In the NBA, when talking about the "Evil Ancestor" of hard fouls, one simply has to mention Bill Laimbeer.
His variety of petty moves made those who faced off against him utterly miserable.
But unlike those habitual offenders who came after him, his dirty tricks were blatant.
He made it clear to everyone that regardless of whether you were a "Superstar" or not, if you were matched up against me, I was going to take you down. All his sneaky moves were targeted to infuriate the opponent and then start a fight!
In his mind, fighting was more important than playing basketball.
If an opponent dared to complain about his moves, he wouldn't hesitate to strike.
This is not to say that such behavior should be encouraged.
But compared to those who frequently committed fouls later on and then posed as "pure gentlemen," a "true scoundrel" was much better.
Among these "gentlemen," the foremost were the Spurs' Bruce Bowen, and...
"The Chosen One" LeBron James!
