It looks silly now, but the Bulls’ acquisition of DeMar DeRozan last August was not roundly praised in NBA circles.
Some believed the Bulls paid too much and gave up too much in the sign-and-trade with the Spurs. One ESPN writer said DeRozan was “ill-fitting with Chicago’s current core” and gave the Bulls a D-minus for the deal.
At the time, ESPN TV analyst Jeff Van Gundy had other thoughts about Bulls exec Arturas Karnisovas’ move.
“I’m thinking that this guy is serious about winning,” Van Gundy said this week. “A lot of people in management are always playing the long game because it’s also a safe game.
“What Arturas did was, he valued DeRozan more than anyone else, and he’s been rewarded. He valued [Lonzo] Ball more than most, and he’s been rewarded. And the same with [Alex] Caruso. It’s a tremendous lesson in roster building.”
Van Gundy will team with play-by-play voice Mike Breen and sideline reporter Monica McNutt to call the Warriors-Bulls game Friday at the United Center.
Considering Van Gundy is in his 15th season with ESPN, it’s easy to forget his one year with TNT in 2002-03, between coaching jobs with the Knicks and Rockets. He worked with Marv Albert and Mike Fratello, who also had called games together at NBC in the 1990s.
“It was an unbelievable learning experience,” Van Gundy said. “The biggest thing that I saw was the camaraderie between Marv and Mike and their genuine reactions or jabs at each other. It was really good, and you can’t fake it.”
But Van Gundy and Albert weren’t always on good terms. Albert was the voice of the Knicks from 1967 to 2004, and they crossed paths when Van Gundy was a Knicks assistant and then head coach between 1989 and 2001. At the time, MSG Network didn’t produce a typical home-team broadcast, and Van Gundy thought Albert was highly critical of the Knicks, particularly star Patrick Ewing.
“Back then, there were no pregame and postgame shows. You just didn’t see each other,” Van Gundy said. “And so the couple times we spoke, it wasn’t great. He felt that he needed to be as unbiased and straightforward as he could be. I wanted a homer.”
Having been in the business, Van Gundy said he realizes broadcasters aren’t going to please everyone. He also knows fans on both sides will think he favors the other team. But he appreciates working with his longtime crew of Breen, analyst Mark Jackson and producer Tim Corrigan, who have provided Van Gundy a solid foundation in his second career.
“They accepted me for what I was and also for what I wasn’t,” Van Gundy said. “And so instead of trying to change everything about you, they work with you and try to give you pointers here and there. They don’t plant the seed of self-doubt.”
Van Gundy is an excellent analyst, and he and Jackson share a repartee similar to that of Albert and Fratello. But he also admits he isn’t a polished broadcaster, and producers know not to bother talking into his headset while he’s speaking. He can’t handle it.
Breen impressed upon Van Gundy early the importance of word choice, telling him not to use “great” when a play is only “good” because you have no place to go from there. But Van Gundy tries to simplify his role to its fundamental task.
“On air, it’s really not a hard job,” he said. “Say what you see. That’s basically the job.”
However, the saying part can be problematic. During the Western Conference finals last season, Van Gundy disagreed with a flagrant-foul call and said, “I am sick of the sissification of the game.”
“Yeah, people didn’t like that,” said Van Gundy, who was criticized for using the demeaning word “sissy,” never mind giving it a suffix. “I truly try very, very hard not to get myself fired with offensive language. And then on the other hand, I try not to be offended when people are critical of me.”
Fans of the 1990s Bulls likely remember Van Gundy calling former coach Phil Jackson “Big Chief Triangle,” after the team’s offense and Jackson’s fondness for Native American culture. Van Gundy still regrets the nickname. As the son of a coach — and brother of former coach and current TNT analyst Stan Van Gundy — he regrets denigrating a coach and his beliefs.
Being in Chicago will give Van Gundy the chance to reconnect with another coach, the Bulls’ Billy Donovan, whom Van Gundy coached as an assistant at Providence. It might sound strange to those who remember the rivalry with the Knicks, but Van Gundy is happy to see the Bulls’ success.
“Arturas has done a heck of a job,” he said. “He took a lot of criticism, overpaid Ball, overpaid DeRozan supposedly. Guess what? Look at us now.”
At long last, it sounds as though ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” will broadcast baseball games again.
