Bill Walton TELLS a Larry Bird STORY

foreign was a former professional basketball player he played for the Portland Trailblazers in 1974-1979 where he got his first championship ring in 1977 sweeping fellow UCLA Alan Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Lakers in the Western Conference finals and beating Dr J and the Sixers four to two in 1977 NBA finals which prompted the Sixers coach Jean shu to comment that bill is the best player for a big man who ever played the game of basketball he played also for the Clippers in 1979 to 1985 but most of his playing years were plagued by injuries in 1985 to 1987 he was given a chance to play alongside Larry Bird and the Celtics where he got his second championship ring and received the Sixth Man Award and Bill Walton has a Larry Bird story to tell Phil you once said that Larry didn't just give you your career back he gave your life back what did I mean by that you have not spent six years of your life on the Clippers [Laughter] [Applause] but to know what Larry Bird was like not so much as a basketball player but more as a human being and that's what's so special for me to be here tonight because not only when I got here today in My Fabulous hotel room and president president Daniel Bradley he left a bottle of whiskey in my room [Laughter] [Applause] Graham and then I was looking through this fabulous program and be sure be sure and everybody keep their program Larry's signing them all in the library in the lobby after they showed it but we were sitting at table eight table eight which was Scotty wedman's number and Scotty was just absolutely fantastic but I opened up this page and there's Larry drawn a play for himself foreign but Larry we're playing a game we're playing a game down in Atlanta and this is how long ago this was because Atlanta was a good team and they had Dominique and Doc Rivers and Reggie Theus and Kevin the penguin Willis and tree Rollins and all these guys and we are getting a hammered we're just getting killed we're down 25 at the half and they're all trash talking and fans are throwing stuff at us and they're we're gonna kill you Celtic bird Walton McHale Parish DJ you guys are all frauds what are you talking about with the exception of Dominique Wilkins who had too much class to ever say a thing so we come in at halftime we're just sulking in there with Tails between our legs we walk in we're sitting in the locker room and Casey Jones are fantastic coach the most like John wouldn't have any coach I've ever been a part of Casey walks in he looks at us looks at his watch doesn't say a word walks over to the cooler and pulls out a beer pops the beer goes and sit down pounds down the beer just sitting there finishes the beer looks at his watch looks at us goes over to the cooler and gets a second beer pops the beer pounding it down doesn't say a word looks at his watch looks around at us Goshen gets a third beer does the same thing and then he gets up looks at his watch for the final time and he says let's go so we go out there and we're going to start the third quarter and I got a record sellout crowd there at the Omni and they're gonna start the third quarter and you watch an NBA game and nobody wants to ever take the ball out of bounds because they know they're never going to get it back Larry Bird always took the ball out of bounds the selfless sacrifice that was Larry Bird's defining personal characteristic what he would do to make other people's dreams come true he's going to take the ball out of bounds and that referee comes and the referee hands the ball to Larry to start the third we're down 25. Larry takes the ball and pushes it back into the midsection of the referee so that he can't get away and referees like startled stagger what's going on here was all right there right in front of the Celtic bench and Larry looks right into the soul Right Through The Eyes of that referee and he says to him we're not going to quit you make sure you don't quit either to try to just like melted on the spot Larry hit 11 straight shots to start the third including seven threes we were tied at the end of the third we won in overtime we did not need a plane to get home last night that night Larry Bird you're awesome [Music] foreign

Channel: AllBasketballTV

Views: 145,965

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Id: UZ5JJwz5F4E

Length: 5min 25sec (325 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 14 2023