The San Antonio Spurs have had a reputations of being a straight-laced, team-first squad for decades, to the point where many fans think they’re boring. This is thanks to the humble, nice-guy leadership of legends like David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Avery Johnson, and so on. The “buy into the system” expectations for this team are as clear as the black and white on their jerseys. But there’s silver in those jerseys too, a gray area for players who are harder to tame and buck at the heavy-hand placed on them by Pop and the front office (affectionally know by Spurs fans as PATFO). Now this list is mostly tongue-in-cheek, and like great heels in wrestling, these are the Spurs players who took a turn toward villainy, providing some drama (be it entertaining or franchise threatening) for a team that is unfairly treated as vanilla, as plain paper, as drama free. They’ve been anything but over the years, thanks to these thorny Spurs in our heels.

10. Vernon Maxwell

Maxwell is one of those heels you can’t help but root for, because all he really wanted to do was hoop and party at the same time. So maybe a few fists had to be thrown to make it happen. So what? Well, Pop was so tired of his party lifestyle interfering with his on the court play that he had a private eye following Maxwell around, and then traded him when Maxwell couldn’t stop clubbing. His 17 points per game would have been helpful in those early 90s teams, but even though he was a fun heel for a while, we couldn’t resist bringing him back for one more season. Still, they call him “Mad Max” for a reason, and he moved on shortly after his second stint.

9. Marcus Morris

So this one is a cheat because Morris never really suited up for SA, but that “handshake agreement” to sign with the Spurs that fell apart in 2019 when he turned around and signed with the Knicks instead made the bad situation the Spurs already found themselves in worse. Can you blame Morris for wanting more money to play in the Garden? Maybe, maybe not, but the Spurs made some roster moves to accommodate his signing and then ended up with only DeMarre Carroll when the dust settled. Which sucked, and it took some of the wind out the that season. Like Maxwell, we could have used those 19.6 points he averaged for NYK that year, but Morris immediately began making boneheaded tough-guy plays for them, so maybe we dodged a bullet.

8. Tony Parker

Tony? A heel? What blasphemy is this!? Well, is it really such a stretch? Yes he’s a Spurs legend well deserving of his accolades, but he also has some low-key heel tendencies, such as cheating on his wife with a teammate’s wife. Ouch. Walking away from Eva Longoria for a fling with Brent Barry’s wife was a bad move that often gets swept under the rug. But Tony also poured gasoline on the already raging Kawhi Leonard fire by openly pushing Leonard about when he was going to play, pissing off the disgruntled forward. But depending on how you look at it, Parker may have been standing up for the equally frustrated teammates, like any good leader. So that’s up in the air. But still, Tony left us for Charlotte in his last year, and left us the legacy of being the kind of good guy who can get you into the frying pan as quickly as he can get you out of it with a timely tear-drop floater.

7. Richard Jefferson

A lot of people would rank him much much higher, and his lackluster stint as a Spur left much to be desired. Maybe his style didn’t fit in, maybe his heart wasn’t in it, maybe he could have done X, Y, Z and made a bigger impact, but it never worked. Pop got tired of it all and traded him for fellow heel Stephen Jackson (more on that later) and Spurs fans got their wish: get rid of Jefferson at all costs. But as I learned over the years, he actually doesn’t dislike the Spurs or Pop, and is still friends with Tim Duncan. The two even joked about their time together on Jefferson’s podcast, sharing a lot of hilarious stories. It turns out Jefferson’s not a bad guy, he just didn’t live up to anyone’s expectations, but that still makes him a hapless heel in my book.

6. Dejounte Murray

Well, things took a turn with Murray fast, didn’t they? It’s early enough that things may settle down, but after a handful of seasons where Murray was a massive Spurs cheerleader and ride-or-die teammate, he took a hard pivot almost the moment he was traded. From trashing the Spurs organization and saying they would never win anything in 15 years (…umm, how many rings have the Hawks won few decades?) to twitter beefing with #1 pick Banchero, his childish behavior in a summer exhibition game in which he flailed around and whipped the ball at Banchero and faked throwing the ball in other people’s faces, mugging and flexing and basically being that guy everyone hates in pickup games. It wasn’t a welcome return to old school basketball, it was obnoxious and petty. He might end up being right and winning it all elsewhere, or he could find himself disgruntled when he doesn’t get touches or all-star nods in Atlanta. The jury is out, but I’m not impressed by the former phenom’s turn toward becoming a heel.

