The Best Larry Bird vs COCKY INSTIGATOR Story Ever Told

after being selected in the first round of the 1984 NBA draft Kevin Willis played 21 seasons in the NBA and standing at 7 fet tall 245 lbs he was an enforcer an instigator and sometimes an outright bully every year that he played we just had Sally and Willis bang one another now also Willis popped Sally right in the face and in game seven of the 19 88 Eastern Conference semi-finals while playing for the Atlanta Hawks he tried to bully his way through Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics it was a lot of banging it was two referees at the time so you could just go in and bang they can't catch everything you get busted in the mouth you get elbow in the chin whatever it was and sometime you get caught sometime you don't there is blood on the right side of Dennis Johnson's face he is cut at the right eye as he comes out defensively but that's how that's how we played that was recent conference and I loved it I welcomed it and I they taught me a lot and so I knew what referee you can get away with stuff and what referees you can't do anything with Tommy no love loss between Willis and mcale in this series it's been going on the whole series a little contact here and there you watch him right now and here's some serious stuff going on as migale held them and then Willis just smacked them in the nose and then back comes Migel and they call the second one you didn't see the first one all you did was see the second one if you want to make a foot printing this game you want to make a name for yourself the physical part that was great do it when you need it but it's all mental it it was mental unfortunately Kevin Willis picked the wrong one to play mind games with because at the end of the third quarter with Larry Bird having a relatively quiet game up until that point Kevin Willis did something that set Larry Bird off and the ultimate instigator accidentally ignited one of the greatest fourth quarter performances of all time that fourth quarter maybe the best fourth quarter as far as uh mono mono of all time in that series Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics were facing the greatest Atlanta Hawks team in franchise history led by The Human Highlight film Dominique Wilkins 15 seconds here's Eddie [Applause] Johnson and what a spectacular dunk he was spectacular me just spectacular uh the dunks the explosion to the [Applause] basket so we're playing it's Nick's Nick's a rookie he's coming in the ball goes up you know you know I push C web you know how you you you clear space you get that rebound every day you're not even worried about it cuz I push and I I go up to get it and all of a sudden man there's just a force all over my shoulder he grabs it he dunks it you know those short shorts they were right here I tell you right now I I mean he threw that thing down and I was like oh my and Larry has the classic line Larry goes you know Larry's pretty Larry Larry never got too excited he goes shoot I better better box that guy out I I suggest I suggest you put a body on him that was one of the craziest things ever I'd never seen a guy that high in my life he just threw it down sure's right here huh kid right here baby that was not I still have nightmares about that video obviously when I was young in basketball camps kids would always ask me have you ever been dumped on and I said every game by my by my teammate you know I don't know how many times I thought I was getting offensive rebound and then all of a sudden this guy is jumping over me you know he had just saying a lot of people can go to the top floor but very few people can go to the penthouse yeah but when the series began Larry Bird set the tone in game one by dropping 24 points in the first quarter back to Larry looking for three got him inside Larry pushed by Wilkins fallway Bird yeah why did I say at the top bird will be ready 24 in the first quarter a new Garden record the most points ever scored before in one quarter in a Boston Garden game well the whole series was crazy uh game one and two the Celtics won by like a combined 80 points like they blew us out I remember coming back for game three to Atlanta and the big article uh in Atlanta uh Journal was put a fork in we're done you know and then we win game three and then win game four going to Boston and win game five we won game five in Boston we was not supposed to win that game you know the critics say so we knew going to game six I said man we could we could advance and we can beat these guys and then the last play in game six I inbound the ball to Cliff Livingston and he was supposed to dribble handoff to either me or Dominique uh Cliff looked at Dominique and then Cliff went on his own and shot a Cliff's right-handed he shot a left-handed hook shot uh to end that game look for Dominique wikins to begin with here we [Applause] go Livingston no Boston has won the game we blew our opportunity and at the end of the game we drew up a play and it was turned into a broken play and Cliff Li went to Bass left hand uh running hook I was mad cuz the play was supposed to come to me and I'm like Woody don't break the play bro and so we end up losing that game and we had won and we was waiting to play the winner of Atlanta Boston they beat y'all game six in Atlanta D Mars and I on the phone cuz we watching the game and we taking notes after y'all lost game six Joe and I hung up we said all right we playing Boston cuz they ain't going to win in Boston thanks D apprciate so I remember Landing in Boston and I remember this old lady at the airport and I'm not exaggerating she made up in 80s and she walks up to me hey Rivers you thought you wasn't coming back didn't you I I I will never forget that I wish I knew who that lady was after the game six uh Barrett made a prediction he said Atlanta blew their opportunity I'm guaranteeing to win in Boston well they had their chance you know they had a big chance to beat us I think now that we're going to come out and and play like we did tonight but we're going to be at home and our shots going to be dropping a little bit better and we're going to be running a little bit faster so I'd say Sunday's going to be a big win for the Celtics and we had to look at that right big headlin so I remember we get to Boston and we walk out of the locker room and I stopped I said we going to win this bleep bleep game I said if you ain't ready to fight you ain't ready to go to war don't come out here whoever guarding me tonight going to have a long night [Applause] nin he is off quickly here with six points I mean every time I got to Lane there was Paris there was Dennis in the lanes there was Kevin mcel so I had to get creative but I felt like in that game no matter what they threw at me it didn't matter the offense for thew wils from the perimeter that's running the offense 20 points for Dominique and during the first three quarters everyone could see