#CavsRank Villains: 9-8, Pebbles and the Baddest Bad Boy

Every great rivalry has its infamous goons. Today, we celebrate denigrate, two of the all time thugs/instigators/enforcers/jerks in Cavs history. There may be bigger villains on this countdown, just for what they’ve done to the Cavs’ hopes and dreams, but nobody was more dirty, despicable, infuriating, whiny, smug, and hateable than these two.

9. Joakim Noah

(By EvilGenius) What’s so great about Joakim Noah?

The answer is, not much, unless you’re into ridiculously long frizzy top-knots, patchy growths of facial pube-hair, Strahan-level gap tooth, whiny expressions, endless streams of obscenity-laced complaints and a shooting style that’s possibly even uglier than its owner. Noah has a face only a mother could love (which is ironic since his mother is a former Miss Sweden), and a player only a Bulls fan could love, all rolled up into one annoying package. Whether you refer to him as “Joke-kim,” “Jerk-him” or (my all-time personal favorite) “Pebbles,” there’s no question Noah deserved to be called a villain, not only of LeBron and the Cavaliers, but also of the entire city of Cleveland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN0WqSeCKW8

In his infamous anti-tourism rant against the ‘Land after Game 2 of the first round playoff series between the Cavs and Bulls in 2010, Pebbles reflected on his comments from a trip to Cleveland earlier in the year and made it clear it was not his preferred vacation destination. Maybe it was because he was used to the warm Florida weather from his days as a national champion with the Gators. Or maybe it was because he grew up in New York and traveled extensively with his worldly parents (his dad is former tennis star Yannick Noah — you can see where Pebbles got his expressions). Or maybe, since he couldn’t find a way to beat LeBron James and the Cavaliers on the court, he felt the need to disparage Cleveland off of it.

Though he may have been successful in both coining a new soundbite insult for the media to use against Cleveland, and getting under the skin of LeBron James from time to time, Noah and his Bulls teams were decidedly less successful in actually beating the Cavs. His first real foray into conflict with the King was in Cleveland in December of 2009. With his team already down by almost 20 points, Pebbles took exception to LeBron and the Cavs habits of dancing on the sidelines during timeouts and sometimes in between plays. Here, he finally has had enough and starts jawing at LeBron while King James was attempting a pair of free throws.

Things got heated…

The Cavs beat the Bulls soundly that game, 101-87, and Pebbles was mostly horrible with seven points (on 2-7 shooting) and 10 boards. However, Noah did step his game up for the first round playoff series that year, as the upstart 8th seed Bulls took on the 66-win juggernaut, number one seeded Cavs. He averaged 14.8 points (on 52% shooting) along with 13.0 rebounds, including a 21 p0int and 20 rebound effort in a Game 4 loss. The Cavs went on to easily dispatch the Bulls in five games, yet fans got the sense that this would not be the last they’d see of Noah and the Bulls in the playoffs.

Sadly, with LeBron’s departure in the summer of 2010, much of the rivalry with Noah followed him to South Beach. Oh sure, Noah still made the occasional negative remark about coming to Cleveland, but even those retorts seemed muted with the Cavs mired in the basement of the division and conference. During the dark times, the Bulls ran roughshod over the Cavs, winning 14 of 16 games in the four years that LeBron spent in Miami. But Noah kept his feud with the King hot, especially in his playoff tangles with the Heat. Twice the Bulls were banished from the playoffs by the Heat (in the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals and the 2013 Conference Semi-Finals), going down 4-1 on each occasion. The 2011 may have been the one time that Cavs fans actually could stomach rooting for Pebbles and the Bulls, especially after Noah called the Heat “Hollywood as hell…”

But with the return of LeBron last season, came a renewed rivalry between the Cavs and Bulls. Noah wasn’t much of a factor in the first two contests (missing the second with a sprained ankle), but he went for 10 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists in a Bulls victory just prior to the All-Star break to hand the Cavs just their second loss in the previous 16 games. Then, things got testy in the running feud between Noah and LeBron in the fourth game. James was called for a flagrant foul early in the game, and then he was on the receiving end of a hard foul by Pebbles. The two exchanged words in what would wind up being a playoff preview.

“It would be great to play them in the playoffs,” Noah said after the game. “That would be very, very exciting. That’s something I really hope happens.”

Pebbles got his wish in the second round of the 2015 playoffs, with Noah claiming he was actually excited to come back to Cleveland, relishing the opportunity for himself and the Bulls to put the Cavs in their place. Unfortunately, for Noah and the Bulls, he should have been more careful about what he wished for. Though Chicago kept things tight for the first four games (winning Game 1 in Cleveland and Game 3 on a buzzer-beater from Derrick Rose), the Cavs broke their hearts in Game 4 (with a LeBron buzzer-beater of his own) and swept the final three games to win the series 4-2. Pebbles, suffering through nagging injuries for most of the season, managed only 5.0 points per game and 10.3 rebounds. His shot looked uglier and more broken than ever, as he threw up wild caroms at the backboard and prayed for them to somehow bank in.

But even though his game was off, his mouth was still on. In fact, after this posterization and heated exchange with King James in Game 3, LeBron claimed it was because Noah crossed a line in his trash talk.

“I’m a father with three kids. It got very disrespectful,” James said. “I’m OK with competing against Jo. I love the competitive nature, but we should leave it there. The disrespectful words that he said to me were uncalled for.”

