social media boghest basketball trash talker

#Social media boghest basketball trash talker series

tournament, it looked like Dean Smith was one of the only coaches whose players weren't yammering,' says the Bulls coach, Phil Jackson. 2,087).Īs quickly as it's filtering down from the league's one-named superstars, it's flooding up even faster from below. itself, is an overwhelmingly black phenomenon, cultivated in inner-city neighborhoods and playgrounds, where it is called 'signifying,' 'playing the dozens' and 'selling woof tickets.' Yet it is generally agreed that the most devastating practicioner was a shy, slow-footed, low-jumping, fair-skinned man named Larry Bird who grew up in French Lick, Ind. Last year, the Knicks had two trash-talking point guards, one of whom, Greg Anthony, is a registered Republican and another, Mark Jackson, who is a born-again Christian. 'Everybody, one way or another, says something.'Īmong those talking are rookies, veterans, big men, little men, superstars, guys on 10-day contracts, the chronically insecure and the profoundly self-confident. 'It's not like there's one player who stands out like a sore thumb,' he says. In the playoffs alone, we've seen and heard the Yugoslavian-born New Jersey Net, Drazen Petrovic, spewing his heavily accented trash all over Gerald Wilkins of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix's Cedric Ceballos jawing with Laker veteran James Worthy, Houston's Vernon Maxwell and Kenny Smith going back and forth with the Clippers' Ron Harper and Mark Jackson ('Don't you ever lay off on me,' screamed Smith at Jackson while wagging an admonishing finger, after hitting an uncontested 3-pointer).Īsked to name the most loquacious players in the league, Miami's Glen Rice doesn't know where to start. No longer limited to an occasional aside, inaudible to all but the players and invisible to the average fan, trash talking has become an inextricable part of the game, a permanent doubling of the stakes of humiliation. With the playoffs driving to a climax, many of the most memorable matchups have been verbal rather than athletic, and 1993 seems destined to be remembered as the year of Trash Talk - the various gratuitous ways by which players distract, intimidate and infuriate their opponents. Starks was immediately ejected from the game and, with Miller leading the way, the Pacers were on the way to a rout. Eight minutes into the third period, Starks, who had just scored a basket to put the Knicks up 59-57, chased down Miller and fired a head butt into the Pacer's flapping chin. On this night, Cheryl's baby brother would get the last laugh.

For his part, Miller, a guard with the Indiana Pacers, was punctuating his long-range jumpers with obscene references to a report that the Knicks, confident of ending the series that night, had checked out of their hotel before the game. As the third game in the first round of the Eastern Division playoffs wore on, Starks's teammate on the New York Knicks, Charles Oakley, began referring to Miller as 'Cheryl,' the name of his older and, until recently, more celebrated Olympic-basketball-playing sister. According to the prevailing customs of the National Basketball Association, outplaying an opponent is no longer sufficient - you have to rub his nose in it like an untrained puppy. John Starks and Reggie Miller had been in each other's face for two and a half games, shooting jump shots and their mouths with equal conviction.

#Social media boghest basketball trash talker series