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Shaq on the current state of NBA play: 'Trash talk has slipped 60 percent'

Kim Klement / USA TODAY Sports

Shaquille O'Neal thinks Association play just is not what it used to be since a vital piece disappeared from the game: trash talk.  

The former pro baller reminisced with For The Win's Chris Chase about the days when trash talk was crucial: 

Trash talking has slipped 60 percent. I know a lot of the players are worried about getting fined, but for me, growing up, you had to trash talk. I didn't play against kids, I played against guys on the army base. Gary Payton - one of the world's greatest trash talkers - grew up in Oakland, the mean streets of Oakland. But they say lot of the legends were great trash talkers. I was talking to Isiah (Thomas) once and he said Larry Bird was an unbelievable trash talker. Like Larry Bird used to say stuff like, "I'm gonna take one dribble, pump-fake you and even if you don't go for it, I'm going to shoot it the second time and it's going to be all net." And he'd do it.

O'Neal touts Payton and Kevin Garnett as two of the best trash talkers of his era. 

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