After four years of watching Matt Vasgersian and Alex Rodriguez take the show to places no viewer wanted to go, baseball fans should feel comfortable with the network’s new “SNB” crew of play-by-play voice Karl Ravech and analysts David Cone and Eduardo Perez.
Whereas Matty and A-Rod either deviated from the game or just didn’t make sense, the new guys don’t figure to frustrate viewers nearly as much, if at all.
“The game dictates when you focus on the game and other times where you veer into broader subjects, baseball-related and sometimes not baseball-related,” Ravech said on a conference call this week. “Baseball lends itself to more conversation. At the same time, you do recognize there are points in every game where you focus on the game.”
Ravech and Perez have made a fine tandem for years at ESPN, but Cone could emerge as the star of the show. A five-time World Series champion and the 1994 American League Cy Young winner, Cone has become one of the best analysts in the game for the Yankees’ YES Network.
Rodriguez isn’t leaving ESPN. He’ll join Yankees TV voice Michael Kay on an alternate broadcast, “Sunday Night Baseball with Kay-Rod,” which will air eight times on ESPN2 alongside “SNB” broadcasts. Rodriguez and Kay also will call ESPN’s main broadcast of two exclusive regular-season games.
Remote patrol
Longtime Chicago radio voice George Ofman’s podcast, “Tell me a story I don’t know,” begins its fourth season Tuesday with a two-part interview with Mike North, one of The Score’s first hosts when the station launched in 1992. “I think The Score was the second-strongest franchise in Chicago in the ’90s after the Bulls,” North said in Part 1.
The “TNT Bulls” aren’t back – that requires them to play a home game on the network – but the Bulls will appear on TNT at 2:30 p.m. Monday, when they visit the Grizzlies as part of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day doubleheader. Play-by-play voice Brian Anderson, analyst Stan Van Gundy and reporter Stephanie Ready will call the action. Read More
LOS ANGELES– Lionel Richie will be honored all night long for his musical achievements.
The Library of Congress said Thursday that Richie will receive the national library’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. He will be bestowed the prize at an all-star tribute in Washington, D.C., on March 9.
PBS stations will broadcast the concert on May 17.
“This is truly an honor of a lifetime, and I am so grateful to be receiving the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song,” Richie said in a statement. “I am proud to be joining all the other previous artists, who I also admire and am a fan of their music.”
Past recipients include Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Tony Bennett, Emilio and Gloria Estefan and Garth Brooks.
Richie is known for his catalog of hits including “All Night Long,” “Endless Love,” “Lady,” “Penny Lover,” “Truly” and “Stuck on You.” He co-wrote the historically popular song “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson.
Before his superstar solo career, Richie was a founding member of the Commodores, a funk and soul band that made waves in the 1970s. The group had tremendous success backed by chart-climbing hits such as “Three Times a Lady,” “Still” and “Easy.”
The singer has won four Grammys, an Oscar and the distinction of MusicCares Person of the Year in 2016. He was a Kennedy Center honoree in 2017.
Richie mentored aspiring music artists as a judge on ABC’s “American Idol” for the past four seasons. He expects to return for the show’s 20th season.
Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, said Richie has been an inspiring entertainer who helped “strengthen our global connections.”
“Lionel Richie’s unforgettable work has shown us that music can bring us together,” Hayden said. “Even when we face problems and disagree on issues, songs can show us what we have in common.”
Temperatures reached a high of 40 degrees yesterday! Call it a January thaw, or spring for a day, it felt good to get out of the deep freeze, to walk on ice-free sidewalks, even for a day.
Squirrels were running up and down the trees. Sparrows chattered from the rooftops. People were out riding bicycles in the streets!
Chiberia is not gone, even as a Saskatchewan Screamer is poised to bring a winter storm to the south and southeast–Kentucky and Tennessee are forecast to get more snow! This storm may bring some snow to Chicago, too, so keep the shovels and snow boots handy.
Meanwhile, the Omicron variant is lurking like a stalker in an alley, or a carjacker at the corner waiting for the light to change. We are still living with uncertainty. Will we be buying K95 masks? Will we need another booster in the fall?
But even in the middle of winter, there is more light each day after the winter solstice. There are buds on the bare branches. Better days are coming.
In spite of uncertainty, and fears that have plagued us going into the third year of these plague years, this is what 40 degrees in January feels like–positivity, lightness, hope!
