Note: I'm only going to include the "Big Four" leagues: MLB, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL. No Liberty, no Cosmos, no Red Bulls, no NYCFC, no whatever Sky Blue FC are calling themselves now.
I'll lead off with not (yet) the most damaging, but the most recent:
New York/New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets: Kyrie Irving. All he had to do was get vaccinated, and he would have been playing all along, home and away. There wouldn't have been a poisonous atmosphere at the Barclays Center. Chances are, they would have beaten the Boston Celtics in the 1st Round, and possibly dethroned the Milwaukee Bucks, and at least reached the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat. There could have been a Championship in the future. If not this year, then a serious run at it this year, and building on that for next year.
Instead, Kyrie had to be... Let's put it this way: With some people, the worst advice you can give them is, "Be yourself."
The worst thing about what Kyrie has done to the Nets is that it could well still be a work in progress. In other words, it's unlikely that team management will buy him out, so he could still hurt them again. True, he could also lead them to that elusive title.
But who's kidding who? As Mike Lupica put it in the Daily News when they were eliminated:
The only way Kyrie Irving could make himself an easier mark is if he were trying to guard you. On Twitter the other day he said that “My name is worth billions to these media corporations.” Name one.
But the problem with the Brooklyn Nets, the greatest dynasty that never was and never will be, is much bigger than Irving, a self-indulgent and self-absorbed player whose vaccination status was the single biggest contributing factor to what became not just a lost season, but one of the biggest flops in New York City basketball history. Irving: Who somehow seems himself as the hoops version of Nelson Mandela.
The larger problem with the Nets is that the people in charge, owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks, look like patsies here for the way they have allowed Kyrie and Kevin — K in this case stands for strikeout in basketball, too — to walk all over them from the time the two stars came to Brooklyn to win all those championships they were going to win.
You know what the Nets are? They are the East Coast version of the Lakers, another dynasty that never was and never will be, who also allowed their stars to run their franchise. They were going to be a Super Team for the ages and ended up winning one title, and winning it when the NBA turned into BubbleBall during COVID.
New York Knicks: Stephon Marbury. The last of 5 brothers to play at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn's Coney Island, "Starbury" (a nickname he made up) was supposed to be the next great New York City point guard. He went one-and-done at Georgia Tech, then signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He might be the biggest reason why Kevin Garnett had to go to Boston to win a title.
In 1999, he was traded to the Nets, and they were 2 of the worst seasons in the history of a franchise with a rotten history, although he was named to the 2001 All-Star Game. He was traded to the Phoenix Suns, even-up for Jason Kidd, a "my headache for your headache" trade. He helped the Suns set after several good years, despite another All-Star appearance in 2003; while Kidd immediately turned the Nets into back-to-back NBA Finalists.
In 2004, the Knicks traded for him. Marbury was only 27, and a 2-time All-Star. And, because he was one of New York City's own, Knick fans believed he would be the man to return the Knickerbockers to glory. That it did not happen was not all his fault -- after all, he came with Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway, a once-great player now saddled with injuries, who did his best but couldn't overcome them, and James Dolan was running the franchise -- but he led the way.
He didn't get along with head coach Don Chaney. Or with the next, fellow Brooklynite Lenny Wilkens, one of the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players, and once the winningest head coach in NBA history, coach of the 1979 NBA Champion Seattle SuperSonics. And he didn't get along with the next one, Larry Brown.
Brown was a success wherever he went in the NBA. As his longtime friend and fellow Long Islander, Tony Kornheiser of ESPN, put it, "He took the Clippers to the Playoffs! Nobody takes the Clippers to the Playoffs!" And he had taken the Nets to the Playoffs. In fact, he had pulled both of those feats off twice. At the time, this was considered a huge deal, because both teams were "little brothers" to the bigger teams in the area. Both teams were, and -- despite what they've done since -- still are joke franchises. And he had won an NBA Championship with the Detroit Pistons, and gotten the Philadelphia 76ers to the Finals, eventually getting Allen Iverson to see the value in not just a game, but in practice.