Maybe Noah was particularly salty for this game, since during halftime of Game 2 he reportedly got a “dip-spit shower” from a Cavs fan, who he then either punched or pushed (depending on how you view it), resulting in a $25K fine for Pebbles.

We can only assume that with the Cavs and Bulls both amongst the Eastern Conference elite for the foreseeable future, that there will be many more clashes with Joakim Noah to come. But as long as LeBron wears the wine and gold, the chances of Pebbles becoming anything more villainous than a sore loser who derides the city of Cleveland, seem a lot slimmer than the gap between his two front teeth…

8. Rick Mahorn

(By Tom Pestak) Every league has enforcers.  Heck, most teams employ an enforcer (I see you Perk).  But there aren’t many professional players known exclusively for their role as an enforcer.  There are some, but not many.  Rick Mahorn may be the only 18-year NBA veteran known exclusively for his presence as an enforcer.  In those 18 seasons, Mahorn averaged 6.9 points, 6.2 boards, and less than a block a game as a 6’10” power forward.  Those are below-replacement-level box score stats, and yet Mahorn played until he was 40.  It’s hard to know how much Mahorn and the “Bad Boy” Pistons altered the NBA landscape.  They garnered the league’s attention with their overly physical beatings of anyone they couldn’t stop the traditional way.  At some point the NBA stepped in to protect its greatest asset, His Airness, and thus the game is officiated much differently today for wing players.  If you do a little digging, you’ll find that Mahorn had quite a reputation around the league for over-the-top physical play.  You’ll also find a few sympathizers.  Here’s Larry Bird contrasting “Ricky” Mahorn and Bill Laimbeer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLMYNxW6Mqs#t=2m32s

Fair enough.  The problem with resorting to overly physical tactics to send a message is that you can really mess up an unsuspecting victim.  Mahorn would have you believe that he needed to be physical to hold his own against the behemoths of the league in the late 80s/90s.  Of course he’s right, and had “Ricky” Mahorn fought in the trenches for the Cavaliers, he might today be held as high as Big Z’s jersey.  But he played for the Pistons, who developed quite a rivalry with the talented, balanced, and fluid Cavaliers of the late 80s/early 90s.  But for that alone this list he does not make.  Rather, it’s for the fierce elbow that he used to concuss an unsuspecting Mark Price that Cavs fans will forever curse his name.  Mahorn claims he had nothing against Mark Price:

I don’t see how he could have had a concussion. I barely brushed him. In the hole that would be considered a love tap. Hey, I don’t have anything against Price. [Sports Illustrated]

No one had anything against Mark Price.  He had the unassuming manners of a choir boy and an awful lot of respect around the association.  One can imagine Michael Jordan saying “Mark Price doesn’t use curse words” with a head nod and a slightly protruding lower lip, thinking about the curse words he used every time Price splashed a triple.  Mahorn brags in the popular 30 for 30 that if his “love taps” forced a little guy out of the game, it was good for the Pistons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlbpMlJqA3I#t=14m53s

His “love tap” on Price was bad for the Cavs.  Here are the facts.

First 55 Games of the 88-89 Season: 43-12, +10 point differential/game

Final 27 Games of the 88-89 Season: 14-13, +2.6 point differential/game

Many of us are too young to remember the intensity of the Cavs/Pistons rivalry or the viciousness of the Bad Boys.  But the Cavalier faithful of that era will never forget.  To understand the depth of the hatred, fans were mailing death threats to Chuck Daly and Lenny Wilkens, two coaches regarded as world class gentlemen (although as the Chuckster pointed out: “I never understood how a great man and nice guy coached the Bad Boys.”).

One letter, mailed from Cleveland and postmarked April 24, 1989, arrived about two months after Cavaliers guard Mark Price suffered a concussion following a Rick Mahorn elbow and three months after Cleveland’s Brad Daugherty and Detroit’s Bill Laimbeer had an on-court fistfight. “God made me realize that YOU, not Laimbeer, Mahorn or any of the others are the one possessed by (Satan),” the author wrote in the one-page handwritten letter addressed to “Mr. Chuck Daly.” Another letter, this one typewritten and postmarked Royal Oak, Mich., on Feb. 16, 1990, also was addressed to Daly and claimed the Pistons didn’t “know the meaning of the word `sportsmanship”‘ and would “pay dearly.” [NBA.com]

History pins the Cavs’ disappointing playoff defeats on the bloody hands of Michael Jordan.  But the 1988-89 Cavaliers were taking the league by storm and had run roughshod over both the Bulls and the Pistons until Mahorn injected his elbow into Mark Price’s skull.  By most accounts, the Cavs limped into the playoffs that season.  Despite that, they still finished 1st in SRS, meaning, they were the league’s best team through the first 82.  Of course the Cavs suffered other ailments that could be equally culpable.  After all, Price missed Game 1 with groin injury that nagged him throughout the iconic series that ended in “The Shot”.  Still, Mahorn’s unapologetically thuggish play may have sabotaged the greatest Cavalier team of all time, a team with Ron Harper still in tow.  The Bulls had not yet figured out how to overcome the Jordan Rules in 88-89 and the Pistons went on to claim the title.  To re-iterate: the Cavs had their way with both the Bulls and the Pistons during the regular season.  Quite a “what if” if you ask me.  If you asked Rick Mahorn then, he’d offer only this: “I’ll play, I’ll help us win, if it kills me. If it kills you.”