I am originally a country girl from downstate Illinois. I was a Chicago girl in Rogers Park by the Lake. Now I live in Oak Park, by the Blue Line and the Congress Expressway. I write about the weather and other things. I hope you enjoy and join in these observations. Welcome to Chicago Weather Watch!
Sure, it has a few new cracks in it, some fresh mud, and that stain might just be blood, but it’s back.
“We have and we had a chip on our shoulder,” Zach LaVine said, trying to sound as confident as he could considering what happened late Wednesday night. “I don’t want to say we relaxed a little bit, but we can use this as fuel to get us back with that edge and start being the [team] that’s attacking rather than being attacked.”
They need something to help them find their way back.
In what was a storybook season going into the last week, the Bulls have now been forced to eat a huge piece of humble pie. Losing in Dallas on Sunday was one thing, but the blowout loss to Brooklyn at the United Center was rock bottom.
The ugly numbers do more than support that, as the Bulls allowed a season-worst 138 points, allowed the Nets to shoot 56% from the field and 53% from three, all but laying down in the second half thanks to a Brooklyn 43-8 run.
Yes, all for a national television audience to witness.
“Getting your butt kicked on national television is not a fun thing after playing a pretty solid first half,” LaVine said. “It brings you back down to earth. You just want to go and see why you lost the way you did. Good teams come out in the third quarter and put teams to sleep. We’ve done that to teams before … we had it done to us [by the Nets].”
Two life preservers that the Bulls can float on?
They still won the season series with the Nets in case the Eastern Conference crown does come down to a tie-breaking scenario. And they were still without their “dawgs” on defense.
Not having Alex Caruso (health and safety protocol), and Javonte Green (groin), and then losing Derrick Jones Jr. in the first quarter with a knee injury, was more than felt.
“It just sucks DJ went down,” veteran DeMar DeRozan said. “We haven’t had Alex in a while, Javonte is out. [That’s] the heart and soul of our team. We kind of lean on them to bring that super edge, especially defensively we haven’t had and we kind of feed off. Once we get those guys back pretty sure we’ll be right where we left off at.”
Maybe, but it’s not that simple, either. Caruso and Green will help, but the attention to detail on defense has slipped the last month, covered up by a nine-game winning streak in which the shooting was eventually going to become unsustainable.
Coach Billy Donovan had been warning his players of the slipping defense both privately and publicly, and maybe he really has their ear after this one.
“The best way for teams to learn is going through experiences,” Donovan said. “We have to earn our way to play in the post season. I love the responsibility that comes with where we are now [in the standings]. We have to understand what we’re going to be getting from other teams. Some of the things I’ve been talking about the last eight, ten, 12 games you can see when you get into certain situations you are not going to be able to get away with that.
“My whole focus is we have to get better.”
And if the playoffs work out the right way, they’ll also have to focus on how to beat Brooklyn’s three-headed monster of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving.
“It’s something we’re going to have to face if we want to go where we need to,” LaVine said. “We’ve got the split on them right now, we won’t get to play them again [until the playoffs], so we’ll see what’s up.”
We work to make a living, but the work should be working for us. When we begin to look at the grand scheme of things, we should be able to identify how what we’re doing is actually working in our favor. Everything we do has a purpose, and our goals should always be to know what the purposes are for whatever we’re doing, no matter how big or small. Dig deep and look beyond the obvious and discover how your work is working for you.
Sure, it has a few new cracks in it, some fresh mud, and that stain might just be blood, but it’s back.
“We have and we had a chip on our shoulder,” Zach LaVine said, trying to sound as confident as he could considering what happened late Wednesday night. “I don’t want to say we relaxed a little bit, but we can use this as fuel to get us back with that edge and start being the [team] that’s attacking rather than being attacked.”
They need something to help them find their way back.
In what was a storybook season going into the last week, the Bulls have now been forced to eat a huge piece of humble pie. Losing in Dallas on Sunday was one thing, but the blowout loss to Brooklyn at the United Center was rock bottom.
The ugly numbers do more than support that, as the Bulls allowed a season worst 138 points, allowed the Nets to shoot 56% from the field and 53% from three, all but laying down in the second half thanks to a Brooklyn 43-8 run.
Yes, all for a national television audience to witness.
