Lip Service: Verbal Sparring

Trash talking is nothing new under the sun. In fact, it goes far back to biblical days when Jesus said to Pharisees trying to discredit him, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Fast-forward into modern times and it seems like we're all with sins, yet we're all throwing bricks.

I was at my gym working out and the TV was on "Pardon the Interruption" as hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon were talking about Detroit's Pistons Rasheed Wallaces comments. The Detroit player was Guaran-Sheeding a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Here is what he had to say about Game 4:

"Oh, we're going to bust their ass. I'll tell you that now. That's a given, y'all can quote me, put it back page, front page, whatever. They can send whoever they want to send. I know the crew I think they're going to send. But it don't matter. I know we can do it, and they know we can do it. We know what we've got to do. It ain't bulletin board material, it's a fact. They can put it on the bulletin board, they can put it on a video, I don't care. I know what we're capable of doing, that's all that it is."

Then after Detroit's 74-72 loss to Cleveland, straight out the frying pan into the fire, he had this to say: "I ain't worried about these cats, There's no way in hell they can beat us in a series. They played well. I give them credit. We lost. We shot 30 percent and they had to play their best to beat us." (Irony is, his team is down 3-2.)

No matter what he says, you have to love Rasheed and all other big-mouth athletes that paved the way before him and mastered the art of trash talking. But you have to wonder why most fans love trash talkers? I certainly believe they sell the sport, the game, or maybe we identify ourselves to the trash talking. Was it a slick response we gave a co-worker? Could it be the verbal assassination of a teacher giving your kid a bad grade for a school paper? Trash talking is part of life — you can take it or dish it out.

Would we have watched the Lakers/Suns series if Kobe, Raja Bell, and MVP Steve Nash didn't share blows of all sorts, verbal and physical? I believe not.

According to well-known sports psychologist Dr. Richard Lustberg, whom I had a chance to speak to, amongst athletes, Muhammad Ali "had to be the best of them all," he was sort of the trash-talking guru. "If you had the chance to watch the fight in Zaire, you can see that he trash talked the entire fight. Whispering in [George] Foreman's ear every time they were tied up."

But why all the blatant disrespect during sporting events, why the heated exchanges between [Michael] Jordan and [Larry] Bird? Aren't sports supposed to be about discipline, friendly competition, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, and grace in losing?

Well, according to Dr. Lustberg, athletes do it "to take the opponent out of their game or also create psychic mental energy."

I don't think sports would be what they are without big mouths. Sports without trash talking would become as tedious as a Willie Nelson and Jessica Simpson duet.

Many came after Ali and became his trash talking "disciples," maybe not as flashy and charismatic, but just as good. Who can forget comments from Antonio Tarver before his third fight against Roy Jones? Jones reunited with his father and trainer (father trained him since age 13) after parting ways in 2004. Tarver had this to say about it:

"I bring families back together again. I should be commended. I don't know what difference it's going to make. I guess that when he's getting punished and beaten mercilessly, his father will throw in the towel to protect his son. I don't think anyone else would show that compassion."

This is classic lip service, in fact, it's what sports needs as long as athletes are able to keep it as a certain decent level if there is such a thing.

My personal favorite would have to be in June of 1997 when Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey was going after United States Olympic hero Michael Johnson. It was a bid to determine who was the world's fastest man, both parties were mouthing off. Johnson, a 200 meters god and Bailey, a 100 meters genius, split the difference and choose to go at it at a distance of 150 meters.

Looking back short of the finish line, Bailey saw his opponent pulling up with an injured right leg. $2 million (prize money) and few Baileys later, the Canadian sprinter who had predicted the win earlier by saying, "I will smoke his ass," later called Johnson a "coward." So much hype created for so little, but still it was fun while it lasted (14.99 seconds on the track to be exact).

No matter how absurd this race may have been, or how crazy verbal competition can become amongst athletes, we must admit that it is entertaining. It makes the difference between choosing a basketball game or changing the channel to American Idol. There too we will find big mouths such as Simon Cowell blasting contestants and sometimes host Ryan Seacrest.

There are different levels to trash talking — you can do it with style and grace or you can become obnoxious as Terrell Owens, but still back it up. Either way, most fans will pay attention. You can do like Nike and "let your game do the talking," but we must realize that for many, talking is the game.