Brad and Ron will always have that rep. Before we traded Jalen Rose for both of them, we were soft. When they were both here, we were called "thugs". When it was just Ron, we were called things like "tough" and "physical". Now we're soft again.
I don't believe either of them try or have tried to hurt their fellow players (insert Brawl joke here... or don't), but Brad is a hard fouler sometimes and he's ruffled more than a few feathers doing it. Ask Shaq (though it was really Oakley's elbow that set him off; he didn't know who did it and Brad had hacked him earlier).
As for Ron, for every flagrant he got in Indiana that was weak or called by reputation, he had some that were just inexcusable. He spun a 76er into a 360 once by grabbing him as he was falling out of bounds (or something like that; I just remember Ron falling out of bounds and a Sixer spinning in air before slamming to the court). I can think of two flagrants that I think were the worst, both the same act: He swiped from behind as Paul Pierce/Andre Kirilenko drove to the basket for a floater, and he nailed them in the face, pulling both of their heads straight back sharply. They're both lucky they didn't get whiplash (seriously).
Other than that? I can only recall just fouls that were too hard, and like I said reputation ones.
But both have had enough legitly questionable incidents that I don't bat an eye when someone else in the league expresses concern.
Neither is as bad as Bruce Bowen, IMO, but they've done wrong before.
Who else has a bad rep in this league for this kind of thing? I know I'm forgetting someone obvious. Danny Forston comes to mind. But I keep thinking there was some team that whenever the Pacers played them, our guys always managed to get into dangerous situations under the basket because of how this guy played. Matt Geiger was a punk in the '00 playoffs. But neither is who I think I'm remembering. Hmm.