Novak Djokovic's incredible disqualification from the US Open earlier this week can best be summed up in one word — karma.
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The Serbian tennis champion will, of course, go down in history — what, with 17 grand slam titles and all — but make no mistake, this is not a great guy we are talking about.
At a tournament played in front of no fans, seeing a man, who has flagrantly showed no respect for COVID-19 and the measures being taken to try and curb its spread, be disqualified was about as poetic as it gets.
And that got us thinking — was this the best example of karma coming back to bite a sportsperson?
We at Outside The Box investigated some other times where bad things happened to similarly bad people.
Novak Djokovic
Let's have a little chat about some of the things old mate Novak has got up to in the last year or so.
First of all he's an anti-vaxxer and has repeatedly preached that message.
Some of his other greatest hits this year included hosting a tennis event in Serbia and Croatia with no social distancing measures, where he was spotted dancing at a nightclub — ironically, the event was cancelled after players including Djokovic got COVID-19.
He never apologised for the ill-fated event, his wife called coronavirus a conspiracy — and yet he's the bloke making the shite gag of pretending to wave to the crowd in celebrating a win when there's no-one there.
Look, it wasn't nice to see the lineperson so maliciously smashed with a tennis ball in Djokovic's unmitigated anger, but it led to exactly what Novak deserves — universal recognition for being a terrible bloke.
Andrew Gaff
All footballers spend their careers working toward the ultimate prize — an AFL premiership.
West Coast's Andrew Gaff missed the chance to achieve that due to a reasonably sickening punch he delivered in the 2018 season.
Gaff swung for the fences and broke Fremantle's Andrew Brayshaw's jaw, and copped an eight-game ban for the massive strike.
From all reports, this was more of a brain fade than Gaff genuinely being a bad lad, but you've got to pay the price for something like that.
Not only did he miss the rest of the season, and miss a premiership, but he will always be remembered as the bloke who delivered the modern era's biggest AFL punch rather than anything he does with ball in hand.
Alberto Contador
I'm not a massive fan of unwritten rules, but when it comes to a time-honoured event such as Le Tour de France you've got to respect them.
Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador forgot this in the 2010 Tour, riding away from key rival Andy Schleck on stage 15 when Schleck's chain fell off, meaning he would have to stop and fix it, or get another bike from the team car.
Surely you want to try and win fair and square in any sport, but this is something the yellow jersey contenders just don't do to each other.
Contador knew as much and initially claimed he didn't know Schleck's chain had dropped, and then later apologised after vision showed that was clearly not a lie.
Here's where the karma comes in.
Contador's time gain on stage 15? 39 seconds.
Contador's overall winning margin? 39 seconds.
So he basically only won because of this cruel attack — and after the Tour had finished and he had taken his victory lap, Contador tested positive for clenbuterol and was stripped of his title, leaving Schleck as the champion.
Cervelo team owner Gerard Vroomen summed it up best: "Contador just gained a great chance to win, but he lost the chance to win greatly.”
Well Gerard, it turns out — thanks to my good friend karma — he lost the chance to win at all.
Paul George
We're certainly getting a little obtuse here, but when it comes to giving yourself a nickname, I am simply not a fan.
Current Los Angeles Clippers star Paul George committed this sin in 2018 when he gave himself the moniker ‘Playoff P’ — implying an ability to get things done in the post-season.
George gave himself that nickname during the first round of the 2018 playoffs, when asked about Utah rookie Donovan Mitchell, basically belittling the youngster and saying "mate don't worry about that bloke, worry about me”.
Well, Paul, we did worry about you and you lost the series 4-2, and you only put up 24 points a game, which for a superstar is not enough.
The next playoffs his Thunder drew the Portland Trailblazers in the first round, and after engaging in high-profile beef with Blazer star Damian Lillard, George was again told to sit down and be humble, eliminated 4-1.
Lillard scored 50 points in the close-out game, hit a buzzer-beating game-winner, and literally waved goodbye to George.
Paul, brother, this is what you get for arrogance — a nice serving of playoff karma.
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