15 Dirtiest Players in Nba History, Ranked

There are a number of ways to help your team win in basketball. Usually, this is by being a talented scorer, being a high-level defender, or any other number of ways and skillsets to help ensure victory with genuine basketball moves. A number of NBA players throughout history, though, have taken a different approach to helping their team win. These players do little things, and sometimes even dirty things to get a leg up on their opponents. Sometimes, there is intent behind being dirty, and for some players, it comes naturally. Regardless, there have been a number of dirty players throughout the league's history.

Draymond Green once again had an incident that some would consider dirty. Green was ejected from the Nov. 14, 2023, game against the Minnesota Timberwolves after he pulled Rudy Gobert out of a scuffle via headlock. It wasn't Green's dirtiest play, but it definitely wasn't a basketball play. On top of that, Green has committed so many dirty plays throughout his career that you cannot for sure cross off the possibility that it was, in fact, intended to be dirty. Regardless, the incident caused Green to be suspended for five games.

The incident reminded us of Green's history of dirtiness, and it also sparked us here at ClutchPoints to look at and rank the 15 dirtiest players in the history of the NBA. That list is as follows.

15. Morris twins

Both Marcus and Markieff Morris are known dirty players, so we put them both in the final spot of the dirtiest players in NBA history rankings. When Marcus Morris bounced the ball off of Justin Anderson's head, that was one of the most blatant moments of disrespect and dirtiness that the league has ever seen. Markieff has a handful of dirty moments, too. The most recent and most well-known moment was when he blindside hit Nikola Jokic on the side, leading to a Jokic retaliation and Markieff injury.

14. Rick Mahorn

You will notice a common theme on this list of Detroit Pistons players from the late '80s to early '90s being on here. The Bad Boy Pistons were the dirtiest team in NBA history, and that was also a big reason why they were successful. Isiah Thomas was the leader of that team, and Rick Mahorn was one of his goons. Mahorn was an enforcer who wouldn't let you get clean shots up at the rim. He would take you out and inflict pain while doing it. The “Jordan Rules” are a perfect example of this.