I love watching the old Bird trash talking videos. I hated him back then just because I was a Lakers fan, but I had no idea he talked so much. James Worthy said,"Larry Bird was an asshole!"
He was the kind of guy who would tell you exactly what he was going to do to score on you, then execute. Again and again. Can you imagine how demoralizing that'd be? This guy tells you how he's going to beat you, and you're powerless to stop him. You have to stand there and watch the man toss it in.
Etan Thomas describes an all-time sonning by Tim Duncan:
"So weโre playing the Spurs and I get the ball on the post. I inside pivot and sweep to the middle for my jump hook and he blocks it. So as we are running down the court he says to me โthat was a good move but you have to get more into my body so you can either draw the foul or I canโt block itโ. So I didnโt know if he was talking noise or what so just kind of looked at him confused and said ok. Then, a few plays later I did it again got more into his body and he couldnโt block it. I missed the shot and he looked at me and said much better and kept playing lol."