NBA Player Poll: Biggest Trash Talker

SI Staff | Nov 4, 2010

NBA Player Poll: Biggest Trash Talker /

NBA Player Poll: Biggest Trash Talker

Kevin Garnett

NBA champion and now top talker. In a 2009-10 SI poll of 173 players, Garnett was voted the league's biggest trash-talker, winning by a landslide with 62 percent. For the most part, however, the number and creativity of talkers in the league has died down since the years of Larry Bird and Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. And so we have Garnett, the King of Talk in 2010. Here are the other players who have earned reputations for trash-talking.

Kobe Bryant

Bryant may have five rings and an MVP award, but the 11-time All-Star also has quite a mouth. There's a reason he earned 7 percent of votes in the SI poll, making him the second-chattiest player in the league.

Rasheed Wallace

The Celtics' big man who has turned smack talk into an art form earned 5 percent ... and has very a informative clip on his craft below.

Paul Pierce

Pierce is Celtic No. 3 to make the poll. Though the Boston forward claimed 3 percent for fourth place, he pales in comparison to his teammate Garnett.

Nate Robinson

Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni may have recently tamed the 5-foot-9 guard's supersized personality by benching him for 14 straight games, but with his history of blow-ups (see below), you have to wonder why Robinson didn't garner more than just 3 percent of votes.

Kenyon Martin

K-Mart has had choice words for Mark Cuban and Kobe in the past, and it's no secret that he's a constant talker on the floor. The Nuggets' forward took nearly 2 percent of votes.

Gilbert Arenas

So his off-court trash-talk was recently taken to extreme. But on the court, Agent Zero is ruthless, which is why media and fans were shocked last year when "Hibachi," who garnered just under 2 percent of votes in the SI poll, refused to talk. Who knew he was capable of being silent?

Ron Artest

This is perhaps the most shocking revelation of the SI poll. Artest, whose NBA accolades are often overshadowed by his on- (and off-) court antics, was voted as the biggest trash-talker by only nearly 2 percent of his peers. Can we get a recount?

Rajon Rondo

Wow, Boston, really racking up the trash-talking honors. Rondo completes the Celtics' quartet of chatterboxes with close to 2 percent.

Amar'e Stoudemire

Young and provocative: Both fit Stoudemire in 2002 when he was taken with ninth overall pick straight out of high school. And things haven't changed much for the 2003 Rookie of the Year. He told FanHouse in 2009, "My swagger's at an all-time high." It's no surprise, then, that he also picked up almost 2 percent.

Published Nov 4, 2010

SI STAFF