PHIL JACKSON,HEAD COACH,
LOS ANGELES
LAKERS
(PICTURED TOP LEFT)
.
JEFF VAN GUNDY,
EX-NBA HEAD COACH
(PICTURED LEFT)
SPORTS INSULTS
Trash Talking, Round 1: Phil Jackson vs. Jeff Van Gundy:
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Their potshots began in the '90s when Jackson was with the Bulls and Van Gundy coached the Knicks.
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Jackson dismissed his rival as "Jeff Van Gumby" and decried his fondness for overly physical defense. Van Gundy sneeringly called Jackson "Big Chief Triangle."
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Their festivities continued in the first round of the 2004 Western Conference playoffs. After Jackson's Lakers survived a 72-71 Game 1 win, he felt Van Gundy's Rockets had gotten away with murder, calling the game a "mud-wrestling match.
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I don't think it's benefiting to the NBA to have that style" - that style being "Jeff Van Gundy brutality."
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Van Gundy shot back: "I don't have to look at the calendar to know it's spring going on summer with Phil complaining about the officiating. It's like a rite of passage."
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Trash Talking, Round 2: Mike Milbury vs. Ziggy Palffy:
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The ex-Isles GM/coach was a reliable source of colorful venom. During a protracted contract dispute with his star winger in 1998, Milbury remarked it was too bad that Palffy's agent lived in a city because "he's depriving some small village of a pretty good idiot. We hope that Ziggy will come to his senses. We have no hope Paul Kraus will."
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Trash Talking, Round 3: George Steinbrenner vs. Jerry Reinsdorf:
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The '80s were The Boss's golden age. Witness his "Mr. May" moniker for slugger Dave Winfield and his assault on the quirky Metrodome ("If I wanted my players to be ping-pong players, I would send them to China. What takes place in the Metrodome is not a ballgame, it's a circus.")
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Among his sparring partners were White Sox co-owners Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, whom The Boss called "a couple of pumpkins" and "the Katzenjammer Kids."
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Reinsdorf got his licks in with a classic at the '83 All-Star Game: "How do you know when George Steinbrenner is lying? When his lips are moving."
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