid of the medals and trophies they won because they hadn’t been won fairly. Shockingly, his players came to hate him pretty quickly. Clough was fired after only 44 days as manager.

Manny danced to the beat of his own drum. Since he was a fantastic hitter, though, he mostly got away with it. The end of his time in Boston got pretty ugly, and not just because he pushed a 64-year-old man to the ground in a dispute over tickets. Mostly things came to a head when Manny refused to play in a game, citing a knee issue, though no signs of an injury were found in MRIs. When he started playing again, he loafed a bit, especially on running out ground balls. Nothing makes a certain kind of baseball fan angrier than when a player won’t run out grounders. Amid calls for Manny to be traded he was dealt to the Dodgers, and suddenly Ramirez looked like his old self.

Sometimes the hardest part of a breakup is moving out. The Colts handled that part by doing it under the cover of night and not telling their former city that they were doing it. The team was moving from Baltimore to Indianapolis, which obviously did not sit well with Baltimore fans. Things got even uglier when moving trucks showed up one night; when fans woke up in the morning the team was gone. Fortunately, Baltimore got a happy ending, thanks to the Ravens. Of course, that involved the Browns leaving Cleveland to move to Baltimore, which was a huge mess of its own.

Pronger was an Oiler for only one season, but what a season it was. The defenseman was still in his prime, and he helped carry Edmonton to a surprise run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006. The honeymoon was brief though. That offseason, Pronger asked for a trade for what the team called “personal reasons.” The rumor was that Pronger and his wife weren’t happy in Edmonton, and the fact they ended up in Anaheim certainly makes it seem like weather may have been a factor. While most of us can understand preferring Southern California to Alberta, it still made Pronger an unwelcome figure in Edmonton after that.