What Can A Man Say To A Man?

Watch sports for long enough, and you will come to learn an ironclad yet vague rule: There are some things that a man simply cannot say to another man.

This law of dudehood is most often invoked by a player following a game in which there was a particularly spirited bout of shit-talking. One party will sometimes end up more aggrieved than the other in these circumstances, and it is when they are asked to explain their ire after the game that you can expect to encounter this particular talk about guy talk.

"As a man, there's certain things you don't say to another man," is what Nuggets guard Bruce Brown had to say after a blowout loss to the Rockets on Saturday night. He was answering a question about a spat he got into with Kevin Durant during the second half. Despite the clarity of Brown's declaration, he refused to elaborate on what exactly Durant said to him, which leaves the rest of us in the same position we always seem to find ourselves in whenever we are informed by an athlete that a man simply cannot say certain things to another man: We don't know what those things are! Because nobody will ever tell us!

We can try to make educated guesses—you can imagine that professional athletes are not the type who enjoy having their masculinity challenged—but if we are to put this lesson into practice we need to know specifics. Perhaps in this case we can do a little more than guess, though.

A fan who was sitting behind the Rockets' bench last night captured some video footage of Durant and Brown talking to each other, and reported that at one point Durant called Brown an "offensive liability." This line of critique seems to fit with the broadcast footage—one can surmise from his gesticulating that Durant was snidely telling Brown which areas of the court he is and is not capable of shooting from:

Durant also refused to elaborate on what was said after the game, but told reporters that he "definitely wanted to cross the line" with his shit-talking. "Some people can talk and play, some people can't," he said.

Durant and Brown were once teammates in Brooklyn, and were assumed to be on good terms. That may no longer be the case. "It's been cool, but I think it's been cut slow now, after tonight." Brown said of his relationship with Durant.

Our desire to learn once and for all what cannot be said in conversation between two men remains unfulfilled, but we are once again confronted with the damage that ignorance of this custom can cause. This is high-stakes stuff, and so it is wise to put what little information we do have to good use. So, if you are a man who wants to continuing enjoying a polite relationship with your male colleagues, do not call any of them an offensive liability.