“Getting your butt kicked on national television is not a fun thing after playing a pretty solid first half,” LaVine said. “It brings you back down to earth. You just want to go and see why you lost the way you did. Good teams come out in the third quarter and put teams to sleep. We’ve done that to teams before … we had it done to us [by the Nets].”
Two life preservers that the Bulls can float on?
They still won the season series with the Nets in case the Eastern Conference crown does come down to a tie-breaking scenario. And they were still without their “dawgs” on defense.
Not having Alex Caruso (health and safety protocol), and Javonte Green (groin), and then losing Derrick Jones Jr. in the first quarter with a knee injury, was more than felt.
“It just sucks DJ went down,” veteran DeMar DeRozan said. “We haven’t had Alex in a while, Javonte is out. [That’s] the heart and soul of our team. We kind of lean on them to bring that super edge, especially defensively we haven’t had and we kind of feed off. Once we get those guys back pretty sure we’ll be right where we left off at.”
Maybe, but it’s not that simple, either. Caruso and Green will help, but the attention to detail on defense has slipped the last month, covered up by a nine-game winning streak in which the shooting was eventually going to become unsustainable.
Coach Billy Donovan had been warning his players of the slipping defense both privately and publicly, and maybe he really has their ear after this one.
“The best way for teams to learn is going through experiences,” Donovan said. “We have to earn our way to play in the post season. I love the responsibility that comes with where we are now [in the standings]. We have to understand what we’re going to be getting from other teams. Some of the things I’ve been talking about the last eight, ten, 12 games you can see when you get into certain situations you are not going to be able to get away with that.
“My whole focus is we have to get better.”
And if the playoffs work out the right way, they’ll also have to focus on how to beat Brooklyn’s three-headed monster of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving.
“It’s something we’re going to have to face if we want to go where we need to,” LaVine said. “We’ve got the split on them right now, we won’t get to play them again [until the playoffs], so we’ll see what’s up.”
Although we’re a little over a month out from the 2022 NBA All-Star Game, we aren’t wasting any time diving into the star-powered basketball weekend. The rosters haven’t even been announced yet, but that doesn’t mean we’re not itching to see which of our favorite Bulls players make the cut. In fact, if you still need to vote for our guys, make sure to get your picks in before January 22 when voting closes at midnight.
As of last Thursday, January 6, three Chicago Bulls players find themselves high up on the ballot for the Eastern Conference. We definitely aren’t surprised to see that many of them up there. And come All-Star weekend, we won’t be shocked if even more of our players participate. So, without further ado, let’s get into our 2022 NBA All-Star Game preview, Chicago Bulls style!!
There’s probably one player on the Bulls everyone thinks about when we talk about the Slam Dunk Contest. But, what about some of our other talented dunkers not named Zach LaVine? For starters, we have Derrick Jones Jr. as one potential Dunk Contest competitor. It wouldn’t be his first time at the event either, as he won it back in 2020. Unfortunately for all of us, both him and LaVine have expressed a bit of disinterest in dueling it out in the Slam Dunk Contest. It makes sense though. LaVine has already won the competition twice, and Jones Jr. has one. However, this doesn’t mean we don’t have a shot at seeing any Bulls participate this year.
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Our sneaky choice for the 2022 Slam Dunk Contest is third-year guard, Coby White. We don’t expect a lot of support for this pick, but that doesn’t change the fact that White can dunk. Seriously. He’s slammed down plenty of posters in his short few years in the league. Last season there was this nasty one on Stanley Johnson of the Toronto Raptors. And as of just last month, he threw it down on King James himself. Put him in this year’s contest and he might just surprise everyone.
Okay, so if Zach LaVine won’t participate in another dunk contest, what about the three-point competition? This is a lot more likely to happen. LaVine participated in the NBA All-Star 3-Point contest the past two years. But, to be honest, he didn’t do much in either of them. In both contests, LaVine was knocked out of the first round. Should he have the opportunity to participate during the 2022 NBA All-Star game weekend, he’ll have a shot at being the first player to ever win both the 3-Point and Slam Dunk contests. If anyone can do it, it’s Zach.
