The art of trash-talking in basketball is only mastered by a select few. It’s something they are born with. They have the innate ability to brew a storm with their worlds. In the modern game, Draymond Green is probably the most widely known talker on the court. The Golden State Warriors forward doesn’t hesitate when speaking his mind. He has collided with the greats, which also includes his infamous clash against Paul Pierce in 2017.

A legend of the Boston Celtics, Pierce was on his last legs in 2017. He was playing for the Los Angeles Clippers, a team that was led by Blake Griffin and seen as a potential candidate to battle the Warriors in the postseason. The Bay had just lost the 2016 NBA finals after going up 3-1. So the pain and sorrow were fresh in their minds.

During their conquest of redemption, Green had placed himself as one of the best defenders in the league. But on this day in 2017, Paul Pierce’s chatter from the bench made him commit a major error, and that became the catalyst for one of his most iconic trash talks.

Draymond Green can’t stand being called little

Paul Pierce was the latest guest on the Draymond Green Show. Before speaking of anything else, the Truth wanted to clear the air on his memorable exchange with Green in 2017. In the opening minutes of the Clippers vs Warriors game, Pierce managed to get through the tough exterior of Green, who was defending Blake Griffin, a matchup he was looking forward to.

“Blake, LaMarcus Aldridge, C’Bo like they were the dogs at the four spot you know what I’m saying,” said Green. “When I see these dudes, I just want to kill them. Y’all say these is the dudes on the four, I want to kill these dudes,”.

Motivated by the challenge, Green was prepared to play his best defense on Griffin. He had studied him thoroughly. But he hadn’t prepared for Pierce shouting from the sidelines. During that very possession, Green bit on a pump fake by Griffin, and he immediately began questioning his decision. At the very same time, Pierce called him “little”, a trigger for the famed trash talker.

“So you yelling ‘he too little, he too little man. Cook him Blake’. And because you are yelling that, I jump on a Blake Griffin pump fake. I’m like ‘What are you doing?'”, said the Warriors forward.

Infuriated and triggered by Pierce’s distractions, Green couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Keep chasing that farewell tour! They don’t love you like that! You thought you was Kobe?!” he shouted to Pierce.

As it turns out neither was Paul Pierce able to hear it nor was Draymond Green aware that the mic would pick it up. It was after the game that the rave began. It spread all over social media as fans divided into both sides. Green remembers having “a million” text messages about the incident. The sequence had burst through on every social media platform. The growth in it’s popularity was rampant.

When questioned about it at the time, Pierce rated Green’s trash talk a 3/10.

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Ask any other fan and they might say otherwise. It remains to be one of the best trash-talking moments of Green’s career. Thankfully, Pierce holds nothing but respect for the four-time champion. He lauded him for never changing his personality and recalled the time he went toe-to-toe with Kevin Garnett long before the Warriors became a dynasty.