Five NBA teammates who absolutely hated each other

Chemistry is one of the most important and yet elusive properties of any successful basketball team. Good chemistry seems to appear and disappear at random, and so many on-paper title contenders never reach their full potential because of the lack of this nebulous quality. Often, it’s all too simple, as highly competitive people who don’t get along on a personal level let it get in the way of the bigger picture. And other times, it’s a little bit more complicated.

Today we’re looking at five NBA teammates who, for one reason or another, just hated each other’s guts.

5. REGGIE JACKSON AND RUSSELL WESTBROOK (Oklahoma City Thunder)

This dates back to Reggie Jackson’s days playing second fiddle to Russell Westbrook as a backup point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder. While everyone inside and outside of the Thunder locker room believed that Westbrook should be the starter for the Thunder, Jackson was the one holdout.

Westbrook did nothing to hide the level of his disdain for Jackson as soon as he left the Thunder for the Detroit Pistons, periodically pretending to forget who Jackson even was. With both players now playing on opposite ends of the Staples Center this season, this rivalry suddenly has renewed potential.

4. CHARLES BARKLEY AND SCOTTIE PIPPEN (Houston Rockets)

This one was almost inevitable. Not only are Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen two of the most bull-headed personalities to have ever graced the NBA, they are also given to strong opinions and sharing them regardless of the consequences.

With Pippen joining Sir Charles on an over-the-hill Houston Rockets team in 1999 doomed to failure - and costing Barkley money in the process - their feuding began almost immediately and has carried on to the present day.

3. RAY ALLEN AND RAJON RONDO (Boston Celtics)

Not all was well behind closed doors for the Doc Rivers-led Boston Celtics, which is ironic for a team whose motto was "Ubuntu", a Bantu word meaning something akin to family, togetherness, and strength in unity.

Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett have never forgiven Ray Allen for joining the Miami Heat and playing with LeBron James. But the discord between Allen and Rondo went back long before that.

According to Kendrick Perkins, Allen tried to have Rondo traded off the team because of their disagreements. It got so bad that they tried to settle their differences with boxing gloves in front of the rest of the Celtics.

Instead, the Celtics tried to trade Allen numerous times but failed to pull the trigger. Allen then beat them to the punch by moving to South Beach and joined LeBron James, the Celtics' biggest rival. Despite years of on-court success and much time having passed, the bitterness from Rondo and Garnett is still palpable. This is a feud they’re taking to the grave.

2. MICHAEL JORDAN AND KWAME BROWN (Washington Wizards)

As anyone who watched The Last Dance can attest, Michael Jordan was an almost pathological competitor. MJ pushed players around him hard, sometimes treating them vindictively (hello Scott Burrell) and sometimes outright bullying them if he thought they weren’t up to his considerable standards.

So when the Washington Wizards took Kwame Brown with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 draft straight out of a high school, it was a recipe for disaster. Whether or not Brown folded under Jordan’s relentless personality or if he just wasn’t that good we’ll never know for sure (just like we’ll never know if it’s true that Jordan actually made him cry during practice).

What we know for sure is that Jordan wasn’t easy to get along with and that Brown washed out of the NBA in just a few short seasons. Brown spoke out recently on his perspectives on the Jordan feud, making it clear that the wounds from this one are still fresh.

1. SHAQ AND KOBE (Los Angeles Lakers)

In the time since Kobe Bryant’s death, and in the years since his retirement, Shaq has done his best to downplay the extent to which the Lakers’ stars genuinely disliked each other. But at the peak of their rivalry, everyone in the NBA, and those watching at home, knew that whatever they accomplished on the court - off the court they were at each other’s throats. Their dispute boiled over into the media, into rap diss tracks, and spawned tell-all books. It’s the only feud on this list that has an entire blow-by-blow breakdown on Wikipedia that contains a level of minutia generally reserved for international conflicts.

That they appeared to reconcile in the fullness of time is a credit to them both, each coming to realize how much they benefited from the other’s elite caliber of play. And it leaves one with a bit of hope, that some of these other feuding players might gain some perspective in the coming years, and bury the hatchet as well.