Draymond Green Explained The Art Of Trash Talk And Shutting Up Paul Pierce


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Draymond Green is the current king of trash talk in the NBA. The Warriors’ All-Star is as good as there is at getting under the skin of opponents — sometimes too good — and he serves as the emotional leader of Golden State thanks to that fiery personality. Green isn’t afraid to bark and chatter with anyone in the league, especially if someone else starts talking first.

That’s what happened when the Warriors took on the Clippers this season and Green got into it with Paul Pierce while Pierce was on the Clippers bench. Green got tired of listening to Pierce chirping about how he’s too small and can’t check Blake Griffin and fired back at the veteran that he can’t get a farewell tour because he’s not Kobe and no one likes him enough. As Green explained in an upcoming E:60 profile, the trash talk just comes out, so if you step to him you have to expect him to return fire.

“I think it was amazing. It also shut him right up,” is an exceptional quote from Green about his own trash-talking abilities. As Green notes, “trash talking is an art,” and there’s no one in the league that’s mastered it the way Green has. My personal favorite part is the way the the camera lingers on Paul Pierce’s face after Green tells him he’s not Kobe and the fans don’t love him.

The lesson from the video is to never dish it out if you’re not in a position to really defend yourself, and for Pierce, while he might have been the veteran of the team, he provided an easy target as the guy trash talking from the bench. Green’s trash talk isn’t just painful but it’s efficient, which he proved here as he cut directly to the core of Pierce in about 10 seconds.

As for the upcoming NBA Finals, the Warriors are hoping the Green’s words can rattle the Cavaliers.

Last year, it was Green’s intensity that got him in trouble against the Cavs with his Game 5 suspension after kicking LeBron James. This year, they’re hoping he can better toe the line this time around.

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