Former Miami Heat point guard Norris Cole recalled when former Boston Celtics guard Jason Terry trash-talked LeBron James and felt like he owned the team’s star trio of Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and James on the court.
“First of all, do you know the backstory of how much trash was being talked in that series?” Cole said. “It was a lot of trash being talked. And Jet talked trash a lot to Bron ’cause he beat — J.T. beat them, so in his mind he feel like he own — he can say what he wanna say, ‘I got one’. He got his championship tattoo. So, I turned the ball over. So, I’m tryna make up for the turnover, and so I pressured him. D-Wade did the back tip. We got it back, and so I had a chance to lay it up. But one thing when you hear Bron, when he runs, you can hear it. He like [panting]. And I heard it, so I got the ball, and I was about to take a dribble and lay it up. But I heard [panting], and I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t even gotta see him.'”
Terry — who was drafted with the No. 10 overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft — played for the Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets, Milwaukee Bucks, Celtics and Brooklyn Nets during his 19 seasons in the NBA but is best known for his time with Dallas. Terry spent eight seasons with the Mavericks and won the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award with the team during the 2008-09 season.
Terry and the Mavericks faced off against James and the Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals, and Dallas came out on top in six games. The guard wasn’t Dallas’ top player — as Dirk Nowitzki won the Finals MVP award — but he played at a high level for the Mavericks throughout their championship run.
In the championship series against Miami, Terry averaged 18.0 points and 3.2 assists per game while shooting 49.4 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from behind the 3-point arc.
Following the end of the 2011-12 season, Terry signed with the Celtics in the 2012 offseason and teamed up with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. The 46-year-old was brought in to replace Ray Allen, who signed with the Heat.
Terry’s final season in the NBA came during the 2017-18 season. He logged 51 appearances with the Milwaukee Bucks in the regular season.
He and the Bucks went on to lose to Terry’s former team — the Celtics — in seven games in the first round of the 2018 playoffs. Celtics star wing Jayson Tatum was a rookie at the time, while Jaylen Brown was in his second season in the NBA.
While Terry was fantastic against James and the Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals, James seemingly got the last laugh, considering he dunked on him during the 2012-13 regular season. Plus, a few months later, the Heat won the 2013 NBA title.
