Breaking Down the Top Sports Rivalries of All-Time

Throughout history, sports have brought fans the love/hate relationship of one of the most entertaining parts of the game, rivalry. These beloved hatreds amongst teams and players have sprouted to create a lifelong dislike amongst every fan, player, and staff member involved. There’s never an exact reason on how these rivalries started, or why they grow to the depth that they do, but one thing is certain, these hatreds are one of the best parts of sports.

These rivalries have all had their own magnitude of intensity. Some are the common team hatred against rival schools or division teams. Others are much more serious, starting between players or coaches and becoming some of the most well-known rivalries in the history of sports. Some of the biggest names in sports have been apart of these historic fights, causing Average Joe’s Sports to break down some of the top sports fights of all time.

Dr. J vs. Larry Bird

Two of the biggest names in sports history, Julius “Dr. J” Erving and Larry Bird, are known to be two of the founding fathers of basketball. Neither of them have ever been thought of as rebel players throughout their careers.

This whole rivalry started by the two stars playing for hated teams, the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers. This battle even brought a computer game between the two called “One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird.” After a few playoff series, the heat of the rivalry peaked. During an early season game between the two teams, Bird and Erving exchanged punches.

This rivalry became known as one of the fiercest in NBA history. Until Dr. J retired in 1987, the battle between Erving and Bird was one of the best the sports world has ever seen.

Urban Meyer vs. Lane Kiffin

Lane Kiffin may have made one of his biggest coaching mistakes of his career when he began his feud with Urban Meyer in 2009. Kiffin stated at a Tennessee booster meeting that Urban Meyer was wrongfully recruiting at Florida. Since then, Kiffin has realized that you should never call out the best. Meyer went on to take the Gators to a BCS National Championship, while Kiffin took the University of Tennessee to a 7-6 record.

Kiffin called Meyer out again before the 2009 SEC Championship game stating, “Well, Florida has better players but Alabama has better coaches.” Meyer again made Kiffin eat his words, as Florida went on to beat Alabama.

Since then, Kiffin has come out and said he regrets talking about Meyer. Many believed that this was just a stunt to keep the peace before Kiffin’s Alabama team played Meyer’s Ohio State team in the 2015 Sugar Bowl. It didn’t seem to work, though, because Ohio State defeated Alabama 42-35.

This feud looked to be both one-sided vocally and one-sided play wise and it turned into a classic. Although Lane Kiffin did most of the talking and couldn’t back up most of it, college football will forever remember the rivalry between the two coaches.

Terrell Owens vs. His entire Eagles team

Terrell Owens may be one of the most entertaining Eagles players of all time. Maybe not playing wise, but Owens certainly knew how to draw attention to himself. It didn’t take long after T.O. arrived in Philadelphia that the drama started. 

In 2004, the drama really escalated when the Eagles lost to the New England Patriots and Owens and the Eagles seemed to butt heads. After that Super Bowl loss, Owens reportedly said that quarterback, Donovan McNabb, was jealous that Philly fans liked Owens more than him.

The Terrell Owens saga didn’t start there, though. Prior to the Super Bowl fiasco, Owens got into a physical confrontation with Eagles’ then defensive end, Hugh Douglas, and then reportedly challenged the entire locker room to a fight.

This rivalry didn’t stop with the Super Bowl either. After Owens left the Eagles, his next team was the Dallas Cowboys, which made it impossible to quiet down the dislike of the Eagles and vise versa. To this day, the Owens’/Eagles’ battle still adds new chapters. Most recently, Owens brought back the McNabb fight and again said that McNabb was jealous of Owens because the fans loved Owens more, which caused the problems between the two.

Nearly eleven years after this feud began, it’s still adding new stories. This rivalry may never end, which is why we have it as one of the top sports rivalries of all time.

Michael Jordan vs. Isiah Thomas

One of the most known hatreds in all of sports sprouted between two of the most known players in NBA history. The Michael Jordan vs. Isiah Thomas duel was truly one of the ages, both on the court and off.

During their four consecutive playoff series, Michael and Isiah seemed to become more and more physical with each other and the hostility grew with each game. During their final playoff series in 1991, the Chicago Bulls swept the Detroit Pistons and Thomas was so upset that he refused to shake the Bulls’ hands after Game 4.

This hatred became very apparent after that. It got so bad that Jordan said he’d refuse to play on the “Dream Team” if Thomas was on it, virtually ending Thomas’ chances of making the squad.

The rivalry has since become moot and the players tend to keep to themselves about it.  Thomas has come out and said he should have taken the high road and acknowledged the Bulls after the Eastern Conference Finals Game 4 loss. Who knows, if he did, this rivalry may have just been a playoff dispute.

Kobe vs. Shaq

Everyone knows about the famous Kobe Bryant vs. Shaquille O’Neal battle that continued for almost 15 years. This heated battle quickly became one of the most intense fights of all time.

Unlike other player conflicts, the Kobe vs. Shaq fight started during the Lakers’ journey to win three consecutive NBA Championships. The battle began when rumors arose that Shaq didn’t like Kobe’s “selfish” play. Kobe turned this around the next season and made it clear that he didn’t like how Shaq came into the 2000 season out of shape. Shaq asked to be traded in 2004 following an NBA Finals loss and the feud really blew up.

Shaq was caught on video in a bar in 2008 attacking Kobe through rap where he repeatedly sings, “Kobe, tell me how my ass tastes,” and “Kobe couldn’t do it without me.” Somehow, that attacked basically ended the feud as Shaq apologized and the two have since grown closer.

Although this rivalry eventually came to an end, the Kobe/Shaq clash was one of the best sports feuds of all time.