Great Britain isn't so good at the trash talking
My favorite piece of trash-talk came during Game 1 of the 1997 NBA Finals. With Karl Malone standing at the foul-line in the game's final seconds with two crucial shots upcoming, Scottie Pippen casually walked by him and muttered "the Mailman doesn't deliver on Sundays." Malone proceeded to miss both shots. Martyn Rooney's trash-talk during yesterday's Olympic 4x400m relay semifinal was like Pippen's classic line in absolutely no way.
Briefly: this fool, Rooney, turned around while leading a semifinal race where the top-three teams advance to the final and put his finger to his lips to make the universal "quiet down" symbol. The teams he was 'shushing', Jamaica and the Bahamas, were comfortably in position to make the finals and could not have cared less that they were steps behind Rooney, who was wearing sunglasses at night.
We here at Fourth-Place Medal thought it really couldn't get much worse than taunting opponents in a semifinal round. Or could it? On this, the penultimate day of the Olympics, we tried to figure out lamer self-congratulatory sports celebrations than shushing grown men in a race that has long since been decided.
- Posing for the Heisman following a touchdown run against Furman
- Brushing the dirt off your shoulders after dunking on your little cousin's 7-foot high basketball hoop
- Yelling "boo-yah" in any circumstance
- Popping your jersey toward an old lady after taking the last shopping cart from her at the grocery store
- Pulling your shirt over your head after scoring a goal in foosball.
- Crowd surfing after winning bar trivia.
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