Digressions with Sam v1.3 (I think)
It’s been a while. Actually, I have one on my digital recorder that I’ve been too busy too transcribe. But mainly Sam hasn’t been too digressive lately. And this isn’t a pure digression, because the topic was raised, as opposed to when he just gets on a ramble about playing time and next thing you know you’re talking [listening, to be more precise] about state taxes in Georgia. Not that he’s done that, but it’s possible. Anyway, on-point Sam can be pretty entertaining – but a good digression is gold.
The subject was trash talking. As, in do NBAers do it much, yadayada. This was in the context of Sean Avery allegedly making fun of Jason Blake having cancer, which Avery is vehemently denying.
Q: Is trash-talking a thing in the NBA? (I’m paraphrasing)
A: People didn’t run they mouth to me because they knew if they ran their mouth too much, I would get’em. Plus, I never said anything. I just played. I never said my mouth and said a word to people [Is this even possibly true?]
The only guys who can really run they mouth are the guys who can play. Go to Darrick [Martin, a dedicated non-playing trash-talker]. He used to run his mouth all the time, go ask Darrick. I didn’t run my mouth.
We’re playing the Utah Jazz tomorrow and the question I get is who talks trash in the NBA?
Q: What about [former Pacers teammate] Reggie Miller?
A: Reggie was good, but Reggie would say stuff we can’t repeat; you can’t write it.
Q: Personal stuff?
A: Yes it was personal. Reggie would find out something personal about you and say it.
Q: Why didn’t someone beat him up?
A: Because we wouldn’t let them. Dale Davis, Antonio Davis, myself? We wouldn’t let them and people knew that. They would hit him. But when they hit Reggie we would try to knock their best player into another day. As soon as they hit Reggie, we would hit their best player.
Q: Didn’t you get tired of having to back him up?
A: No. He was getting 25 a game for us. No, not at all. That was our job. His job was to play and run his mouth. Our job was to back him up. That what teammates do. If you hit Reggie, we were going to hit you back.
Q: Would people say anything? Was it no-holds barred?
A:
I put it to you like this: you can say whatever you want to everyone, but are you prepared to back it up?
Okay, this is just kind of preamble to the main event…..drum-roll please…….
Q: Would you say something to some who has cancer?
A: I can’t believe you asked me that. Nobody would say that. No one would do that.
Q: Apparently so.
A: Who? [Sam proving he does not actually read the papers, or ride an elevator with a TV screen or listen to The Fan]
Q: That’s what the hockey guy did.
A: Well don’t put basketball players in the same class as hockey players. Dude, anyone who would do that is low. Come on, who would do that? That’s low. That’s low.
Warming up now…..
A: But you know what’s strange about it? If a basketball player said it, of if I said it, that would be front page. I would be called upstairs, I would be in trouble, I’d be fined. Hockey player say it? It’s nothing.
Q: It was on the front page…
A: But nothing’s going to happen. It’s part of hockey. That’s they culture [fingers making those little quotation marks around culture]. If hockey players go in the stands, it’s hockey. Right? Seriously. Basketball players go in the stands? Ohhhhh, the sport is out of control.
Hockey players fight up in the stands! Basketball has one incident and all of a sudden….oooooohhhhhhh. It was a major thing.
How long in history have hockey players been going up in the stands? Since time began.
Why don’t you all write about it like you when it happened one time at a basketball game? One time.
I have my theories why, but I’m not going to comment.
Thus endeth the lesson.
