NBA Legends Explain How CRAZY GOOD Larry Bird Was

the man from indiana who gave us an 80s to remember by lighting up a battle between the celtics and the lakers will forever be heralded as one of the players who saved basketball bird in magic's coast-to-coast war and jaw-dropping styles gave the nba the boost it needed before the emergence of michael jordan but for bird with three titles two finals mvps and three consecutive mvp seasons some forget just how good he really was today we look at nba players explaining how crazy good larry bird was in his prime before we get into all that if you want to win a ps5 with nba 2k 22 and madden nfl 22 included leave a like comment subscribe and turn on notifications to enter the giveaway when speaking of the nba's greatest of all time there's always 5 or 10 guys that hit the list each carries a different generation from 50s bill russell to 60s wilt chamberlain or 70s kareem abdul-jabbar 80s magic johnson 90s michael jordan 2000 shaquille o'neal and kobe bryant to today's lebron james some get overlooked when they shouldn't for example tim duncan and others get left behind because of the lack of titles like charles barkley what happens when all these players talk of another great as if he was like no other larry bird was lauded by most of these legends because he was one of them too he was consistent tough offensively masterful and one of the first big guys to shoot many three-point shots lebron james spoke candidly in an interview about how he was one of the few guys ever to win a three-point contest with a warm-up shirt on lebron referring to the time larry won his third consecutive three-point contest james continued for young guys that don't know him you know they think of larry bird as a jump shooter uh but he was so much more than he was a passer the average double-digit rebounds um the dfinity took charges and um you know it's a straight-up complete basketball player and me as a small forward later in his career lebron adapted his game to the new way of basketball which was a charge led by the golden state warriors in shooting more from behind the arc lebron was considered a big guy but began shooting more threes and no doubt was heavily influenced by the fact that larry legend had already achieved this feat in the 80s in another interview when asked about his top three of all time lebron put larry bird firmly in there with mj and dr j my god three uh yeah larry bird dr j michael shaq had a very different opinion on larry initially he said he disliked bird because he was jealous he thought how could this regular looking guy do everything never really had a chance to play against larry bird but i actually used to hate larry bird i i hate it shaq soon realized as he grew older and wiser that despite getting the luck of the irish with the celtics larry made his own luck when it came to shooting the ball shaq at seven foot one of course had a completely different style of game at the time he was built to the max and used brute force to impose his will on the defense and rack up the points blocks and rebounds shaq was also faster than most give him credit for particularly in the early part of his career now they're magic with a final shot chance o'neill runs the floor bird was notoriously slow which was all the more testament to his skill set but his basketball iq was just on a different planet he once sank a shot from behind the backboard which o'neill chalked down to a fluke following a bet with his friends shaq never really got the chance to play against larry bird which is unfortunate because i don't think it would have taken him so long to recognize greatness on the other hand six-time nba champion kareem abdul-jabbar battled bird on numerous occasions while playing with the showtime lakers bird got the better of him in the 1984 finals and took another two in a decade that was largely dominated by the purple in gold kareem spoke about how larry might have been the best he had played against and said but how good was that people i don't think people people look at him and think he's a white guy slow guy chubby white guy he wore us out man you know because he just this was this muscle here the one between his ears yeah that was his best you know because he made the three-pointers and he had assists and rebounded steals he was always at the right place at the right time on the court you know one of the great players you know i had the opportunity to play again eleven-time all-star charles barkley a regular season mvp during a star-filled 90s was once asked are you better than bird and he took a long pause before answering which is very telling am i better than bird oh man that's a great question most great players respond immediately with how they think they're the best because you have to have that kind of mentality in order to get to the top instead barkley answered i'm a better rebounder i'm probably a better defender he's a better shooter obviously you know a lot of people talk about who's better but you have to think you have to have that mentality no no you know you know you'd know uh like if i think you know it's it's a team game i think deep down he knew that bird was a better player and for someone as good as chuck to be stumped like that in an interview shows you how heavy the weight of larry bird's legacy was former teammate kevin mchale also references how unreal bird was to play with mikael was bird's right-hand man while playing with boston claiming the sixth man of the year war twice along with seven all-star