But constant success can breed arrogance. Don’t forget to set your DVRs for the upcoming TNT miniseries The Race Card, debuting in early 2017. When asked about the incident after the game, Barkley wondered aloud if Coimbra “ might be like Manute Bol” (Bol was from Sudan, on the other side of Africa from Angola), by which Charles meant “he might have had a spear.” His answer: “I don’t know anything about Angola, but Angola is in trouble.” Many thought (actually, no one did) that Charles might have been referring to the Angolan Civil War, then well into its second decade, or the historic drought that was then gripping southern Africa.ĭuring the Dream Team’s 116–48 Godzilla-vs.-Bambi demolition job, Charles, turning upcourt after a dunk, delivered a now-iconic elbow to the sternum of shocked Angolan forward Herlander Coimbra. Even printing the results of exhibition matches - which would generally go unscored - was apparently a huge deal in 1924.) Barcelona, 1992: Charles Barkley Knows Very Little About Angolaīefore the Dream Team’s game with Angola, the United States’ opening match of the tournament, the irascible Barkley was asked what, if anything, he knew about the Angolan team or his opponent. Though Gaudin reportedly won the match easily, the paper reported a Sassone victory. (In 1924, Nadi challenged a journalist to a duel, with real swords, for the crime of printing the score of an exhibition match between French fencing champion Lucien Gaudin and Italian champion Candido Sassone. I wish something like this would happen today. The fight ended when Nadi cracked the whip, Indiana Jones–style, across Bottino’s hand, causing his opponent to drop the plank. Bottino, arming himself with a wooden beam, challenged Nadi - who, for some reason, was carrying a riding whip - to a duel. He also, apparently, trash-talked a countryman, Filippo Bottino, a weightlifter from Genoa. At the Antwerp games in 1920, Nadi won three gold medals (team foil, team épée, team sabre) and a silver (individual sabre). He also had a fondness for real-life duels. Italian swordsman Aldo Nadi was one of the greatest fencers of his generation. The thing about being famous for any kind of fighting art is people are constantly testing you. Antwerp, 1920: Trash Talk Leads to a Duel Here are some of the notable Olympic trash-talk moments in the history of the modern games. But in 2016, Olympic decorum, like everything else good and pure in this steadily shitifying world, is breaking down. Not everyone speaks the same language, and the games’ heady brew of nationalism, postcolonialism, and general political animus create an atmosphere conducive to bona fide international incidents. The Olympics has never been a particularly rich trash-talking venue, though. In a world where multimillionaire athletes and corrupt governing bodies make money hand-over-hand-over-fist, and the “sanctity of the game” seems to be drowning under a sea of cash, trash talk tells the viewer that the athlete authentically cares. Trash talk is, by definition, disrespectful, and that’s why it’s great and unseemly at the same time. It signals a corruption of the pure, play-the-right-way ideals of athletic competition. Trash talk is an elemental mode of expression because it springs from simple, universal feelings: anger, a thirst for revenge, and the ancient, instinctual desire to kick an opponent’s ass.
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