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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Mike D. Sykes, II

Markquis Nowell revealed he was actually trash talking Isiah Thomas before throwing the alley-oop pass to Keyontae Johnson

Just when you thought things actually couldn’t get any cooler with Markquis Nowell’s epic performance against Michigan State, it just keeps going.

Nowell made the play of the night when he threw a lob pass to his teammate, Keyontae Johnson, in the final moments of Kansas State’s game against Michigan State. That’s already cool on its own.

It’s not the play people are obsessed with — it’s what happened before it. It looked like Nowell was actually arguing with his coach about something before catching his teammate cutting using his peripheral vision and tossing the lob. That’s what it looked like initially. Jerome Tang even played it up a bit like that’s what actually happened.

But now, Nowell himself is telling us a different story.

As it turns out, while he was arguing with his coach, he was also trash-talking Isiah Thomas and Mateen Cleaves. They were both in the Michigan State section and Nowell told them to “watch this” before he tossed the alley-oop.

He was asked about that moment in the postgame press conference and had so much fun with it.

“Yeah, I was talking to Isiah Thomas because I think he had a friend over there, and he was rooting for them. And I’m like, y’all not going to win today, and I just kept looking at him for some added motivation. But it was nothing but cool vibes with them over there. “

That’s just amazing, man. Not only did Nowell have the guts to throw that extremely dangerous pass in such a sensitive moment, but he did it while trash-talking an NBA legend. That’s just wild.

He was certainly right about the good vibes, though. Thomas loves him and thinks he’s got an NBA future.

That’s some high praise from the Hall of Famer. After watching Thursday’s game, though, it’s hard to disagree with him.

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