Some of the best trash talkers in NBA history took their craft to extreme lengths. One of those guys was Reggie Miller, who once revealed that he used to learn new languages so that he could trash-talk opponents during the Olympics. A legendary dedication that fellow trash talker Kevin Garnett had to commend the Hall of Famer for.
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Reggie was recently on the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, recounting some of the best moments from his career. During the show, he played a game of fact or fiction. Miller was asked if it was factual that he bought dictionaries in different languages before the Olympics.
“Yes, I did, fact!” Reggie exclaimed. “Fact! Yes, I did! And I was butchering the language, but they knew what I was trying to say, because I wanted them to know, yeah, in your own language, you’re getting this.”
The remarks had Barnes and Jackson dying with laughter as they had to respect the dedication. Both were also quite good trash talkers during their playing days. But they never went as far as to learn another language to get in their opponent’s head.
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When Kevin Garnett caught wind of the clip, he had immense praise for what he calls a trash-talking God.
“Salute to one of the greatest to talk it n walk it,” Garnett preached. “Reggie was international trash-talking in other languages is GOD MODE OF TRASH TALKING.”
KG on IG pic.twitter.com/qp5Ras2Cmu
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) May 5, 2025
Given his proficiency in trash-talking, Garnett seemed to appreciate Miller’s ability. Which makes sense because Reggie was known as one of the best trash talkers of all time. He probably learned a ton from watching him play growing up.
But Miller wasn’t the only player who learned a new language to trash-talk their opponent.
Even Kobe Bryant adopted the Reggie Miller strategy of trash talk
Many know that Kobe Bryant knew how to speak Italian growing up overseas. Funnily enough, during a playoff matchup against the San Antonio Spurs in 2001, Bryant tried to trash-talk Tony Parker in his native French language.
“He said some stuff, but it was like, not really good. I said, man, you don’t even talk French,” Parker joked. “And so, the year after, we played them again in the playoffs, and he was talking straight trash to me in French. And I was like, man, you learned French that fast?”
Some players are simply willing to go the extra mile when it comes to getting in the heads of their opponents. And Kobe was one of them. It’s partly what made him a freakish competitor.
However, at the end of the day, trash talk comes up short if you can’t back it up. Kobe Bryant, Reggie Miller, KG, and all of the other trash-talking greats had that ability. It’ll be interesting to see who carries that torch into the modern day.
We’ve already seen some newer trash talkers come about, like Dillon Brooks, and Jimmy Butler has also been known to partake in his share of jabber. But we don’t see players go to the lengths that Reggie and Kobe did back in the day anymore. Which is surprising, given that the game has ushered in more European players over the years.
