Let NBA players taunt each other

This is a competition. On-court trash talk increases the players' investment in the results. That's good!

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Before it became a blowout, the first meeting of the season between the Suns and Warriors got quite spicy. Here’s Klay Thompson talking more in 30 seconds than he has in entire seasons, getting into it with Devin Booker.

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

D-Book and Klay have some words 🍿

What was Klay going on about?

Kendra Andrews @kendra__andrews

Booker says Thompson kept telling him that Warriors have four rings. “He repeated it over and over.”

It continued.

After the game, Booker reiterated his love and respect for Klay, but said that wouldn’t stop him from talking back.

Rachel Nichols @Rachel__Nichols

Devin Booker postgame: "I love Klay Thompson. I have from the beginning. From the draft, coming out, I said I wanted to be Klay Thompson. But that doesn't excuse us from competing against each other and talking a little mess with each other. So I had fun with it."

As it were, Klay finished with 2 points. Book had 34. But it is true that Thompson is beating Booker in NBA championships 4-0.

Ed Malloy and his crew put up NUMBERS in the third quarter: 16 personal fouls and six technical fouls (Draymond Green, Steve Kerr, Chris Paul, Booker, and two on Klay). You don’t get paid by the whistle, friends!

I’m glad the refs let the trash talk go on as long as they did given how quick the tech trigger has been going off this season — Draymond’s tech was a 3 on the Draymond Green scale, and CP3’s was weak also. I think it very much might have felt “like April” courtside at the arena as Reggie Miller and Candace Parker indicate, and this type of competitive juice makes the game more exciting.

Which is why the NBA should simply go back to letting players taunt each other, within reason. This is a competition, right? We’re not talking about encouraging fights or brawls or whatever. Nothing off-court should be tolerated. But if a dude wants to stare down a dunk victim, or if two All-Stars want to run their jaws at each other for multiple possessions, that’s only good for the competitive energy of the game. And that’s why we’re here: to watch compelling competition. That’s why most of us are here, I gather. Maybe not.