Kevin Durant recently gave props to Kevin Garnett on The Boardroom Podcast for being the standard-bearer of NBA trashtalk.
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Talking s**t to your sporting opponents is one of the basic components of a high-level competitive event. It sets the tone for a really competitive game, and is a real indication of players playing with real pride.
Overall, trash talk can be a really fun addition to practically any team activity. It allows people to express themselves in a way that is out of the ordinary. The best players in most games are often as glib with their words as they are on the field.
Players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Larry Bird built their legends based on their trash talking skills, in addition to their oncourt dominance.
They would likely have been as good on the court without this element. But trash talking gave them a mental edge over their opponents.
Kevin Durant raves about how Kevin Garnett carried the standard of trash talking in the 00s
When the conversation turned to Kendrick Perkins, who played alongside Garnett with the Celtics, Durant touched on “the KG effect,” which eventually influenced the entire league.
“That was that KG effect. KG rubbed off on him when he was in Boston. Pretty much taught him everything he know. They had a veteran team. When you got a veteran team, they know all the slick talking s**t.”
“They set the culture in the league for a while. KG, which was… all the dudes KG had underneath him, he was passing them along the league. Tony Allen here, Rondo over there, Perk over there. He was affecting the whole league with his [expletive] talking.”
