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How does Kenyon Martin's tirade compare to the all-time greats?

Apr 9, 2010, 10:45 AM EDT

As you may know by now, audio has surfaced of Kenyon Martin’s April Fool’s Day tirade, following his discovery that someone had filled his car with buttered popcorn as a prank. Here’s the audio, with the many, many bad words bleeped for your workday protection. But how does Martin’s verbal explosion rate on the all-time sports Richter scale? We give it a 6.8, which as you can see, does not come close to putting it at the top. A fine effort, however.
A sampling of all-time best tirades, with Richter scale grading:

* Lee Elia, Chicago Cubs, 9.0. April 29, 1983. A day that will live in infamy. NSFW! [audio]

* Bobby Knight, Indiana University, 8.6. “I am sick and tired of losing to f—— Purdue!” NSFW. [audio]

* John Chaney, Temple, 8.2. He will kick your ass, John Calipari! [video]

* Tommy Lasorda, Los Angeles Dodgers, 8.0. Hey, you’re the one who pitched to Kingman. Don’t take it out on the reporter. NSFW. [audio]

* Chris Berman, ESPN, 7.7. Did Mr. Berman ever get his question answered as to whether anyone there had ever worked in TV before? NSFW. [video]

* Dan Marino, Inside the NFL, 7.0. Hey, I thought outtakes were supposed to be funny. [video]

* Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State, 6.5. Basically, Gundy wants the press to let the coaching staff decide which players are criticized in print. Sounds fair. [video]

* Mike Singletary, San Francisco 49ers, 4.1. No profanity, but extra points for being six kinds of crazy. [video]

* David Ortiz, Red Sox, 1.9. Very brief. No audio. [transcript]

***
Kenyon Martin Sounds as Pissed as Reported [You Been Blinded]
Hell hath no fury like Kenyon Martin pranked [Out of Bounds]

  1. BC - Apr 9, 2010 at 12:45 PM

    You missed a sure-fire Top 5 rant – John Cheney:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6jUpHClybQ

  2. Rick Chandler - Apr 9, 2010 at 1:00 PM

    Thanks. I’ll add it in there.

  3. Paul in KY - Apr 9, 2010 at 1:30 PM

    I agree with the first guy, The John Chaney ‘I’m going to kill you’ rant has to be at least a 7.5
    Also, Jim Mora’s ‘playoffs’ rant should be mentioned as well.

  4. BC - Apr 9, 2010 at 3:37 PM

    The Hal McRae blowup was almost as good as Lee Elia….
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kamDqL-AGzI

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