Byron Scott gave an example of Bird's hilarious style: In the oddest of compliments, MJ said Larry Bird talked "good trash, not dirty trash". Why be scared to talk to a guy who's going to score 40 points on you either way?īut Larry Legend is in a class by himself, the trash-talking GOAT. When the media asked Gary Payton why he dared talk trash to Michael Jordan after one of the Sonics' 1996 NBA Finals losses to the Bulls, he retorted MJ would go off even when GP didn't talk, so what difference did it make? I love that kind of fearlessness. Gary Payton was one of the best trash-talkers. I love how savage Westbrook is in general, but I don't think he's very witty.īut what about the days when the league was full of trash-talkers? You could put together an all-time trash talking team full of guys who played more or less at the same time: Charles Barkley, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, Gary Payton, etc. He just gets irritated by hecklers and tells them to shut the f*#! up. Westbrook talks trash too, but it's a little different. When the Thunder players were giving them everything they had last season, he dropped bucket after bucket and let them know about it. He's not savage about it, but he doesn't let put-downs go unanswered either. I think the closest thing we have to a decent trash-talker among star players in the league today is Kevin Durant. If I were Steph I might have laughed at him, told him to " face me when you trash talk me, do it with conviction." or something like that. It looked like he was hedging his bets, saying something to get it off his chest, but still turning away quickly in case Steph was ready to make an issue of it. It wasn't too convincing though, because Bron turned the other way as he did it. To his credit LeBron did bark at Steph Curry in the '16 Finals after blocking his shot. In Kob's opinion, the relationships players of this generation have built through AAU probably makes them closer to one another than were previous generations of players. At one point Kobe indicated it was borderline irritating to him that LeBron wouldn't respond to Kobe's trash talk. Is trash talking a lost art in the NBA? With KG, Kobe, Metta World Peace and Paul Pierce all retired now, it seems like the last generation of big trash talkers is gone.
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