The one team with whom he couldn't make the Playoffs was the Knicks: Unlike Iverson, Marbury could not be convinced that Brown knew what he was doing. They feuded like crazy, and, as Frank Isola and Michael O'Keefe wrote in the Daily News, Marbury had become "the most reviled athlete in New York."
Brown left in 2006, while Marbury continued to poison the atmosphere at Madison Square Garden until 2009, when the Boston Celtics finally took him off the Knicks' hands, reuniting him with Garnett -- and taking them down from their title perch of the season before. So that's 5 different NBA teams Marbury messed up, 2 of them in the New York Tri-State Area. He is a serious contender for the overall Number 1 on this list.
China was starting up a pro basketball league, and Marbury played in it from 2010 to 2018, and is now the head coach of the Beijing Royal Fighters.
New Jersey Devils: Ilya Kovalchuk. After 9 years as a sniper for the Atlanta Thrashers, the Devils traded for him. In 4 seasons with the team, he twice scored at least 30 goals, and was a key figure in the team that reached the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals. (It's worth noting that, of the 9 teams in the "big four" leagues, only 2 have reached their sport's finals since: The 2014 Rangers and the 2015 Mets. So this is a big deal.)
But in 2013, he "retired" from the NHL, with $77 million and 12 years remaining on his contract. He was only 30, and his move left the Devils in the lurch: They've only made the Playoffs once since, in 2018.
But he only retired from the NHL. He went back to Russia, and signed with his former team, SKA St. Petersburg. It was all about the money: Not just a higher salary, but considerably lower taxes. Then the ruble crashed in December 2014, and he was making less money. Serves him right. In 2018, he applied to return to the NHL, but the Devils weren't interested. Good thing: At 35, was a shadow of his former self.
New York Islanders: Alexei Yashin. From 1993 to 2001, he scored 218 goals and had 273 assists for the Ottawa Senators. As the 2001-02 season dawned, he was about to turn 28, was coming off back-to-back 40-goal seasons, and hadn't missed a game due to injury in 4 years. There was nothing wrong with wanting a healthy Alexei Yashin on your team.
The question was, What was a team willing to trade to get him? The Islanders traded Bill Muckalt, Zdeno Chara, and their 1st-round draft pick, who the Senators turned into Jason Spezza. Muckalt was a thrown-in, and played his last NHL game in 2003. In 2022, Chara and Spezza are still playing in the NHL, and both could end up in the Hall of Fame.
And Yashin? General manager Mike Milbury signed him to a contract extension worth $87.5 million over 10 years. He scored 32 goals in 2001-02, but that would be his peak. His production dropped, and because of his contract, he was "untradeable." He played his last NHL game at age 34, although he hung on in the Russian league for 5 more years.
Unlike some of these guys, Yashin didn't make a nuisance of himself, to his teammates, to the organization, or to the fans. He just didn't deliver. And it's not like he paid himself: Milbury was more to blame than Yashin was.
New York Rangers: Ken Hodge. BlueLine Station, a Ranger fan website, calls the 1976 trade that sent Hodge to Madison Square Garden and Rick Middleton to the Boston Garden the worst trade in Ranger history. Hodge was supposed to pair up with Phil Esposito to score a lot of goals, as he had with the Bruins. Instead, he played 96 games for the Rangers, with 23 goals and 45 assists.
Yes, they actually wore these uniforms.
In regular-season games.
That's not terrible: The Rangers got off luckier than most of these teams. But look what they gave up for Hodge: In Boston, Middleton played 12 seasons, with 402 goals and 496 assists. The Bruins retired his Number 16, and he should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Think that might have helped in the 1979 Stanley Cup Finals against the Montreal Canadiens? Or in those Playoff series against the Islanders? Or in the 1986 Conference Finals against the Canadiens?
New York Giants: Kerry Collins. First season, 1999: 7-9. Second season, 2000: 12-4, but became the 1st quarterback ever to lead an offense that failed to score in a Super Bowl, the Giants' only score coming on a kickoff return. Third season, 2001: 7-9. Fourth season, 2002: 10-6, with 4 losses by 7 points or less, costing them a Division title, and allowing them to fall into that humiliating road Playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Fifth season, 2003: 4-12. Collins was not only the worst starting quarterback in Giants history, he was the worst starting quarterback ever to play in a Super Bowl.
