It’s a new age in the NBA. Back in the days of Michael Jordan, the Bad Boy’s of Detroit, or even Shaq, trash talking was very alive in the NBA.
Talking to USA Today Sports, Shaq said that trash talking in the league isn’t where it was when he last played.
“Trash talking has slipped 60%,” Shaq said. “I know a lot of the players are worried about getting fined, but for me, growing up, you had to trash talk. I didn’t play against kids, I played against guys on the army base. Gary Payton one of the world’s greatest trash talkers grew up in Oakland, the mean streets of Oakland. But they say lot of the legends were great trash talkers. I was talking to Isiah [Thomas] once and he said Larry Bird was an unbelievable trash talker. Like Larry Bird used to say stuff like, ‘I’m gonna take one dribble, pump-fake you and even if you don’t go for it, I’m going to shoot it the second time and it’s going to be all net,’ and he’d do it.”
60% huh? I’m curious as to where Shaq got that number from, must be some super crazy ADVANCED analytics on that stat.
Also, that Isiah Thomas story about Larry Bird, why do I feel like I heard somebody say the same thing about Michael Jordan?
