Who we love to hate most in sports.

A fan is defined as an enthusiastic devotee of a sport or performing art, an ardent admirer of a celebrity or pursuit. We are a nation of fans, for sure. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, we are also a nation of haters. And because few things stoke our passion like sports, there always seems to be an athlete, a team or a phenomenon that transcends a trivial level of dislike to become “Public Enemy No. 1.”

We've selected the Public Enemy No. 1 for each year since 2000, with 2016's still yet to be determined. We avoided athletes whose notoriety was due entirely to a criminal case and leaned toward polarizing, anti-establishment heroes—the villains and the all-powerful. These are the memorable figures, squads and moments in time that challenged the status quo, got under our skin and made sports more riveting.