5 Times Athletes and Sports Teams Clapped Back HARD

It's always satisfying whenever someone gets shut down, especially when the clapback they received is well-deserved. And because we naturally worship celebrities and star athletes, it's even better when these top athletes get down and dirty in clapback-land.

It might have something to do with the fact that these players will get a chance to settle their differences on the basketball court, and all of the hullabaloo on social media serving to hype that eventual encounter.

Or it could just be that some of these public figures are better at shutting down their peers better than others. And thanks to the magic of the internet, there's countless examples of people being told to take a seat after someone puts their name in their mouth.

Like the time Kenyon Martin came after Jeremy Lin for "want[ing] to be black" after people started ragging on the basketball player for rocking dreads. I get it, seeing someone who's Asian with dreadlocks is a bit unorthodox, but Martin came pretty strongly for his fellow NBA player.

The thing about Linsanity is that he's a notoriously sweet and intelligent guy. He didn't decide to come back at K-Mart angrily. He didn't decide to trash him negatively either. He decided to kill him with kindness, and all that took was a well-thought out post and some facts.

What facts do you ask? Like, maybe the fact that Kenyon Martin has Chinese tattoos emblazoned on his arm. Now Lin could've said, "Wow, you're really trying to be Chinese by inking yourself up with letters from that alphabet," but he didn't. Instead, he served up this reply.

Yeah, Kenyon's definitely taking the L for that one. It could be that he genuinely forgot he ever got those Chinese letter tattoos, I mean, there are hordes of people who get them without even knowing what the characters stand for, so there's that.

Sometimes, however, the clapbacks athletes serve up aren't even to their peers, but to fans who are trying to be funny, or controversial, or, well, honestly I don't know what's going through their heads when they attempt to flex on beloved athletes. 

Like this dude who thought it'd be a good idea to try and start something with JJ Watt by responding to this tweet.

Now if you don't know anything about JJ, he's one of the sweetest, nicest, and most inspirational guys in the NFL. He's also got an insane work ethic and busts himself, day in, day out, to be the best player he can be. Apparently this dude thought it'd be a good idea to try and roast Watt for that.

Well, he was wrong.

Like our boy Jeremy, JJ decided to hit his critic back with the slick, wholesome approach. As for his critic, judging by his profile picture, it seems like this dude tries pretty hard on his body. Dang he's ripped.

Speaking of getting ripped in a completely different way, Snoop Dogg found himself on the receiving end of a sports clapback. One day he was particularly upset that the Baltimore Ravens beat his team, the Pittsburgh Steelers (Go Steelers!), and he had to let them know exactly how he felt on Twitter.

The Ravens, electing to maintain an air of professionalism and not giving in to such obviously childish skirmishes against a high-profile rapper like Snoop, ignored his tweet and attached photograph of him flipping the bird.

Just kidding, they supplied a photo of the s-n-double-o-p reppin' Ravens gear while standing on the sidelines with Ray Lewis. Not a good look for someone who's claiming to hate a team. Snoop wisely didn't respond to the clapback.

Sometimes, sports figures don't even need to clap back at people, they have other famous fans to do it for them. Now, it's known far and wide that JK Rowling has one of the best Twitter games around and is a specialist in shutting down trolls.

One day, she decided to congratulate Serena on another grand slam victory.

And it was just a delight when she decided to take it to an irate fan who tried saying that the reason Serena Williams was so successful in her sport is because she is "built like a man." Yikesaroni and cheese.

Then she provided this photo evidence, subsequently shutting down the troll. I'm saying this as a man with ample hips and buttocks, but there is no way in heck that I can rock a red dress like Serena Williams. That's the beauty of the tweet Rowling sent out.

Sometimes, a clapback is so savage, that upon reading it, you feel like calling 9-1-1 to report a murder.

Twitter user Brittni Snow decided to troll 6'11, super-jacked center, Dwight Howard by saying he'd never secure a championship ring.

Howard, then, decided to take the gloves off and let loose with the absolutely atomic reply above. Honestly, it hurts to look at it.

It's also never a good idea to come at someone who has more Twitter followers than you and has throngs of fans. It's just a bad idea, overall.