that Larry Bird didn't look like his normal dominating self so bird has not taken charge and perhaps age and father time starting to tell bird Cuts free rims out moving tightly on Johnson after he picks up his dribble against the double team bird is short again bird on the pullup doesn't get the roll so the Superstar who put the pressure squarely on his shoulder Shoulders by guaranteeing a victory here for Boston in number seven struggling in the opening period And when Kevin Willis saw a glimpse of weakness he got way too cocky and decided that this was his chance to break Larry Bird's Spirit but instead of breaking Larry's spirit all he did was wake up a sleeping giant you know Bill I was that guy who wanted to be physical then force on the team and all that and I had to sort of try to protect Dominique and so when Willis re became assistant coach he got my ear Willis re say man listen the physicality is great but it's the mental set of the game you I want you to start focusing on never forget this Kevin Willis we would come down the court in the third quarter and he reached over in Bur chest so it was Kevin Willis it was me and Larry we run down the court and Kevin reached goth me put his hands and B reaches across me and puts his finger in Larry bir chest said don't let this so and so score any more tonight said don't let this so and so score more no more tonight said don't let this so and so score any more tonight I'm like don't let this son of a gun score anymore Bird's eyes got this I look at Kevin what are you doing and I looked at Kevin I'm like what the hell are you doing you don't want to awakeing a sleeping giant he got 12 points don't don't wake him up and I looked at Kevin uh what you doing are you crazy leave him let him stay asleep yes and he got hot and coach said Nick go out there stop I'm like stop him he hot now forget that that's the only thing I can do is try to match him bucket for bucket and it was a shootout in the fourth quarter it came down to the last shot not so good at it bird gets it in low on the turn around against wils bird now Cuts free so they displayed in the early moment bird is up with the shot Mike forell might need an early timeout bird started out two of seven he has hit his last three L bird that night was listen uh he he was unbelievable and he was so clutch Nick was just as clutch that night it's just that Larry in the fourth quarter was Unstoppable bird Cuts free left hands it for the field goal that puts Pati Jones and the Celtics back on top 101 to 99 I said bird had 20 of his 34 in the fourth quarter Dominique had Dominique had 17 of his 47 in the fourth quarter and they were going Buck bucket down the street they was going at it Larry was torturing him Dominique was torturing me on when he had the ball this is a type of game of who's going to Blink first wiin responds what a game that fourth quarter maybe the best fourth quarter as far as uh mono mono of all time Happ between the two of them it's Bird's turn and the have the lead oh man you know it was crazy too because it's rare in a game you feel it right that was one of the few games I was s this this was a hell of a game right now it was a hell of a game and what's even more impressive is that in those 1988 playoffs ly bird had painful bone spurs in both feet there were so bad that he didn't even play The Following season because he had to get surgery on both feet and though Larry Bird played a few more seasons this injury essentially ended Larry Bird's dominant career as we knew it because he was never the same again however on this night with two bad feet Larry Bird disregarded the pain and went shot for shot with one of the greatest scorers of all time and once again proved why he is the toughest player in in NBA history in 88 we were banged up a little bit matter of fact the great story about this series is I remember before this big game against Dominique that Larry was out shooting and I was out shooting early at one end of the Court Larry was down at the other end and I noticed that Larry was down there like shooting left-handed jump hooks from like 12 15 feet now he made left-handed shots but I saw him shooting right-handed jump hooks from 12 or 15 feet and I went down and go like what are you doing he goes my achilles tendons are killing me my step back isn't won't work tonight I need that jump hook and he made something in that game I mean it's just unbelievable that just tells you his confidence and tells you like what kind of a player he was just to have a game plan of what shots he was gonna make that night bir attempting to break free stays with it and the foul is p the continuation for Larry Bird oh what bird just get the ball and wheel into the defense that's bangs and lets it Fly Lefty Hil Mary just like he rehearsed it to watch him just gut it out and just to will his body to even finish that game let alone score 20 in the fourth quarter of a game seven is is mindboggling to me man he was doing a little bit of everything I don't know really what he was doing in that fourth quarter with the stuff that he was doing it was unbelievable man I mean he was throwing left-hand shots running hooks uh his game was at another level we was trying to match each other's will and so it was just a game who was going to hit first and it's bird and the to continues 42 for Wilkins 30 for bird it's 112 107 Boston it was probably like 30 40 seconds to go in the game but I remember he said you know we both deserve to win but somebody got to go home 112 109 47 seconds another defensive stop a must here for the Hops they knew who was going to get the balls like Robert perish always said 40,000 eyes on Larry Bird because they knew he was going to get the ball and uh we knew it our opponents knew it now it's just up for them to stop it Johnson gets it into bird and Wilkins is there bird comes free bird for the layup you are watching what greatness is all about we began the broadcast by telling you about Larry Bird who following the game six Victory by the Celtics in Atlanta guaranteed a win in number seven saying the Hawks blew their Chance by losing number six Larry Bird started the game slowly but here in the fourth period he has shown you why he's a future Hall of Famer 20 points this quarter he is nine of 10 in this period he has hit his last six field goals and as far as Larry Bird is concerned it's Detroit Here We Come Oh the Miss and that's it Boston 118 Atlanta 116 I mean that was one of the greatest performance I've seen from a guy in those circumstances because you talking about seventh game in the playoffs to carry his team the way he did in that fourth quarter man to his credit man he took the Celtics and put them on his back and pretty much that was it

Channel: Prime Larry Bird

Views: 247,889

Keywords: NBA, NBA History, Larry Bird, NBA Legends, GOAT

Id: qlDZsmHyC0o

Length: 15min 46sec (946 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2024