Next up is the Rising Stars game which features 20 of the basketball world’s young stars all in one game. And if you’ve been paying any attention to the Chicago Bulls this season, there’s one rising star that comes to mind: Ayo Dosunmu. Dosunmu’s rise to stardom has been ongoing ever since his days at University of Illinois. Since entering the league for his rookie season this year, he hasn’t slowed down in the slightest. He might not see the minutes he was used to in college, or the same minutes that other rookies see, but that really shouldn’t matter. Ayo plays on one of the best teams in the league and he contributes in a positive fashion night after night. Other rookies only see more playing time because they’re on worse teams where their team’s rosters require them to play starter minutes. That’s just not the case for Dosunmu, and we’d be appalled to not see him selected for this year’s Rising Stars game.
The last event that will take place during NBA All-Star weekend is the 2022 NBA All-Star Game! While the league has yet to release an official schedule for the entire weekend, it’s a safe bet that the ASG will take place as the final event on February 20. Twenty-four spots are up for grabs in the All-Star game. Players are chosen through a combination of fan votes, players’ panel selections, and head coach’s reserve choices. We can’t stress this enough: VOTE FOR YOUR BULLS NOW! DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Nikola Vučević have already leaped into the top 10 of fan voting at their positions. But, there’s about two weeks left of voting where a lot can change, so don’t wait to vote.
You can visit the league’s website to stay up-to-date on all things surrounding the upcoming 2022 NBA All-Star Game, and make sure to check in at the end of the month when the voting ends and the final rosters are announced!
MESA, ARIZONA – FEBRUARY 18: Pitcher Jon Lester #34 of the Chicago Cubs poses during Chicago Cubs Photo Day on February 18, 2020 in Mesa, Arizona. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
The Chicago Cubs were blessed to be an outstanding baseball team for most of the 2010s. They had elite players all over the place which helped them make multiple postseason runs, including a World Series title in 2016. One of the biggest reason’s for the franchise’s turnaround is Jon Lester’s arrival.
Bringing him in showed that the Cubs declared their rebuild over and were very serious about winning. All Lester did before coming to the Cubs was win. That continued with the Cubs as he was one of their ace pitchers for a long time.
On Wednesday, Jon Lester announced his retirement from Major League Baseball. It was an outstanding career for him as he played in the league for 16 years. Throughout those 16 years, he spent time with the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Oakland A’s, Washington Nationals, and St. Louis Cardinals. Of course, the big bulk came with Boston (parts of nine seasons) and Chicago (six seasons).
He finished his career with a record of 200-117. He had a career ERA of 3.66 to go with a WHIP of 1.278 and 2488 strikeouts in 452 games. All of this accumulated a career WAR of 44.2. Lester had a no-hitter in 2008 and was an all-star five times. Regular season baseball was very kind to him.
Jon Lester was an amazing player for the Chicago Cubs both on and off the field.
Lester was known for being great in the regular season and then elevating his game even further in the postseason. He made 26 postseason appearances where he had an ERA of 2.51. Getting considerably better in the playoffs is incredibly hard, especially when you are a borderline Hall of Famer in the regular season. It is no surprise that he is a three-time World Series champion.
The Cubs were very lucky to have landed Lester in the second half of his career. He was an extremely important piece to the team that ended a 108 year long World Series drought. He is the greatest free-agent signing in the history of the franchise.
Outside of Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks, he is also probably the greatest free-agent signing in the history of men’s pro sports in Chicago. It was a sensational run and he deserves lots of recognition in retirement. We aren’t sure if he will remain in baseball but don’t be surprised if he does.
JIMMY BUTLER INTERRUPTED his pregame warmup and made a beeline toward half court. There, Utah Jazz swingman Joe Ingles stood, watched and waited as the All-Star closed in.
Butler’s mission: Peace.
At this point, the quick wits, sharp tongues and competitive fires of both Butler and Ingles had been clashing for years, a powder keg sparked early in Ingles’ career when he tried to blow up a screen Butler had set. It left Ingles sprawled on the floor with the then-Chicago Bulls forward standing over him. Fortunately for Ingles, his teammate Trevor Booker pulled Butler away.
“[Butler was] staring at me like he was bloody about to beat the s— out of me,” Ingles recalled.
They never exchanged blows, but Butler and Ingles have traded trash-talking jabs every time their teams have met since, often resulting in double technical fouls and the accompanying, four-figure fines.
“OK, man, give it a break,” Butler, now a member of the Miami Heat, recalled telling Ingles during their pregame treaty. “We’ve been in this league for way too long now. C’mon, man, chill with the T’s. I want my money, you want your money. Let it go.”
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The Utah forward was instantly agreeable. Butler and Ingles exchanged daps, buried their beef and protected their bank accounts.
