Vancouver guard Chris Robinson, then a rookie, was playing in a preseason game against Seattle in October 1996 when Sonics guard Gary Payton yelled at him from the bench, "Young fella, you can't play any defense." Robinson remembers it clearly because it was his introduction to NBA trash talk, an art form that is practiced every night in every arena in the league. Even the most well-behaved player, it seems, can't resist making a comment or two in the heat of battle. The Nets' Kendall Gill recalls the normally taciturn David Robinson of the Spurs once telling Armon Gilliam, after blocking one of his shots, "You can't bring that into Mr. Robinson's neighborhood."

The NBA does not sanction such behavior, of course. Two years ago the league instituted a rule against taunting: Anyone caught shouting "In your face" or some other such remark, could be hit with a technical foul and a $500 fine. The rule has had an effect. Many of the 70-plus players (about 20% of the league) whom we polled said they thought that trash talking was on the decline. "There's less talk than the average fan thinks," says Gill. "It's not like it used to be. The crackdown by the league, the technicals and fines, has helped. Five hundred dollars for a technical, that's expensive, even for millionaires."

Some players miss the good old trashy days, though. "With these sissy rules they've got, they're getting real silly," says Charlotte forward Anthony Mason. "Your shorts have to be a certain length, you have to talk like this or that. After a while, basketball is going to turn into a waltz, one step left, one step right."

Mason need not worry too much. During a typical game, players still jabber more than Rush Limbaugh. Here are a few things that any connoisseur of the verbal art should know.

*Insulting an opponent's ancestry is strictly for amateurs—in other words, "Your mama" is for the asphalt, not the NBA hardwood. "Trash talking is a little more toned down in the NBA than on the playground," says Bucks forward Tyrone Hill. "On the playground it's worse. You hear about your mama and your daddy and your grandma—'Your grandma got one leg,' and stuff like that." In the NBA the trash revolves more around professional issues. Says Indiana guard Haywoode Workman, "People will say, 'You didn't make the Olympics,' or, 'You didn't make the All-Star team.'"

*You don't have to open your mouth to talk trash. There are ways to get a message across nonverbally, as Atlanta's Dikembe Mutombo does by wagging his finger after blocking a shot. When Cleveland guard Bob Sura slammed down a particularly nasty dunk last season, he kept quiet, just walking around the court nodding his head repeatedly. "Somebody might score on you and look at you a certain way, or dunk on you and look at you all crazy," says Hill. "Guys also will give you little bumps and stuff that let you know 'Hey, you better come to play or I'm going to bust you up.' All of that is trash talking."

*Big men don't talk—at least not as much as little men. "Most centers don't trash talk," says Vancouver center Bryant Reeves. "It's all the guards." Says one of those guards, Minnesota's Terry Porter, "Twos and threes talk more than anybody. Reggie Miller, Glen Rice, those guys yak all the time."

For a supposedly dying art, trash talk still elicits plenty of opinions from players around the league. That's why we think Dallas forward Dennis Scott may have offered the most honest assessment of the situation: "I don't think there's as much trash talking as there once was in the league. Or maybe I just don't hear as well anymore.

—Phil Taylor

See also: The NBA's Top 15 Mighty Mouths