Draymond Green is the self-professed, best trash-talker in the NBA, but he's probably thankful Kobe Bryant's no longer in the business as he learned not to mess with The Mamba on his very first try.
Green, one of the most outspoken personalities in the league, is no stranger to controversy and has gotten into it with many of his counterparts over his six-year career. But there are people he simply hasn't been able to rile up; and, of course, Kobe was one of them.
The Golden State Warriors star had a lengthy interview with ESPN The Magazine's Sam Alipour this week and opened up on a great many things, including his trash-talking.
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"I am the best trash-talker in the game, but it's spur of the moment," he said. For instance, the Paul Pierce thing that got a lot of pub, when I told him, 'You ain't Kobe. There ain't gonna be no farewell tour!'
"He was yapping from the start: 'Kill him, Blake [Griffin]! He too little! He too little!' So I'm like, 'Yo. Shut up. Like, that's not true. That's proven to not be true.' He kept yapping, so finally I'm like, 'Yo' - and it just came out. I didn't plan it. I'm not going into a game thinking about Paul Pierce.'
Asked who's immune to his verbal game, Green revealed that former Spurs big man Tim Duncan may not have heard it at all, while Bryant simply wasn't having it.
"The guy I'd never waste my breath on? Tim Duncan," he replied. "As a rookie, I tried talking junk to Tim, and he was like a tree staring back at me. No expression. I said, 'All right. It's over.'
"Never talked junk to him again. After that, anytime he fell, I'd be the first person to help him up, like I was his teammate.
"I also tried talking junk to Kobe, maybe my second year. On a potential game-winner, Mark Jackson put me in to guard him, and I got the stop. I said, 'Yeah, I'm locking that s**t up!' He looked at me like I was crazy and said, 'That miss ain't got nothing to do with you. Sit down. I said, "Oh, s---! All right, I'm out.'"
Green will be chasing his third consecutive NBA ring with the Warriors next season and it's likely to be their hardest campaign together, given the rise of talent in the West and the NBA altogether.
Surely, we can expect a few controversial moments from the three-time All-Star, who will be ready to defend his crown as the league's undisputed king of trash talking.