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Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has a bit of a reputation for talking trash in the low post. It’s all in good fun, even when things appear to get heated. Embiid enjoys good-natured ribbing. And respects those of his peers who excel at it.
The MVP runner-up revealed his “All-Trash Talk Team” during a recent appearance on JJ Redick’s The Old Man & The Three podcast. In it, Embiid picks out a pretty impressive starting five that includes himself, Chris Paul, Draymond Green, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant.
“He’s just so frickin’ talented and so good, whether it’s scoring the ball or whatever he’s able to do on the basketball court, so I have a lot of respect for him,” Embiid said of Durant. “I love playing with him. He’s always talking trash for no reason sometimes. He makes a bucket and he’s talking trash, that’s just like the way he plays. I love his intensity and you know me, I kind of play the same way. I love talking trash and I love letting them know that I’m here. That I’m dominating you and that’s just the way it is.”
The big man’s infatuation with Durant is nothing new. Those two admire each other and reportedly want to team up. The biggest surprise was his thoughts on the seemingly mild-mannered Booker.
“He talks a lot [Booker]. He’s always talking. Literally,” Embiid told Redick. “But that’s the thing, I love that about those types of guys, they just know how good they are.”
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Embiid Takes Subtle Shot at Patrick Beverley
Patrick Beverley used to get tagged as a tough guy, an incredibly hard worker on the defensive end. That is, until Russell Westbrook called him out for “running around, doing nothing.”
It damaged his career, according to Beverley. And Embiid seemed to agree with Westbrook’s assessment when asked about the league’s best trash-talkers.
“I feel like if you can’t back it up, I don’t know, to me it just feels weird to be in a position where like you’re always talking trash nonstop, nonstop,” Embiid said of Beverley. “But like how are you gonna back it up? Are you gonna come down, get the ball and go score on the person and then go on the other end and lock him down and talk more trash? He can’t do it.”
Gary Payton Names All-Time Trash Talkers
Hall of Famer Gary Payton revealed his all-time starting five for the All-Trash Talk Team. It was a star-studded list of who’s who in NBA history: Payton, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, Chuck Person. Yes, The Rifleman – Payton’s brief teamamte on the Sonics – was brutal, his nasty streak paled in comparison to Bird.
“He was cold, man. He would bend down and talk to you like, ‘I don’t know what you got for Christmas but I’m going to get it. What I’m going to do is I’m going to take you on this block, I’m going to dribble two times, and I’m going to pull up in your face, and the net gonna say swish and then that’ll be your Christmas present from me.’ I was like whoa! He used to kill you.”
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