“I was like, ‘I’m with it, because I’m trying to save some money, too,'” Ingles said. “Ever since then, we’ve gotten along pretty well.”
Said Butler: “We’ve been good ever since. He’s a good dude.”
The NBA is regarded as a much friendlier league than in previous generations, a shift that can be reflected in the nature of trash talk, or lack thereof, between players.
The days of trash-talking titans overtly jawing at opponents for 48 minutes might be gone, but the art hasn’t disappeared. Rather, it’s become more subtle, more sporadic and sometimes won’t include the “talk” at all. But the best in the game still find ways to gain an edge.
“You don’t see too much Kevin Garnett- and Gary Payton-type trash talk,” Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard said. “It’s not really a verbal assault like it used to be.”
Illustration by ESPN
REGGIE MILLER HAD“the choke.” Dikembe Mutombo had “the finger wag.” Lillard routinely does the “Dame Time” wrist tap, but his most memorable gesture was a wave.
And it spoke volumes.
It had been chippy the entire 2019 first-round series between the Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder, with Lillard and Russell Westbrook playing leading roles.
“That was probably the most trash talk I’ve ever done in my life, like in the game, where we all was just kind of talking s— to each other,” Lillard said. “Everybody on both teams. People was getting separated. People were saying stuff after the game in the media, stuff like that.”
The series didn’t last long — Lillard made sure of it. His 50th point of the night came on a 37-footer over Paul George at the Game 5 buzzer, one of the most iconic shots of this generation and one that sent the Thunder on vacation.
“There are trash-talkers in the league,” Lillard said, “but in this era, it’s more gestures.”
Lillard cited examples such as staring down the opposing bench after making a 3-pointer, Westbrook pretending to rock the baby after scoring on a post-up and Draymond Green flexing after an and-1.
Such gestures occasionally used to mock, as was the case in another trash-talking saga featuring Lillard and George. Lillard uncharacteristically missed a pair of free throws late in a loss to the LA Clippers in the 2020 bubble, and Patrick Beverley responded by animatedly tapping his wrist, literally rolling over in laughter while on the bench in street clothes.
“I think certain players, you really can rattle. They end up being so worried about the person they’re talking to more than the coach they should be listening to.”
Jazz SG Joe Ingles
Beverley did his best impersonation of the goodbye wave at the end of the game, with George joining in on the fun as their howling continued well after the final buzzer.
“I mean, I hit a game-winner in the playoffs to send [Beverley] home [in 2014], and I did the same thing to send [George] home. Maybe they’re still upset about that.”
For Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young, his “wave goodbye” moment came during the 2021 playoffs in the world’s most famous arena.
Young is a natural showman, and the basketball world saw it last spring in the Hawks’ first-round win against the New York Knicks. Like Miller a generation ago, Young thrived in front of the Madison Square Garden crowd, which tends to be creative and colorful with its taunts.
Young got the last word — or gesture, bowing to the crowd after he hit a dagger 3-pointer to essentially end the series. Unlike Lillard’s wave to the Thunder, which he said popped into his mind “on the spot,” Young scripted his moment at MSG.
“Heading into it, I knew what I was going to do,” Young said, smiling. “If I had a moment to do that, I was going to take advantage of it. I knew ahead of time what I was going to do.
“It’s fun, it’s basketball, it’s entertainment.”
BUTLER CALLS IT “joking around.” Lillard’s definition is “showing up your opponent.” For Heat forward P.J. Tucker, it’s not trash talk, it’s being “just straight up.”
However NBA players want to describe it, Draymond Green is the best in the league at it. At least, according to Draymond Green.
Green, the Golden State Warriors‘ All-Star forward, certainly has the gift of gab. Green’s most famous quip came at Paul Pierce’s expense during the Hall of Famer’s retirement tour of a final season, when Green yelled from the bench, “You ain’t Kobe [Bryant]! They don’t love you like that!”
Green’s mouth runs constantly, whether he’s communicating with teammates, lobbying referees or talking trash. Sometimes Green blends it up, saying things to a ref or teammate that are intended for an opponent’s ears.
And Green lit up when a listener to his podcast, The Draymond Green Show, submitted a question recently asking about the league’s best trash-talker.
“You get the opportunity to listen to the best trash-talker weekly,” Green said. “I don’t think there’s any better trash-talker in the league than me, and I stand by that. … I guarantee that.”
