5 Times Larry Bird Sought REVENGE!

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] once you do uh people look at you different you had to stand up for everything you believed in and then and even if someone playing basketball if somebody took the gloves off and wanted to go you had to go if you didn't there's no use playing [Music] when you take a look at larry bird at first glance he might not seem like the most intimidating guy he doesn't really look like a scary dude at all many believed they could get away with pushing his buttons but one thing you should know about the hick from french lick he always gets the last laugh game five of the first round in the 1991 nba playoffs boston celtics versus the indiana pacers larry bird was approaching the end of his career he had some serious back problems he was dealing with and wasn't quite sure how much longer he can go in fact before this deciding game 5 his teammates said that he was even struggling to put on his uniform that's how much pain he was in but with the series tied up two games a piece he knew he had to use every last drop of fuel that was still in the tank and on the other side was chuck person nicknamed the rifleman throughout the years these two were sort of rivals and always talked trash to one another for example before a christmas day game person said to the media that he was going bird hunting and when that comet made its way back to bird bird made sure he would deliver a present to chuck bird shot a three-pointer right in front of person who was sitting on the bench then turned around to look at him and said merry christmas before the shot had even gone in yet he would pull those kind of stunts before steph even did it so these two had some history which made this elimination game all the more epic the game was just like the previous four games in the series very competitive and highly entertaining both battling to keep their season alive but with four minutes left to go in the first half an unfortunate event would take place larry bird dives for a loose ball but ends up landing on his face and immediately had to head back to the locker room and it turns out that he broke his cheekbone so the celtics had no other choice but to play on without him boston was trying their best to hang in the game but were obviously struggling to do so without larry while chuck person was definitely having fun he was acting cocky the whole time thinking that his pacers were on the verge of advancing to the next round but little did he know bird was actually keeping tabs on the game in the back and couldn't stand the arrogance that the pacers were displaying so with six minutes left to go in the third quarter he decided to return back to the game to shut him up the image of him coming out of the tunnel was like something you would see in a movie as the crowd gave him a much deserved standing ovation the doctor said that he probably had a concussion but he did not let that stop him his heroic efforts ignited a spark in the celtics as boston took a commanding lead and never looked back bird ended the game with 32 points and willed his team to victory the idea is a little special because i've known chuck for a while and we've always had run-ins but it always seems like i get the last word here's another instance where the old man had to show the youngster who's boss first we have to talk about a match-up that bird and petrovic had in march of 1992 this game drazen was lighting it up he shot 65 from the floor and was perfect from deep leaving bird and the celtics extremely frustrated just when you thought he was finished he put the dagger in boston's heart unapologetically he is open for the jumper we're tied 39 for jurassic park he scored an impressive 39 points to get his team to win petro was quickly rising to fame and before these two teams faced off again the next time around the pre-show made sure to remind everyone about that stellar performance the question is who's going to guard your ryzen petrovic last time out against the celtics a career high 39 points he certainly is a big factor and the way he was shooting in the celtic game up there in hartford no one could guard him an amazing night for drastic petrovic about four minutes to go in the first quarter he hit a three-pointer and as he was backtracking he got into larry bird's face and was talking some good trash now burt's not someone that you normally want to taunt but drozen really let it lit it up in that last meeting in hartford with 39 points all this hype that was going around about drawzin you know bird was listening you could tell he was salivating at the mouth for some payback to two we play two minutes in 40 seconds here's larry bird forget about that one this time bird was the one on fire dropping 25 points nine assists and nine rebounds while drazen could barely even get a shot off he produced a stat line that was not even close to the one he had during their earlier meeting just a dull 12 points he should have known that bird never forgets anything it's no secret that larry bird and bill lambert absolutely despised one another within this heated rivalry we saw them go at each other's neck on multiple occasions but in one game in particular larry bird literally got instant revenge it was game 2 of the 1985 eastern conference semifinals between the pistons and celtics bill lambert was deliberately elbowing bird as soon as the game started he wanted