10) Rick Mahorn
“He had a lot to say,” former Piston Earl Cureton tells the Guardian. And it came at a time when talking wasn’t as rampant as today. “You’d get punched in the mouth in my era if you couldn’t back it up,” Cureton says. To wit, Mahorn once told the hulking Karl Malone point blank, “I got six fouls; all of them got your name on it, so bring it.” https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/arena/basketball_network/i-got-six-fouls-all-of-them-got-your-name-on-it-so-bring-it/article_a3dfeb05-4232-5c41-97f6-326a4162996a.html
9) Draymond Green
Speaking of punching people in the mouth ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ5_Rmkgn9s
8) Kobe Bryant
To be the best, for Bryant, meant making everyone else feel like the worst. Like when he belittled former teammate Dwight Howard on the court, calling him “soft as a motherfucker”. https://twitter.com/legendz_nba/status/1714073060909699324
7) Charles Barkley
... in the summer of 1992 while playing for the Dream Team, speaking during a press conference, Barkley looked the reporters in the eye and said deadpan about the upcoming opponent for his American team, “I don’t know anything about Angola. But Angola’s in trouble.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX1O2KO83Uw
6) Micheal Ray Richardson
Richardson constantly kept his motormouth going. He would even go into the opposing locker-room and tell people he was going to “bust” their “ass”. https://grantland.com/features/where-micheal-ray-richardson/
5) Kevin Garnett
You’re a top-five trash talker when you can out-talk another all-time great. And Kevin Garnett, in a matter of a few syllables, did just that to Charles Barkley on national television. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFr8sj1OCmk
4) Gary Payton
He never ever shut up. Like the time he went eyebrow to eyebrow with Michael Jordan, cursing and smirking at His Airness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97tdL4BIRrA
3) Michael Jordan
It took place in games and in practices, even causing guys like Steve Kerr to get into physical altercations with him. ... When playing against another team, Jordan knew his resume spoke so loudly that all he had to do was recite it to get opposing players weak in the knees. He even talked junk in meaningless All-Star games. Not to mention relentlessly in playoff games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SOFTlUoHck
2) Reggie Miller
Whether he’s taunting world-famous movie directors with the choking sign, getting into head-butt competitions with All-Star shooting guards like John Starks or going at it with entire crowds at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks, the Indiana Pacers’ Reggie Miller is an all-timer when it comes to trash spewing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd4Tejb14zI
1) Larry Bird
Bird would always be offering venom. “The best trash talker I played with was Larry Bird,” Micheal Ray Richardson tells the Guardian. Famously, Bird would come out of a timeout with the game on the line and he’d tell the guy guarding him just where and when he was going to hit the game-winner. Then he’d do exactly what he said and walk off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alrwvZCd8PY
(Full article has more details and additional links) https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2023/nov/30/nba-best-trash-talkers-larry-bird-michael-jordan
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