Other than himself, Green mentioned former Warriors teammate Kevin Durant, praising the Brooklyn Nets star for having “one-liners for days.”
Some of Durant’s quips come during game action: He’s been known to blurt “He drunk at the bar!” after making a defender’s legs wobble with a crossover. Another go-to jab occurs during breaks in the action, when Durant will ask, “Who is this?” and make a show of looking at the back of his defender’s jersey.
Green compared Durant’s style to Hall of Famer Larry Bird; trash-talkers who have the advantage of being legendary players.
“Kevin Durant talking, what are you going to say? Like, ‘Bro, you can’t dribble. … Ah, you can’t shoot.’ Like, what are you going to say?” Green said.
“Like, if you ain’t witty enough to have [clever] comebacks, then you’re screwed.”
Then there are times when Durant gets angry — and the clever barbs mutate into confrontation. Case in point: The fiery exchange he had during last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals with then-Milwaukee Bucks forward P.J. Tucker, whose face was in Durant’s chest as Durant sneered down at him.
“He said I fouled him,” Tucker said earlier this season. The two have been friends since Tucker played at Texas and Durant was a Longhorns recruit.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I did. So what? Who cares? I’m gonna foul you again! And I’m gonna foul you again! I’m gonna keep fouling you!’ You can see the video: ‘I’m not going nowhere! I’m right here! I’m not going nowhere!'”
Then there was another high-profile back-and-forth late in the Nets’ Dec. 30 loss to Joel Embiid‘s Philadelphia 76ers. The stars received double technicals after barking at each other, and Embiid got the last laugh by waving Durant off the floor at the end of the game, same as Durant had done to the 76ers after a Nets win two weeks earlier.
Durant laughed when asked after the game whether Embiid, who used to pride himself on being the NBA’s premier “troll,” had said anything especially inflammatory.
“Hell no, he ain’t really say nothing. I think I just was turnt up,” Durant said. “Nah, he didn’t say nothing that crossed the line. We all respect each other out there. I respect all the players on this team and vice versa. It’s just how we play.”
ULTERIOR MOTIVES EXIST everywhere in the world of NBA trash talk. Not only are players looking to chisel their way under the skin of opponents, they’re looking to impact the box score.
Ingles uses trash talk as a strategic tactic, waiting for the most opportune time to unleash his skill set on easily distracted opponents. He notes he has the ability to talk trash while still focusing on his assignment or the scheme, which isn’t the case with all players.
“I think certain players, you really can rattle,” Ingles said. “They end up being so worried about the person they’re talking to more than the coach they should be listening to.
“They’ll break off the offense to try to attack me or try to attack whoever’s guarding them at the time instead of running the play. A lot of guys get so involved in this one-on-one battle.
“Like, ‘I’m going to iso!’ Well, I’m not going to iso. I can’t.”
Others, like Young, view trash-talking as their own personal hype machine.
Young developed a sharp tongue as a kid playing against grown men at the local YMCA because he didn’t “think they were respecting me the way I felt like they should.”
Always the smallest guy on the court but often the most skilled, Young would tirelessly taunt them.
“If I was doing something nice, I wanted to let them know about it,” Young said. “I just think that’s a sign of competitiveness and just having fun with the game.”
When Young was struggling early in his rookie season, he came to a realization that he had been too respectful of his opponents. He believes loosening his lips opened up his game.
“I was kind of looking at everybody differently, kind of more a fan of being in the NBA and a fan of the guys I was going against,” Young said. “I think after I got out of that mindset and started being who I was and being competitive — and talking a little trash — that’s when everything [unlocked].”
Then, there is Westbrook, who several players say is the most relentless trash-talker in the league. His motives? Self-motivation, players suppose.
Tucker, who acknowledges occasionally talking trash to try to energize himself when he feels lethargic, laughed as he recalled how much Westbrook would get under his skin before they were teammates for a season with the Houston Rockets.
“Then I [saw] him when we played together; he’d talk s— to get himself going every night,” Tucker said. “It has nothing to do with you. You’re just a person. You’re just the guy. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you did. You’re the guy and he’s going to talk s— to you.
“That’s just Russ.”
Lillard, who has had his fair share of on-court battles with Westbrook, phrased it differently.
“I think,” Lillard said, “he talks to himself out there.”