New York Jets: Mo Lewis. Now, this doesn't seem fair. Mo was a very good linebacker. He played 13 seasons for the Jets, including 3 Pro Bowl appearances, 4 Playoff berths, and a trip to an AFC Championship Game. But his tackle injured Drew Bledsoe and led to the rise of Tom Brady. What could be more damaging -- not just to the Jets, but to the entire NFL -- than that?
At such seemingly benign moments is history changed.
New York Yankees: Kevin Brown. I know, I know, I've ripped several Yankee pitchers over the 15 years I've written this blog. I even made a list of all the games one of them, Boone Logan, blew for the Yankees, which I suspect is a team record: Logan's Litany of Losing.
But Kevin Brown. Oy, gevalt, Kevin Brown! After pitching well against the Yankees for the Texas Rangers and the Baltimore Orioles from 1992 to 1995, he went to the National League, and helped the team then known as the Florida Marlins win the 1997 World Series. That team was immediately broken up, and he was traded to the San Diego Padres. They won the 1998 NL Pennant, and started Brown in Games 1 and 4 of the World Series, because of his success against the Yankees. Instead, the Yankees swept the Padres.
The Padres didn't keep him, either, and he signed the 1st $100 million-plus contract in baseball history, with the Los Angeles Dodgers. After the 2003 season, angry at Jeff Weaver's incompetence in the World Series, the Yankees traded Weaver and 2 pitchers who never amounted to anything to the Dodgers, for Brown, and also got Javier Vázquez, knowing they would need to replace the departed Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte.
Some replacements. Brown went 10-6, and after a bad loss in September, punched the dugout wall with his right hand. His throwing hand. He broke it, but was ready to pitch again come the postseason. Despite making the All-Star Game, Vázquez only went 14-10. And, due to injuries, in the all-important Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the arch-rival Boston Red Sox, manager Joe Torre started Brown, and he didn't make it out of the 2nd inning. Torre replaced him with Vázquez, who didn't get out of the 4th.
Before Kevin Brown became a Yankee, the Yankees were, beyond any question, the team in baseball, and the Red Sox were their bitches. We'll never know if he would have pitched better in October if he hadn't broken his hand in September, but since that game in October, the Yankees have fallen behind not just the Red Sox, but the Tampa Bay Rays and the Houston Astros, and that's just in the American League. Brown pitched 1 more year, through injuries, and retired with a record of 211-144, 216-149 if you count the postseason -- 15-14 as a Yankee.
I had considered long-ago 1st baseman Hal Chase, a great fielder and a good hitter, whose hiring as player-manager late in the 1910 season, and his known throwing of games for gamblers, turned a 2nd (but not close 2nd)-place team into a 102-loss last-place team in just 2 years. But, at the time, they were the New York Highlanders. They weren't officially the Yankees yet, let alone the Yankees.
New York Mets: Bobby Bonilla. There aren't too many athletes who messed a team up, left, returned, and messed them up again. Although born and raised in The Bronx, Yankee territory, Bonilla was a Met fan growing up, and became a star on the Pittsburgh Pirates' early 1990s near-dynasty.
The Mets threw money at him, and he joined for the 1992 season. It was a disaster, as his hitting stats went way down, and the team had its 1st non-contending in 9 years. The Mets had an even worse season in 1993, full of acts of carelessness that got people hurt, and, in 2 separate incidents, Bonilla threatened local reporters. They finally traded him in 1995.
And yet, they brought him back for 1999. At 36, he was washed-up, and was released. But they still owed him $5.9 million. His agent offered the Mets a deal: He would defer payment for 10 years, and the Mets would pay him $1.19 million every year from 2011 to 2035 (or his heirs if he died before 2035). The Mets took the deal.
Now, every year, July 1, the date of the payment, is known as Bobby Bonilla Day: There are still players the Mets are paying less to play than they're paying Bonilla to not play. Only 13 more years to go.
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