Player X is an anonymous NBA star. This is his fourth column.
THERE ISN'T ENOUGH trash-talking in this league, and we're the worse for it. Players are just too buddy-buddy; a lot of us grew up together in AAU ball and have remained friends. Because of that, the NBA basically looks like the cool-kid clique in high school.
I miss the loud old days. A few decades ago, in the heyday of trash, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and the Knicks couldn't shut up. Those guys all played with emotion, and that fuels the best trash-talk. It's no coincidence that some of the best ball ever seen was played during the top trash-talking era.