Keith Strudler: Cleaning Up Draymond Green’s Potty Mouth

There’s nothing more dangerous in sports, from a TV network perspective, than a live mic on the field of play. Perhaps better put, it’s a high risk/reward kind of deal. On the one hand, it can be really cool to hear what a defensive back says about an offensive scheme or a player matchup. On the other hand, it becomes pretty clear athletes use the entire dictionary on the field of play, including words you don’t learn in school – not in the classroom, anyway.

More often than not, that kind of salty language isn’t simply an exercise in linguistics. It’s strategy, just like calling a fake punt or switching to a zone defense. When directed towards another player, demeaning rhetoric, or trash talking as it’s commonly known, is a time honored practice of getting the upper hand on an opponent. To the extent that sports are at least half mental, which is one of those commonly used phrases that goes completely unverified, trash talking is a way of winning the portion of the game played above the neck. And particularly in elite sports, where we assume exemplary athleticism as the cost of entry, perhaps the slightest mental edge can make the difference between champ and chump, or so the logic goes.

This was perhaps the reasoning behind the much discussed conversation, as it was, between Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland’s LeBron James during Game 4 of the NBA Finals. According to most reports, Green referred to James as the B word, and yes, I know there are a couple of those – but use your own best judgement. That precipitated a physical exchange, which eventually resulted in Green being called for a flagrant foul, or more specifically, a flagrant 1 by the NBA. Add that to his two other flagrant fouls in this playoffs – a flagrant 1 and a more severe flagrant 2 – and those four cumulative points mean Draymond Green had to sit out Game 5 of the NBA Finals, a game where Golden State could have clinched their second consecutive title on their home floor. Shorthanded, the Warriors lost to the Cavs, and now they’re all – Green included – headed back to Cleveland for Game 6, where the league hopes everyone can leave their potty mouths at home, lest the NBA devolve into a bunch of drunken sailors.

LeBron James, who has clearly heard his share of insulting language throughout his athletic career – like in pretty much every single road game – made it clear he didn’t appreciate being called the B word. Because as he said, he’s a man with two children, not a B word, which seems somewhat irrelevant in this context. All of which has led to a robust conversation about what exactly is acceptable trash talk in sports.

From a historical sense, many of the world’s best athletes have also been top ranked trash talkers, particularly in the NBA, where athletes basically engage in hand-to-hand combat – also known as man-to-man defense – for 48 straight minutes. Michael Jordan essentially ended other athletes’ careers by simply talking them out of their athletic humanity – and that’s just his own teammates, who he used to abuse in intrasquad scrimmages. Larry Bird used to tell whoever was covering him exactly where he was going to score from and that they couldn’t stop it anyway. Gary Peyton was known as much for his mouth as his defense. Beyond the hardwood, remember that Muhammad Ali often won his bouts before he entered the ring. The list goes on, but there’s no shortage of star athletes who’ve used their vocal chords as a tool.

There is no hard fast rule of what’s acceptable or unacceptable trash talk – although refs judiciously award technical fouls, and worse, for rhetoric that crosses an imaginary line. Certainly, racial and ethnic slurs aren’t allowed, although they’re clearly part of sports history. While gay slurs were once fairly commonplace, professional sports leagues have worked to change that mindset. I’d assume moms, wives, girlfriends, and kids are off limit. Bad boy tennis player Nick Kyrgios was universally rebuked for making obscene comments to Stan Wawrinka about his girlfriend during a match. So it seems there are some loose rules of war.

But leaving aside the obvious, should trash talking be allowed? Not racist, homophobic, vile language; you know, the kind you hear on the campaign trail. But good old fashioned trash talking, the “how much do you want me to beat you by?” variety. It’s hard to say. In my house, I strictly forbid my kids from embarrassing each other over a game of, say, Monopoly, which they do pretty much every time. Yet if I play pickup basketball with friends, which I rarely do, it’s more talking than running, which is easier on the knees.

Is trash talking okay? I suppose, it depends. Which is not a good answer for the Golden State Warriors, who likely lost Game 5 of the NBA Finals because of some naughty language. For now, it seems, they’ll have to win it with their arms and legs, instead of their mouths. If nothing else, at least the TV folks can relax.

 
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