NBA Legends Explain How CRAZY GOOD Larry Bird Was….

Show me better than you can tell me. Smooth, Dwight. Great show, guys. And thanks for lunch. This guy right here is the legendary Larry Bird. This is literally the man who swept Michael Jordan twice in the NBA playoffs. Sheesh, guys. Now that's something impressive to put on a resume. Anyway, I'll admit it. I wasn't watching the NBA in the mid-80s because, well, I wasn't born yet. But I was curious, very curious, as to how good Larry Bird actually was and what his contemporaries were saying about him when he was dominating the NBA world. Bird's rivalry with Magic Johnson will go down as one of the greatest rivalries in sports history. I mean, these two iconic figures carried the league in the 80s and brought it to newer heights with their classic duels, which included three NBA finals. Among all the great players that Magic faced in his career, he said in an ESPN interview that the only player he dreaded going up against was Larry Bird. When I played, Larry Bird was the only one I feared. A lot of black guys always ask me, did Larry Bird really play that good? I said, Larry Bird is so good that it's frightening. In fact, Magic even shared a crazy story where Bird destroyed him mentally, just to emphasize a point. DJ is coming down with the ball, and he passed the ball to Larry in the corner. So, as DJ passed it to Larry, my first job was to stop you first, right? Now I gotta go out and close Larry Bird up. So, as I'm running out to Larry Bird, he's trash-talking me. I don't know why you're running out here. Who says that in the middle of a game? He said, I'ma wait till you get one step away from me, and I'ma shoot it right in your face. True story. So, I got one step away, and he shot it. All net. Three-pointer good. Then he turned to me and said, you did all that running for nothing. The rivalry between the Celtics and the Lakers highlighted the NBA in the 80s, and amidst their classic encounters, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is also another legend who saw and experienced how great of a player Larry Bird was. The best guy I've played against might have been Larry Bird. People don't appreciate Larry Bird enough. They think he's a chubby white guy, but he would wear us down. The muscle that is in between his ears was the best because he made three points, assisted, rebounded, and had steals. He was always in the right place at the right time. He is, without a doubt, one of the best players I've ever played against. Anyway, Dominic Wilkins was also recognized as one of the formidable rivals of Bird in the 80s. Back in his rookie season, Wilkins told in detail during an interview what went down when he shared the court with Larry Bird for the very first time. One of the first times I ever played against him, I went out for the opening tip, and I went to shake his hand. He just stood there and looked at me stone-faced, with his hands behind his back. I was like, whoa. Then we were getting ready for the tip, and he says to me, you don't belong in this league, Holmes. I couldn't believe it, but it happened so fast, I didn't know what to think. Then they had the ball, and I was on him, and he said, I don't know why they got you guarding me, Holmes. You can't guard me. Then whop, he hit a three. Then he came down again and said, they made a mistake putting you on me, Holmes, and he took another three. Same as what happened to Dominic, the legendary high-flyer Clyde Drexler also had an unpleasant experience in his rookie year, when Bird welcomed him into the league. 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 ten straight points on me. Coach took me out of the game, and he walks by, and he's laughing at me. The legendary tales of Larry Bird's trash talk games have been passed around the NBA circles like a hot potato, and uh, there were some accounts that were just so outrageous that we'd think he was playing God or something, because Bird knew exactly what would happen, and how. Kevin McHale had been a long-time teammate of Bird, and he witnessed one of these crazy tales unfold. We were playing in Phoenix, and we were way up. We were like 15 up. And we have the worst fourth quarter in history. We were terrible. And Larry's bad. Larry's missing shots, throwing it to the other team, throwing it in the third row, and they come back, and somehow they go up 2. So we have an out-of-bounds play. I'm taking it out, and Larry says, I'm gonna bust off the play, and I'm gonna shoot a 3. We're down 2. I'm like, no, don't do that. Let's shoot a 2, please. Go to the hole, try to get fouled. Let's just get into overtime, and see if we can't win this game. And Larry says, nah. I'm just gonna bust a 3 on them. I'm like, oh my God. So he tells the Phoenix bench, tells the coaches, yeah, I'm fixing to bust a 3 on you guys, and just go home. I'm tired of this. And he gets the ball, jumps out, busts the play, gets the ball at the slot, shoots the ball. As the ball is in the air, he kinda turns towards the Phoenix bench and yells, told you so, and starts running to the locker room. It went in. Anyway, here's another crazy story about Larry Bird's greatness, coming directly from Marco Ghire, which was later revealed by Skip Bayless. According to the undisputed host, he confirmed that Bird can really get into his opponent's heads using his words. And the same fate happened to the Mavericks three-time All-Star, just like in the previous stories we just heard. Marco Ghire used to tell me as a Maverick, you can't believe what Larry Bird does to me. He just terrorizes me. He trash talks me like nobody's ever trash talked me. He leans into my ear and whispers stuff I can't even repeat to you. And he backs it up. I'm gonna do this to you, and he does it. This Marco Ghire, he's an All-Star, the heart and the soul of those Dallas Mavericks. Players during that time had no answer to Larry Bird, even if you're as good of a defender as James Worthy was. In fact, he later revealed in an interview that guarding Bird gave him nightmares, and also said that Michael Jordan was easier to guard than him because Bird was just way too savvy and had a higher basketball IQ compared to the GOAT. I would much rather guard Michael Jordan than Larry Bird, because you have to play the game as a thinker when you're playing Bird. You have to get inside his mind. Larry wasn't quick. He couldn't jump really high. But there were just some sleepless nights. Anyway guys, one of the most famous highlights in Bird's career was when he and Julius Irving literally slugged it out on the court. Though Dr. J wasn't able to hold back his punches at the time, he actually had a deep and profound respect for Larry as a player, and for the contributions he made to the game. In his autobiography, Irving detailed and broke down the things that made Bird great, and even admitted that he himself can't stop Bird when he's on a roll. What I noticed right away about Larry even as a rookie, is that not only he can get his shot, and he has an amazing range for a big man, but he will make it too. He may be the best shooter I've ever seen, and he is a smart passer, able to read the ball through inches of daylight, and he will not stop working. Bird and I have an interesting relationship on the court. When I defend him and win the Celtics draft Kevin McHale and move Larry to small forward, that becomes a regular matchup for me. If he puts the ball down on the floor, then I think I have him. I can poke the ball away and maybe get a steal? Larry's game doesn't have any weaknesses, but among his relative strengths, he's least skilled as a dribbler. When he's guarding me, he can't stay with me, but I'll be honest, I can't really stop him either. At that point in my career, he was a better rebounder than I am, but remember, he's 10 years younger. Anyway, just like the Celtic great, Wilt Chamberlain is another legend that changed the game, and uh, even though Wilt played in a different era, he had high regards for Bird because of his strong fundamentals, and because he played basketball the right way. This man also is very, very talented. I think he epitomizes what a forward is supposed to do, especially in the game he played because he was technically correct. He was a correct type of basketball player, and most people today don't play the game correctly, and he did. Lastly, here's another take on Larry Bird's greatness coming from THE controversial player turned analysis, Charles Barkley. When Sir Charles opens his mouth, whether it's bad or a good take, people listen to what he has to say, and here's his take on Bird and how he's different from other great players. He didn't have the physical ability. Larry would beat you with his will and his mind, but he didn't have the athletic ability that Kobe, Michael, and LeBron and those guys have. Larry willed himself and his team to win.