In the intense world of professional basketball, trash talking is a common form of psychological warfare. Players try to intimidate their opponents by making bold statements or insulting them. However, sometimes, trash talking can backfire, leading to embarrassing situations.
This is what happened to Moritz Wagner during his rookie season in the NBA. Wagner, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers at the time, was guarded by superstar forward Kevin Durant.
When Durant fouled Wagner on a three point attempt, the German confidently turned around to tell Durant “You can’t guard me.” However, Wagner quickly learned the importance of knowing your audience:
“I talk a lot, obviously. I kind of put that back a little bit. But one of the first times I matched up with Kevin Durant… I am a huge NBA fan, I know all these guys from YouTube, I watched all these games at night, Franz and I would get up at night to watch these players, and all of a sudden, I am on the court with them, and obviously, my first year, I am a little star-struck.
Kevin Durant guards me, and I think he is not serious at all; he does not even know who I am. I am on a pick-and-pop, and he fouls me. And I did not realize it was him. I turned around and said, ‘You can’t guard me.’ I had no credibility whatsoever at that point.
He was on the Warriors. It was Durant, Draymond Green, and Demarcus Cousins that were at the free throw line box out, talking shit to me while I was shooting three free throws. I am telling you, I was so shook. I made one out of three. … I set myself up for that, so I deserved all of that.”
. @moritz_weasley tells an incredible story about how trash talking @KDTrey5 went wrong in his rookie year
: @PardonMyTake from their latest episode#MagicTogether pic.twitter.com/GbfJhznaux
— The Sixth Man Show (@SixthManShow) December 6, 2023
Meanwhile, Kevin Durant revealed upon seeing the clip himself, that he thought Wagner was an asshole at that time:
“I walked away from that game thinking, damn that rookie is an asshole.”
I walked away from that game thinking, damn that rookie is an asshole https://t.co/ebTLOyoef0
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) December 6, 2023
To make things even funnier, Tom Haberstroh not only found the exact clip, as you can see, he also found out that it gets even better the next possession when he missed his defensive assignment against Draymond Green.
I found the clip and it gets even better. The next play! https://t.co/TlBJm2DndC pic.twitter.com/B0GH54w5RW
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) December 6, 2023
