JIMMY BUTLER INTERRUPTED his pregame warmup and made a beeline toward half court. There, Utah Jazz swingman Joe Ingles stood, watched and waited as the All-Star closed in.
Butler’s mission: peace.
At this point, the quick wits, sharp tongues and competitive fires of both Butler and Ingles had been clashing for years, a powder keg sparked early in Ingles’ career when he tried to blow up a screen Butler had set. It left Ingles sprawled on the floor with the then-Chicago Bulls forward standing over him. Fortunately for Ingles, his teammate Trevor Booker pulled Butler away.
“[Butler was] staring at me like he was bloody about to beat the s— out of me,” Ingles recalled.
They never exchanged blows, but Butler and Ingles have traded trash-talking jabs every time their teams have met since, often resulting in double technical fouls and the accompanying four-figure fines.
“OK, man, give it a break,” Butler, now a member of the Miami Heat, recalled telling Ingles during their pregame treaty. “We’ve been in this league for way too long now. C’mon, man, chill with the T’s. I want my money, you want your money. Let it go.”
The Utah forward was instantly agreeable. Butler and Ingles exchanged daps, buried their beef and protected their bank accounts.
“I was like, ‘I’m with it, because I’m trying to save some money, too,'” Ingles said. “Ever since then, we’ve gotten along pretty well.”
Said Butler: “We’ve been good ever since. He’s a good dude.”
The NBA is regarded as a much friendlier league than in previous generations, a shift that can be reflected in the nature of trash talk, or lack thereof, between players.
The days of trash-talking titans overtly jawing at opponents for 48 minutes might be gone, but the art hasn’t disappeared. Rather, it has become more subtle, more sporadic and sometimes won’t include the “talk” at all. But the best in the game still find ways to gain an edge.
“You don’t see too much Kevin Garnett- and Gary Payton-type trash talk,” Portland Trail…
Source : espn
