5 players with the most technical fouls in NBA history

Rasheed Wallace is a lock on this list.
Rasheed Wallace is a lock on this list.

#2 Charles Barkley - 329

Charles Barkley ended his career with 329 technical fouls.
Charles Barkley ended his career with 329 technical fouls.

Who would have thought that an undersized power forward like Charles Barkley would make his way into this list. However, if you know Charles Barkley and how he was never the one to back off from both on-court and off-court fights, you would not be so surprised to see him here.

At 6'6", Barkley was shorter than the typical power forwards but used his insane vertical leap to end the career as one of the most dominant rebounders in the history of NBA. In 1996, during a regular season game playing for the Houston Rockets against the San Antonio Spurs, Chuck was ejected after picking up his second technical foul.

What is more important here is the reason why he picked up the second technical that night. Barkley poked the referee Jack Nies in the nose which led to a cut on the referee's nose.This is only one example of how frustrated Chuck used to get at times. Barkley ended his career with 329 technical fouls and stands second on this list.


#1 Karl Malone - 332

Karl Malone leads this infamous list with 332 assessed technical fouls.
Karl Malone leads this infamous list with 332 assessed technical fouls.

Karl Malone is unarguably one of the best power forwards the NBA has ever seen. With his size and footwork, he was a problem in the paint and destroyed opposition teams. Playing in the 1980s and 1990s meant that he and the Utah Jazz faced some of the deadliest teams ever.

'The Mailman' had strong elbows and never hesitated once to throw them at opposition players. During the 1991-92 NBA season, playing against the Detroit Pistons, Malone elbowed Isiah Thomas so bad that the guard received 40 stitches and missed the next two games for the Pistons. Karl Malone was fined $10,000 and was suspended for one game due to this hard and flagrant foul.

Amassing fouls was nothing new for Malone as he was known for arguing with the referees regarding foul calls which on most occasions led to him picking up a technical foul. During his 20-year-long career, Malone has picked up a total of 332 technical fouls and leads this infamous list.

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