Horace Grant
"I started talking a little trash to him," Horace Grant recalled, when the Celtics were the defending champions. "I'm saying, 'You're not going to score. You're not getting this basket. I remember him then telling me exactly what he was going to do to me. He says he's going to fake me left and then he's going to shoot a right-hand hook over me. And then he goes and does it and scores."
Ted Davis
Longtime NBA radio announcer Ted Davis, now the voice of the Milwaukee Bucks, told the Milwaukee Journal the best trash talker he had seen was Larry Bird. "You never knew it because you couldn't see his lips move," he said. "He had no lips."
1986 Three-Point Contest
That was Larry’s game. He famously said to the other participants before the 1986 contest, “I want all of you to know I am winning this thing. Who’s playing for second?” The image of Larry that may be most ingrained in my head is him, with his warm-up jacket still on, in the three-point contest.
In the final round of the ’88 contest, Bird made eight of his final 10 shots. With two shots to go, he trailed by one point. Hits the first, then, throws up the money ball. With the red, white, and blue ball still spinning through the air, Bird sticks his crooked right index finger straight into the air and walks off the court. He knew it was in before it even got there.
Reggie Miller
My rookie year, we played the Celtics at Market Square. It was a close game, but we could never beat them. It came down to free throws. There were about twenty seconds left, and we fouled Bird. We were down by 3 points. Bird went to the line to shoot two. I was standing on the line - and being a rookie dumbass and not realizing this was one of the best free throw shooters to ever the play the game, I tried to throw off his timing. As he went to shoot, I kind of said out the side of my mouth, "Hey! Hey!" He stopped right before he shot, looked at me, and said, "You got to be kidding me. Rook you got to be kidding me." He shot one. Boom. We are down 4 now. Bird gets the ball again, and before he shot, he said, "Rook, I'm the best shooter in the league right now. In the league. Understand? And you're up here trying to say something?" Boom. We were down by 5. What made it worse was that Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge were laughing their asses off. I was thinking, "What a dumbass I am. You're up here talking shyt to Larry Bird. He's at the free throw line." I felt so stupid.
Clyde Drexler I was guarding him my rookie year. He looks at me and he goes, "You can't stop me." I looked at him and I said, "Gosh. Boy you're so confident." He goes, "Confident? You're a rookie. You don't know anything." He proceeded to score like 10 straight points on me. Coach took me out the game, and he walks by and he's laughing at me.
Pat Riley "If I had to choose a player to take a shot to save a game I'd choose Michael Jordan; If I had to choose a player to take a shot to save my life...I'd take Larry Bird."
Bill Fitch
Bird arrives in Boston
When he first came to Boston, people would come out to watch this kid that was so highly touted practice and he was just milk toast, vanilla, nothing fancy because he was learning his assignments, learning where he should be in certain defensive situations and what his role was offensively. After about two weeks, all of a sudden here comes this kid throwing it behind his back, making blind passes, hitting teammates in spots and really bringing it out. Up until then it had been the old Peggy Lee story – Is that all there is? And then all of a sudden he comes with the real ticket.
A Moment from Birds Rookie Season
He made some great plays and the one I’ll always remember, we were playing Phoenix at Phoenix. We’re down about five points with less than a minute to go. His rookie year was the first year we could have the three point play. Bird pops in a three pointer. Now we’re down two and we get an out of bounds in front of the Phoenix bench and we’re going in that direction and we have a timeout with two seconds left on the clock. We run a sideline out of bounds play which you’re not going to get a great shot in that situation, but you’re going to get a shot and everybody is going to be riding Bird pretty hard. Max took the ball out of bounds and makes a great sideline pass just down so Larry could grab it with one foot in and go. He was right in front of the Phoenix bench when he popped it. The ball goes in. We win the ballgame by one and the whole Phoenix bench, the guys at the end of the bench, jumped up and were patting Larry on the back because it was such a great shot. I have never seen anything like that in all the years I coached. That’s the way his career started and he manufactured more greatness going along.