to take bird out early and he even ended up cutting his chin wide open the way lambeau was playing out there was probably not the smartest idea if larry is the guy you're doing it to he's not the type to just let you get away with that and from that point on bird did not play around anymore knocking bird down larry wheels on prepuca scores down bird outside encouraging you it's a little different situation but here the others know they're not involved bird the rebound is he tough or what 34 in the game for larry bird now don't get it twisted larry definitely welcomed physical play with open arms but when you go out of your way to literally draw blood all you end up accomplishing is releasing an angry bird from his cage he put up 31 points in the second half alone and wound up with a total of 42 points making bill instantly regret his actions back when larry bird was a freshman in college at indiana university it was said that the veterans on that team would kind of bully him even though i know that is hard to believe and that one player in specific kent benson who was their starting center constantly went out of his way to chastise him always giving bird a hard time since larry was the new guy on the team and rumors say that was part of the reason he didn't stay there very long and ultimately ended up transferring to indiana state shortly after now fast forward to 1985 bird was now on the celtics while benson played for the pistons and this is where bird would finally get his revenge well kinda you see while bird did do his thing out there it was kevin mchale who was destroying detroit especially kent benson and get this larry actually noticed that mikhail had the hot hand and that benson was struggling to guard him so bird encouraged mikhail to keep making things miserable for benson by simply feeding him the ball over and over again and grabbed some popcorn watching him go to work benson eventually even needed lambeau to help him stop mikhail but that also failed and when it was all said and done michael ultimately broke the franchise record with 56 points mostly at the expense of kent benson which was really making him frustrated blaine reichelt i think has a something on ken benson got to be a t and he's gone benson has just been tossed in the game now bird definitely appreciated the fact that mikhail embarrassed benson for him but he wasn't quite done with mikhail yet you see by mikhail going for 56 points he actually broke larry bird's previous celtics record 53 points and don't you think for one second that larry didn't realize that larry even said after mchale's impressive performance that he should have gone for 60. larry after the game kiddingly told kevin kevin you should have gone for 60. he said ah you should should have kept going because that may not last well the fact that he didn't go for 60 and that bird secretly wanted to get the record back he got the idea why not go for 60 himself so guess what only about a week later bird would put on a show that would go down in history forever a performance that even made the opposite team go crazy he went for 60 points against the atlanta hawks reclaiming the franchise record in points in a single game so i guess you could say that he got revenge on his very own teammate during a 1987 contest between the boston celtics and the chicago bulls michael jordan who was still a baby at the time attempted to guard larry bird but he wasn't all that successful at it bird just took jordan to the post at ease so then head coach of the bulls doug collins decided to put a slightly bigger player on larry forward ben poquette and that only made things worse for chicago because bird took that as a personal insult as soon as collins put poquet in the game to guard larry larry said this out loud to doug collins ben poquette are you kidding me and here's why bird reacted in such a way quote as far as playing i didn't care who guarded me i just didn't want a white guy guarding me because it's disrespect to my game and well since larry couldn't really tell poquette to go sit back down he thought he might as well humiliate him while he's at it standing dribble at the stripe bird has it right of the circle fakes on poket gets to the lane fade away shot good pulls the 4-2 lead celtics are on the attack bird has it right corner he fires ribbing good at the top of the glass side left against jordan bird pops and shoots from the right side and nails another one change between the circles swings it left to bird shoots foul good lord larry legend would ultimately drop 41 points forcing collins to think twice before quote unquote disrespecting his game ever again so there you go all this man wanted to do was get the w for his team and go home to cut his grass in peace but no those players couldn't just let him be they just had to provoke the legend and ultimately had to pay the price comment down below what your all-time favorite larry bird moment is and of course don't forget to like and subscribe thanks for watching

Channel: Cosgrove

Views: 1,551,222

Rating: 4.8873348 out of 5

Keywords: 5 Times Larry Bird Sought REVENGE!, larry bird, boston celtics, payback, revenge, pacers 1991, chuck person, drazen petrovic, bill laimbeer, kent benson, kevin mchale, hawks, 60 pts, ben poquette, michael jordan, chicago bulls, basketball, playoffs, finals

Id: lLjPRvCcsV0

Length: 12min 2sec (722 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 27 2020