“He was the biggest s**t talker in the league back in the day” NBA legends recount their days with Larry Bird
Read on to find out what the NBA legends have to say about Larry Bird and his trash talking
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Larry Bird, Byron Scott and Magic Johnson
One of the finest athletes to ever grace the planet is Larry Bird. The Boston Celtics won three NBA titles in the 1980s with the help of the legendary player Bird. The more you read about Larry Bird, the more legendary he appears to be. Millions of athletes take an interest in this league. Only a select few actively participate in it. And only a very small fraction of those few players go on to become famous. Therefore, to command the respect of multiple generations of fans and to still be relevant 30 years after one’s career ended is exceptional.
As famous Bird might be for his skills, he also happens to be infamous for his trash-talking something players of his era are familiar with. Byron Scott in an interview recounted his experience with Bird and said, The thing I love about him is that he was a s**t talker. The dude would just tell you where he’s going, shoot it in your face, talk s**t to you and run back down the floor. He was the biggest s**t talker in the league back in the day. He would tell you exactly where he was going, what he was gonna do. And he did that to us in the Finals.”
Even his most famous rival Magic Johnson was shocked by the level of trash-talking Larry Bird did. Johnson’s former agent Lon Ronsen told the media about an incident between the two. He said, “”The Lakers were playing the Celtics at home and Magic wasn’t playing that game. Larry came up to Magic before the game and said, ‘Sit back, I’m going to put on a show tonight.’ He scored 40.”
The intense rivalry between the Celtics and Lakers is a significant contributor to the insults Johnson and Bird exchanged. In the NBA finals, these two teams clashed 12 times. It is not unexpected that Johnson and Bird were always trying to antagonize one another.
Larry Bird’s illustrious career
Bird left the NBA in 1992, almost three decades ago. The Boston Celtics selected Bird with the sixth overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft. However, Bird chose to spend his third season at Indiana State rather than sign a deal with the Celtics. The next year, he finally signed with Boston, where he beat out Magic Johnson for Rookie of the Year honors.
The finest trophy cabinet a person could possess belongs to Larry. He has participated in 12 All-Star games, earned three MVP awards, three championships, and two MVP honors for the Finals. The Hall-of-fame contenders have a lot of outstanding elements.
In the 1980s, Bird and Johnson would compete for supremacy. The NBA was ultimately saved and made more popular by their rivalry. Johnson and the LA Lakers won five championships in the same decade as Bird and the Boston Celtics won three.
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Abhivyakt Sharma
(270 Articles Published)