The NBA in the 1980s and 1990s was not the same. The celebrities didn’t give as much thought to their reputations or “brands.” Their priorities were to win and, ideally, to humiliate their rivals in the process. NBA players of today don’t realize it, which is why Hall of Famer Gary Payton told Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green—a classic trash talker in the modern NBA—that Larry Bird was “the coldest dude I ever seen” when it came to trash talk.
Draymond Green was taken aback by Gary Payton’s Larry Bird tales.
On Uninterrupted: Thrown Bones, a program in which basketball greats and celebrities play dominoes worth Draymond Green, Gary Payton entertained Green, YG, the hip-hop artist, and WNBA star Chiney Ogwumike with anecdotes from the NBA’s bygone era.
Renowned trash-talker Green questioned famed yapper Payton who his biggest opponents were in his playing career. Larry Bird was named by Payton among the usual suspects and a few surprising inclusions.
Green was shocked to hear Payton call out the “Hick From French Lick” for his trash language, asking, “Bird talked s*** s***, like we talk?”
At that point, Payton taught the young player Larry Legend’s on-court techniques.
“All of you should know this. “I’m going to shoot this mother***ing jumper in your face right there in that corna,” Bird used to say to me. It will also be your Christmas gift. I’m going to finish it off by breaking your head open. Green was informed by Payton, “All that s***.” “Man, he’s the coolest guy I’ve ever seen with that s***.” Everyone is praising these great greats and bringing him up constantly. The s*** was him. The ****. He is free to deliver it to you however he pleases. however he pleased. It was freezing, Larry Bird.
The most intriguing thing about Gary Payton’s statement that Larry Bird is the “coldest” trash-talker he has ever played against is that the two only faced off four times in their NBA careers. Like so many other basketball players over the years, Draymond Green saw a skinny, quiet, blonde, white guy from Indiana and assumed certain things about him. And as usual, Bird (or a legendary story about Bird) confounded those expectations.
