Trash Talk: Points Or Fouls?

The Age

Thursday March 26, 1998

STEPHEN HOWELL

From the tip you are at it. In each other's face. Make a mistake and he tells you how much better he is. Make a hero of yourself and you tell him how much better you are. You are talking trash.

It is the Tigers versus the Magic, the National Basketball League's biggest rivalry. Melbourne Tiger Lanard Copeland has been through it all before, demonstrating what South East Melbourne coach Brian Goorjian calls classy arrogance. Clinton McDaniel is first-up in a new rivalry and he gives the Magic someone who can back up his words with his game.

McDaniel says: "I talked about his handle (on the ball) and told him that if he was rated one of the top 50 players in the league then I was going to be a star."

Copeland says: "He said something about me not being able to dribble because I lost the ball out of bounds. Then he took about four or five shots and missed and I said, 'Oh, you can't shoot, I'll give you two points to get you started'."

That is just the beginning. Two hours later McDaniel and South East Melbourne are big winners. Copeland and McDaniel shake hands. Later that night they have a drink together. And just talk.

Trash talking, as the words imply, is an American concept. Cricketers would call it sledging. Other sports might call it gamesmanship. Whatever the term, words have been plentiful in the NBL this season. Some smart, some smart-arse, some downright rude in the "what your wife/girlfriend is doing while you're away" mould.

McDaniel complained about the treatment he got in Townsville last month from Sun Simon Kerle. "I guess the only time one person ever got to me was Kerle, and I think it was more the physical side of it," McDaniel said this week of the confrontation that fuelled ugly crowd scenes.

Kerle admitted after the game that he tried to get into McDaniel's head by commenting on such things as his bad breath. And Kerle charged that McDaniel spat at him when he said of a refereeing decision: "I can't believe that call. That was a sissy call for you, you little bitch."

There were no accusations of racism, although after a game in Townsville last year two Illawarra players alleged Kerle had made racist comments from the bench to Eric Cooks.

Cooks said at the time he heard none. Kerle said he was sitting between black teammates Derek Rucker and Clarence Tyson and they backed his version - that he said, "Get back to the CBA you scrub". (Cooks came in to the NBL after many years with Ballarat.)

Bill Palmer, the NBL's basketball operations manager, said referees had the power to call technical fouls for abuse, racial or otherwise, and audible swearing.

"It's something of a judgment call," Palmer said, adding that good trash talking had an element of put-down humor and no vitriol.

He said there was little talking when he played in the '70s and '80s but it had increased considerably by the early '90s when it was used as gamesmanship, particularly by imports who had played on American streets; Copeland and McDaniel say they grew up talking trash.

The NBL's first big talker was Al Green, in the early '80s. He backed his words with both play and attitude. He was not known as Mean Al Green for nothing.

Former Giants coach Bruce Palmer recalls that when he was player-coach of Coburg in '82 he was telling one of his players how to guard Green when Mean Al ran past and said: "The best instruction you can give him is to go home."

Today's major mouths include Kerle and his mate Shane Heal. Heal, now with the Sydney Kings, has said he talks to motivate himself, which he did to telling effect against Charles Barkley and the United States Dream Team in Atlanta in '96.

Back from an aborted NBA stint with Minnesota, Heal answers those who tell him he failed with "Want a loan?", having received a considerable payout on leaving.

Trash talking can be costly in two ways: with your peers if you cannot back it up with your play; and to your pocket - Andrew Parkinson's verbal battle with Ray Gordon in the Magic-Tigers joust brought two technical fouls, and a club fine of $100 a tech.

McDaniel says he knows where to draw the line, having played in a team full of talkers when Arkansas won the '94 NCAA championship.

Magic teammate Sam Mackinnon said McDaniel did not say anything derogatory. "He just talks about the way they play the game."

Who is the No. 1 trash talker? "Probably Michael Jordan," says McDaniel. "He talks the whole game. Then probably Reggie Miller, John Starks, Gary Payton, somebody like that - you've got be able to back it up."

Copeland claimed the NBL needed more talk. "I was at the casino last night and a guy came up to me and said that's exactly what this league needs - somebody to fire people up, to get people in the stands."

Copeland added that he had lessons from the master. "I roomed with Charles (Barkley) for about six months at Philadelphia," he said. Barkley, of course, through his clash with Heal, helped sell basketball at the Olympics.

Talk in sport is not only player to player. It can be to referees and crowd and at times coaches get involved. NBL veteran Ray Borner is credited with the line to referee Billy Mildenhall, "Can you get tech fouled for what you're thinking, Billy?" "No." "Well, I think you're an arsehole."

American college crowds are known for their trash words/actions. Duke University's fans, called Cameron Crazies after their stadium, are part of basketball folklore for the following . . .

In the '70s, North Carolina State player Moe Rivers, caught stealing aspirins, got a headache from the aspirins thrown at him in a game; Lorenzo Charles, caught stealing pizza, was bombarded with pizza boxes; another, who owned two luxury cars while a "poor" student, had car keys jangled at him from the stands; and another, on a rape charge, had condoms tossed on court.

Coaches don't miss their own, either. Indiana's Bobby Knight, on the leadership qualities of two players: "Personally, I don't think the two of you could lead a whore to bed."

So there's trash talking and there's talking trash/rubbish. The talkers say the former, with its essence of humor is acceptable, the latter is not.

Much more will be said. Listen in at Melbourne Park at these games: 4 April (McDaniel v Kerle, round 2); 2 May (McDaniel v Heal); and 17 May (McDaniel v Copeland, round 2).

Copeland says trash-talking is a male, marking-your-territory thing. Apparently, there is very little of it in the WNBL.

The final word, however, comes from the home of trash talk, the NBA . . . tough guy Xavier McDaniel to whingeing Bull Scottie Pippen in the rough-house New York-Chicago playoffs of '92: "Shut the f--- up and play."

Action, after all, speaks louder than words.

THE LAST WORD

Overseas

* ``Let me get your names. You need to be on the roll sheet 'cause school's in session." Michael Jordan to a group of players.

And what do others say to MJ?

* John Salley, when with Detroit: `` You try to talk about things Michael doesn't like to talk about, like baldness."

* ``I'm gonna take you to the hoop, then I'm takin' your mom."

Todd Day, of leading college team Arkansas.

* ``I don't care how good you play, I'm still the number one draft choice."

NBA powerhouse Shaquille O'Neal to Sean Rooks when being outplayed in his final college season.

* `You're so cute. Can I have the name of your hairdresser."

Dream Teamer Gary Payton to Ausatralian Shane Heal at the Atlanta Olympics.