Vince Carter was the one who immediately came to my mind. Around 2010-11 I thought he was a quitter and a whiner and wasted a lot of his potential. Now, almost a decade later, he's carved out a niche as a solid veteran and seems to really enjoy playing basketball in a way I've found really endearing.
And btw, I still hate Stephen A. Smith. Still a hack.
Man forgot about Vince Carter, he did not handle that exit from Toronto well, was easy to dislike the guy watching him loaf and whine in TOR that last partial season there.
Look at the splits, do these look like the splits of a guy who was giving his all in TOR in '05?
TOR '04: 24.5ppg, 4.8rpg, 4.8apg
TOR '05: 15.9ppg, 3.3rpg, 3.1apg
NJN '05: 27.5ppg, 5.9rpg, 4.7apg
Now granted he only played 20 game in TOR, and getting traded to a new team and playing with Jason Kidd would boost anybody's numbers, and he was also playing fewer minutes when the dip happened. But no matter what stats you look at (Per-36, Per-100-Poss, Advanced), there was a big drop there from Vince Carter seemingly not caring in Toronto anymore.
Now he comes off like the classy locker room vet, and has for a while. Hard not to like role player Vince.