Blake Griffin: By engaging you, Tim Duncan disengages you

About a week ago, Pistons forward Blake Griffin appeared on comedian Pete Holmes’ podcast You Made it Weird, and he had a gem of story about going up against a childhood idol in Spurs great (and now assistant coach!) Tim Duncan.

Holmes had asked Griffin if he ever used money as trash talk, and he says no because it’s improper (and a source of motivation for opponents), and that led him into his story about how Duncan would use nice or silly talk to knock an opponent off his game.

“He would do this thing where maybe you were lined up at the free throw line next to him, and he would look over at you and be like, ‘Oh not you again.’ Or he would say something where he was engaging you, but he was also very sarcastic too, and I loved that. He would just always mess with me, and it would always make me be like, ‘Man, Tim’s a good guy.’ Now I try to do that, because that to me is better than seeing some young kid check in and try to hit him hard or try to do what other guys did to me when I came in.“

Then came the best quote of all:

“He was so good that he knows he doesn’t have to do that. By engaging you that way, he disengages you.”

It’s always enjoyable hearing stories about Big Fun’s hilarious reverse-psychology approaches on the court, like the time Draymond Green admitted to trying to trash talk Tim as rookie only to get blank stares back, eventually deciding it was a fruitless endeavor against this particular player, and he never tried it again.

You can listen to the entire podcast below or by clicking here. The part about the trash talking begins at the 1:13:28 mark.