appearances his story of a specific detroit game is fascinating there was a bit of time left on the clock and we had beaten detroit and i just scored 56 and i'm walking off the court and larry said where are you going i said i'm done i said i'm exhausted i'm tired larry goes don't do it man because when i get that hot i'm not coming out of the game a week later he got that hot he looked at me at about 50 points and he looked at me and said i told you the pair would go on to win three titles together and mikhail would continue to tell stories that live on in celtics folklore forever more a highlight being a throwback from bird's brutal trash talk at a game in phoenix we have a play out of bounce play i'm taking it out and um larry says i'm gonna bust off to play and i'm just gonna come out and i'm gonna shoot at three and i'm like we're down two i'm like no don't do that i'm like just let's shoot it too please go to the hole try to get fouled let's just get into overtime see if we can't win this game and larry says no i'm just gonna bust a three on him and i'm like oh my gosh so he tells us tells the phoenix bench um he tells the coaches yeah i'm just fixing the bus to three on you guys just go home i'm tired of this and he gets the ball jumps out busts the play comes out gets the ball to slot shoots the ball as the ball is in the air he kind of turns towards the phoenix bench and yells told you so larry's mental game was such that he could just open up any team and tear them apart he would use psychological warfare on a regular basis players speak of his toughness not because of his size or physicality but because of his mind he would impose his will on the opposition and could force them off their game just as much as he could switch on his a mastermind at trash talk tactics larry bird will forever go down in history as one of the greatest trash talkers of all time and in the 80s that mattered with players such as bill lambert hakeem olajuwon magic johnson and the eventual emergence of michael jordan bird did what was necessary in order to gain that mental edge that took him over the top [Music] james worthy the 1988 finals mvp simply stated that larry was trash talking all the time but the problem was he could back it up yeah he could back it up so [Music] when you're arrogant you can back it up you're not acting you're just good and then larry was good even warther's former teammate magic johnson spoke on the fact that he had a real dislike for larry bird as far back as their college playing days for the very reason that larry would constantly get the better of him johnson claimed in a recent interview during a press build up for the broadway play about the pair that after he beat larry in the ncaa championship game in 1979 the most watched college basketball game ever by the time he got to the lakers they were zero and eight to the celtics you had to hate the celtics to beat them because be when i got here we were old for i think eight and then the first time against the celtics in the in championship series and then we lost that in 84 that made us old for nine i believe and later as quoted as saying when i played larry bird was the only one i feared not bad when hearing it from a five-time champion and one of the true great basketball players of all time at the 2019 nba awards johnson received the nba lifetime achievement award but it was shared with guess who larry bird byrd was simply the king of talking the talk then actually going out and walking the walk listen man retirement is great for you because you've never talked this long dominique wilkins recounts one of the most famous games where larry bird promised kevin mchale he was going to break mikhail's record against atlanta wilkins said he got so hot in that game that you talk about that patented step back he was doing that step back and he switched it to his left hand three separate times in that game and she hit a three he was scoring anywhere on the floor and the was giving each other five so did you get in the fight with them after the game forget it forget larry did you beat anybody on the bench this way you're giving five he's going on me every one of those guys larry's legend lives on because of the greats that want to tell them the reason there's a list of top 10 players who consistently call bird their toughest opponent or one of their all-time greats is because larry himself is in that list larry is a top 10 baller of all time his style doesn't matter when his skill sinks the opposition because above all the opposition will remember they'll remember the steals the shots the clutch plays and the trash talk they'll remember the bird from the early 80s not from the early 90s the larry who stepped out on the court in his warm-up jacket and made michael jordan recoil and envy mj announced he took out his top yet well when byrd did it was all business he may as well have taken a mop and bucket to the floor because he was about to clean up he was an impetuous and never relenting opponent that took the life from anyone who stepped onto his battlefield the consensus is a resounding stamp of legendary status for the man who will forever go down in the history books as one of the greatest ever players and arguably the greatest ever celtic to grace the court what did you think of larry bird in his prime [Music]

Channel: Latest Hoops

Views: 6,557,166

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Id: ZSxVCb3fZM4

Length: 10min 16sec (616 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 07 2021