5. Dejuan Blair

Speaking of a former Spurs standout making a fast turn toward villainy, Blair was a fun undersized big who could rebound and dunk all day long on zero ACLs. He started beside Duncan for a while, but as his playing time faded (due to defensive and shooting liabilities…two pretty big liabilities, I’d say) he started to grumble. And after a trade to the Mavs, Blair went full heel by saying the Spurs would have won it all in 2013 if they had just played him more minutes. Argue for him if you will, but I don’t think so. Nevertheless, he made it worse by fighting on-court with Spurs big man Tiago Splitter, kicking the man in the head, and that’s an automatic one-way ticket to Heel Town. Adios, buddy.

4. Stephen Jackson

Captain Jack was a fun guy to have around but he had beef with the Spurs and Pop over his two stints in San Antonio, the worst of it coming after he played well for us in the 2012 playoffs and the start the 2012-2013 season, then became disgruntled coming off the bench and insisted he was better than Danny Green (by that point, a close call) and Kawhi Leonard (not a chance). He’s badmouthed the Spurs off and on since, but even Tim Duncan can’t hate the guy, calling him the “ultimate teammate,” and Jax himself has softened his stance to say he has no hard feelings about his time as a Spur, even coming to Duncan’s defense when Horry had some unkind things to say about the man. Like him or not, Jax is fun, charismatic, and has that anti-hero charm you can’t deny, which is why the Spurs brought him back in the first place. But in my opinion, if Jackson had taken the Ginobili route and gave his all off the bench, his shooting and defense would have been a perfect weapon against Miami in 2013, and who knows if San Antonio could have ended their Big 3 era with 6 instead of 5 rings.

3. Dennis Rodman

The Worm certainly took a turn in San Antonio. This was early in Rodman’s wild child phase, with the multi-colored hair, the motorcycle accident that left him sidelined, and the notorious sagging off on defense to rebound-hunt instead, which people seem to forget and might be the worst “crime” he committed in SA, in my opinion. He had zero respect for his teammates, calling guys like Avery Johnson and David Robinson weak, overpaid, and unable to make a big clutch shot (both players would later prove him wrong). They traded Rodman for Will Purdue, which doesn’t seem like fair value, but addition by subtraction is a thing, and the Spurs learned their lesson. Even if you’re a bad boy, you need to buy in. And those who can’t aren’t worth the time. Rodman won five rings, and in the end Pop and Company did too, so this was a deal where everyone got what they wanted in the end. But even so, Rodman was a hell of a heel.

2. Robert Horry

Robert Horry is known for taking and making big shots throughout his career, and he took some big shots at Duncan and the Spurs after his career too. From the innocuous (calling the Spurs boring) to the baffling (literally blaming Ginobili for keeping him from winning 10 rings, questioning Duncan’s work ethic and leadership, saying Olajuwan was 20 times better than Duncan). At the time I loved Horry’s shooting and toughness, the swagger he brought to the team, but looking back, all the people telling me he was a bully and a dirty player might have had a point. That hip-check against Steve Nash in the playoffs looks worse and worse as time passes. But he isn’t a complete heel. He’s complimented Coach Pop recently and he was probably right when he told Coach Pop that they needed to cover Derek Fisher before Fisher sank the .4 second shot that killed the Spurs in 2004. And not getting a call after Pop told him he’d be getting a call in the offseason sucks, but that’s also the business. He may have reasons to feel slighted, but he’s still way off base about Duncan and Manu, and he’s still the #2 heel in my book.

1. Kawhi Leonard

Well, well, well, is this a surprise to anyone? The Nephew quickly became a fan favorite in San Antonio with his defensive prowess, rapidly developing offensive game, his manhandling of LeBron in 2014, and his seemingly humble nature. Turns out it wasn’t so much humble as coldly robotic. Now I know Kawhi has his defenders and that the Spurs had missteps in how they handled his injury situation, and yes this is water under the bridge, but yeah, I’m still salty. I fall down on the side of disliking Kawhi’s (and his uncle’s) dead-set determination to get to LA using any means necessary, including refusing to be around the team as they continued to play, dodging the team in New York when they were trying to check on his status, and his silent treatment attitude with teammates. In my opinion, he put himself first in a team-first organization and acted just as shamefully as Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, and James Harden have in recent years. Can you imagine Dirk, Duncan, LeBron, or Giannis pulling this? Anyway, congrats to him and Raps fans for the 2019 ring, that was great for their city, but I’d rather never win again if it meant having to depend on players like the one Kawhi became to get it done. The #1 Spurs heel, and it’s not even close.