NBA Trash Talk: Library Systems Trade Poetic Jabs

CLEVELAND, OH — The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the sickest burns come on social media. The Cleveland Public Libraries have been using the non-stop success of the Cleveland Cavaliers to engage in some friendly trash talking with other cities' libraries. Luckily, the Cleveland Cavaliers are a staggering 11-1 in the post-season and have left little room for return shots.

The CPL's marketing team has been using a technique called "book spine poetry" to spell out taunting messages to their counterpart libraries during the NBA playoffs. The library system's first message went out to the Indianapolis Public Library and spelled out, "Indiana Crash & Burn On These Courts/The Big Three Honor and Defend The Land".

Of course, Indianapolis and Toronto Public Libraries didn't have many opportunities to respond. The Cavaliers swept their way through the first and second rounds. In the blink of an eye, the team was back in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Cavs have been battling the Boston Celtics to represent the East in the NBA Finals, and the CPL has been trading jabs with the Boston Public Library on Facebook. Luckily, the Cavaliers have given the library plenty to brag about.

For the first time all post-season, another library system was able to return the book spine poetry smack talk. The Cavaliers blew a 20-point lead in Game 3 against the Boston Celtics, leading to the team's first loss of the playoffs, before bouncing back on Tuesday night and taking a 3-1 lead.

That bounce back win in Game 4 didn't come fast enough, because the Boston Public Library finally got to send a taunting, winning message to CPL.

CPL's revenge was swift and beautiful, much like Game 4's Kyrie Irving led victory.

Michael Young, marketing and communications at CPL, has been leading the development of the smack talk messages. He said inspiration can come from anywhere. For example, Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas told the media he wasn't afraid of playing the Cavs because they weren't the MonSTARS from the movie "Space Jam".

The quote led to this ingenious photo response from CPL.

"It's a team effort," Young told Patch. "Although the concept for the photo usually comes from one person, help comes from all over the library. Help comes in many forms: retrieving the book, finding a similar titles if the spines aren't good for photographing, helping with setup, or tweaks to concept or props. Sometimes the ideas are inspired from events that occurred in the game."

Last year, CPL only did a couple of book spine poetry posts talking trash on behalf of the Cavaliers, Young said. This year, the library hasn't held back.

"Libraries aren't always expecting it," he said. "Indy was ready to trash talk immediately, sending a GIF on Twitter right after we posted our first photo. Boston seemed less prepared."

However, the best may be yet to come. As the Cavs look to close out the Celtics in coming games, the Golden State Warriors await them in the NBA Finals. The two teams have met in the final round of the playoffs for two straight years, and could be tangoing again for the Larry O'Brien trophy in 2017.

Young said he hopes that Oakland Public Library will be willing to trade some friendly trash talk over book spines and social media.

"Cleveland fans look forward to playing Golden State. We each have set ourselves as the top dogs of the league. Now we jockey over who has the best fan base and the best team?" he said. Now the question will be, who has the best smack talking library?

The CPL posts teasers of coming book spine smack talk on its Instagram page. Young hopes it inspires others to use literature to talk a little friendly trash.

Photos from Cleveland Public Library