social media boghest basketball trash talker

But now you always have new guys making calls. “I’m a culprit of many of the fights,” Melshawn Scott, who has been coming to The Cage since 1990, says unapologetically. Sometimes, these verbal insults lead to fights, which spectators equally appreciate. There’s physical survival, that is being able to stay on the court game after game, but there’s also New York City as a place of incredible entertainment, in which skill and showmanship persist in a dazzling array for the spectators.

You get on the court, someone’s gonna test your manhood, your toughness.”īobbito Garcia, a filmmaker and DJ whose streetball documentary Doin’ It in the Park has become a modern reference point, credits New York City with raising the culture of trash talk. “You know when players flex their muscles after dunking on someone?” Segarra asks. Segarra likens its players to Roman gladiators who, once victorious, looked down at their enemies with cold, heartless stares. Former NBA like players Anthony Mason, Stephon Marbury, and Kenny Anderson all got their starts there, as did legions of players who were equally talented but not lucky enough to catch breaks. Indeed, two miles removed from New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Arnie Segarra waxes nostalgic about the glory days of West 4th Street’s The Cage, the long-running spectacle of pick-up basketball where the best of New York have convened. Real trash talk was back in the ‘80s, ‘90s.” It’s all type of stuff, but it’s not trash talk. Thus begs the question: To whom are these players talking? As Russell Westbrook incisively declared in February 2018, “Trash talk can be Twitter, social media, Instagram. While the rising popularity of the NBA among younger fans is good, it also means that players are becoming brands and feel the urge to defend their actions at all costs. After all, as has been widely reported by NBA media, it was Durant who only a year earlier had allegedly created fake social media accounts in order to combat people who posted unsavory things about him online. Though Green apologized and Durant was quick to forgive, the exchange spoke to the messy prospect of balancing on-the-court relationships with off-the-court embitterment. That reportedly escalated into the locker room and led to a one-game suspension of Green. Durant chided Green for not being more aware and passing him the ball at the end of regulation, to which Green fired back, “You’re a b*tch and you know you’re a b*tch,” among other words. Look no further than the Draymond Green, one of the league’s most popular antagonists, who traded verbal blows with teammate Kevin Durant following a loss this year. Today’s crop of NBA players invoke trash talk and showmanship that is as important as the game itself. If Embiid hopes to build up the Sixers one win at a time, he’s equally keen on cutting down his opponents with frequent, ruthless insults. The hashtags #Bum and #TheProcess made cameos, too. Though Philadelphia Sixers provocateur Joel Embiid’s biting tongue is similar to those of the NBA trash-talking greats - guys like Gary Payton and Michael Jordan - he also masterfully employs a tool those guys could not: Twitter.īefore a game earlier this season against Pistons rival Andre Drummond, Embiid tweeted, “I own a lot of real estate in head and I’m on my way to build more.” His post included a misspelled tag, emojis of houses to signify real estate, and an emoji of his own face.

Social media boghest basketball trash talker