Trash Talking Reputation
You know, they go back and say Bird was a trash talker. I never thought it was trash talking. He was whispering needles. We were playing at Worchester. I don’t even know who was guarding him. Larry supposedly poked him before they started and said, “Hey, what’s the scoring record in this building?” The guy asks why. And he says, “Well you’re guarding me aren’t you?”
Robert Reid and the Rockets vs. Bird
Robert Reid, who I later coached and was a good defender, made the statement that he was going to stop Bird and Moses said that he and four guys from his hometown could beat Bird and the Celtics. That kind of spurred him on and Larry used that for jokes and so forth and for the whispering needles during the course of the game. I remember Game 6, May 14, 1981, we were sitting on a game that could go either way and it was a clincher for us if we could win it and Larry went on a one man rampage in the last three minutes of the ballgame. And I remember the one shot, he made a three pointer out of the left corner right in front of the Houston bench, and that was the ticket to the championship.
Bird and Xavier McDaniel share a moment
We are playing in Seattle. Five seconds left on the clock and the score is tied and it is our timeout. In the huddle, I am thinking Xavier McDaniel is guarding Larry. So I said, “Now Kevin, you take the ball out and get it to Dennis and Dennis you can finish that.” Larry said, “Why don’t you just give me the ball and tell everybody else to get the hell out of the way?” So I said, “Larry you play, and I’ll coach.” And he said, “All right.” So I said, “Dennis, you take it out and you get it to Kevin. Kevin you get it to Larry and everybody else get the hell out of the way.” That is communication. Before the timeout was over, he leaves the huddle, and I said to myself, where is he going? And Xavier was right there and Bird said, “Xavier, I’m getting the ball. I’m going to take two dribbles to the left. I’m going to step back behind the three point line and stick it.” And that is what he did. So when he stepped back behind the line and released the ball, as soon as he released it, his arm was still in the air going to the dressing room. Game over.
Bird seizes the moment and saves the day
I remember one practice, I don’t know if I was head coaching or not, but we had a pretty tough period of our schedule. We had a lot of games, the team was a little bit tired. We had practice planned out at a little seminary out there in Boston where we used to play and practice and we decided let’s give these guys an opportunity. These guys look a little tired, we said. If anyone can make a half court shot, practice is off for the day, you guys can all go home. So Larry said, “Give me the ball.” So he steps up to half court, throws one and it’s immediately nothing but net. Everybody is hollering and hooting and that was the end of the day. He could do stuff like that. The thing you say, oh that’s impossible, no one is going to do that, he said give me the ball. Probably in his heart and soul he knew this team needed a rest, I’ll take it on myself. Like I said, whatever was needed, he would step forward and do whatever it took to get the job done.
Bird’s Work Ethic
I had an opportunity to go out and spend a little time with him in Indiana one year. He said, “Why don’t you come out, we’ll do some fishing.” He loved to fish. He had some great spots out there around the French Lick area. This was during the middle of the summer, and I know because I was staying in another room, and he would be up before the sun rose. He would be out either running, getting on his bicycle. He did all of his work. He was very methodical, a planner. He would do all of his physical work, all his conditioning before the sun was up very high in the sky. He’d get all that done and then went on with his day, whether it was fishing or whatever he had to do. I saw that and that kind of registered in my mind. Well this was what this guy does. This was why he comes back every year and is a little better player, because he’s doing something. He’s not sitting there knowing that he is a great player. He’s trying to become a greater player and that to me was very impressive.
Chuck Daly: ’92 Olympics
We practiced prior to going to get a spot in the medals in Portland, and then we went overseas and went to Monaco before we went to Barcelona to train. He actually wanted more work even though he was suffering, I thought, with the back. Nevertheless, any time that they threw up a zone, I moved him and Mullin into the game on the wing. Basically that was the end of the zone. But he worked just as hard in a short period there. Actually we didn’t practice because we played every other night at 10:30 and he still wanted to work out, even at that stage.
everytime.
