If they win, would the Miami Heat be the most hated team to win a major sports championship?

[Jim_s_Son]

@DKW

Just for a change of pace…

High on the list has to be the Baltimore Ravens team (don’t remember the year) that won the Super Bowl.

Remember? They used to be the Cleveland Browns, one of the AFC’s most storied teams, in one of the biggest football markets in the country, and with an absolutely fanatical fan following.

Owner Art Modell wanted to move the team to Baltimore because he thought it had better financial prospects. However, the NFL was looking to expand at the time, and Baltimore was tops in the running for a new franchise. (The fact football was successful there in the past no doubt was an added plus.) Nonetheless, Modell announces his intention to move the franchise. Naturally, this elicits a firestorm of outrage, and pretty much the entire city is vehemently against the move.

The NFL approves the move. The move happens. The team is rechristened the Baltimore Ravens. Who then go on to win a Super Bowl (with one of the most anemic offenses in franchise history).

The owner who thought only of himself, shafted an entire city, showed not the slightest remorse, and faced zero repercussions in Baltimore, has a championship to his credit. Friends, it don’t get much worse than that.

(And as an appropriately insane postscript, Cleveland ended up getting the next expansion team. Wait…why? Oh, that’s right, so the NFL could get a whopping big expansion fee AND a whopping big relocation fee, rather than just the expansion fee.)

Not to excuse Modell but the NFL had bypassed Baltimore earlier to give expansion franchises to Carolina and Jacksonville. They weren’t confident of their chances, feeling the NFL wanted teams in the growing Sunbelt. So they decided to give Modell a juicy deal, figuring stealing was their only way to get an NFL franchise. Of course now Jacksonville is not selling out, rumours of them moving to Los Angeles periodically emerge.

[Boyo_Jim]

They’re probably not the most unpopular because hockey has a smaller fan base. but the Philadelphia Flyers became known as the “Broad Street Bullies” for spearing, tripping, high sticking and punching their way to victory during the 70s. Hockey fans everywhere hated them.

[zamboniracer]

@Boyo_Jim

They’re probably not the most unpopular because hockey has a smaller fan base. but the Philadelphia Flyers became known as the “Broad Street Bullies” for spearing, tripping, high sticking and punching their way to victory during the 70s. Hockey fans everywhere hated them.

Likewise the NY Islanders the following decade.

[SenorBeef]

Man, a lot of Heat haters must’ve had a fucking ball last night. I missed it when I turned the game off when they were down 15 with 6 minutes left.

[Mahaloth]

@SenorBeef

Man, a lot of Heat haters must’ve had a fucking ball last night. I missed it when I turned the game off when they were down 15 with 6 minutes left.

I’m no NBA fan, but wasn’t it a close game in the end?

[SenorBeef]

The heat went on like an unanswered 18 point scoring streak and went ahead by 15 with 6 minutes left - they were just crushing the Mavs, so it looked like it was game over at that point and I stopped watching. After that, the Mavs had a 22 to 5 scoring run to win it. It was close again in the last minute, but it looked out of reach 6 minutes out.