Larry Bird’s MOST SAVAGE Moments

Retired NBA players often like to compare the good times with today, and to be honest, it sounds like a broken record machine at this point. They often say players today are soft, and they can't play in our era, and things like that. I, uh, I'm not about to debate that here, but what I will say is what is probably inarguable is the fact that players talked a lot more smack back in the day, and one of the best to ever do it was the one and only Larry Bird, aka Larry Legend. During his rookie year, Reggie Miller and the Pacers were down 3 points against the Celtics with 20 seconds left in the game. To stop the clock, the Pacers went to the foul game, but unfortunately, they fouled Larry Bird. As Bird went to the line, Miller tried to distract his concentration by getting into his head. He was like, hey hey. But before Miller even blurted out another word, Larry cut him off and shushed him up by saying, you gotta be kidding me. Rook, you gotta be kidding me. Rook, I'm the best f***ing duder in the league right now. In. The. League. Understand? And you're up here trying to say something? Bird would calmly sink the crucial free throws to beat the Pacers 119-113. He also dropped 34 points along with 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals to send out a major statement to the young Reggie. I think from that moment onwards, Reggie learned to zip his mouth whenever Larry was around. Anyway guys, off to the next story. In 1986, Larry Bird was at the peak of his greatness, winning his 3rd consecutive MVP, as well as grabbing the Finals MVP trophy while averaging 25.8 points a ballgame. He was so good this particular year, that on the night of Valentine's, he simply decided that he would not be using his right hand against the Blazers. Here's exactly what he said, Tomorrow night's the last game of the trip, I'm gonna play this one left-handed, well at least through three quarters. True to his word, Bird broke the hearts of the Blazers on V-Day by dropping 47 points while mostly using his left hand. There's Bird. After the game, he was asked why he refused to use his dominant hand, to which he replied, I'm saving my right hand for the Lakers. Man, is that cold-blooded or what? Now, if you think that was savage, wait until you hear this next story about Dennis Rodman. We all know that Rodman has a history of saying unpleasant things, and in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 1987, he pushed the boundaries further by saying an off-color remark to Larry. Game 5 at Boston, I made the most wrong decision that a person can make. At the time, I didn't know any better because I was so used to being in the projects. God damn, I was young and stupid, so after the game, I said if Larry Bird was black, he would be just an average basketball player. That is what I actually said back then, and I was in Boston. Larry heard the interview and was not happy about Rodman's comment. In Game 7, Bird had his payback, and he went to destroy Rodman with his skills and his mouth. According to Rodman, here's what went down when he was guarding him. I would be all over him trying to deny him the ball, and all Larry was doing was yelling at his teammates, I'm open, hurry up before they notice nobody is guarding me. Then he would stick an elbow in my jaw and stick the jumper in my face, then he would start in on my coach, coach, you better get this guy out and send in somebody who's going to D me up, because it's too easy when I'm wide open like this. Larry Bird was in a league of his own when it came to knocking down long-range bombs during his heyday, and when the NBA Finals introduced the three-point shooting contest in 1986, he quickly cemented himself as the most lethal marksman in the league. In 1988, heading to his third three-point contest, Bird was extremely confident that he'd bag his third consecutive three-point title. Right before the competition began, Bird tried to mess with his opponent's heads by going to the locker room and saying that the contest was already over before it even started. Now, on top of this trash talk, Bird didn't even bother to remove his warm-up jacket during the contest, and guess what, he won. Sheesh, guys. This is a dude who looked his opponents in the eye and said, who's coming in second, then followed it up by not even removing his warm-up jacket, and won. Talk about confidence. Anyway, guys, our next story happened in 1992, when Bird was part of the Dream Team, and it goes something like this. So, the head coach of Team USA personally handpicked a bunch of talented college players to have a scrimmage with the Dream Team to gauge their chemistry. The first run as a unit of the Dream Team didn't go as planned, and shockingly, the college prospects won easily behind closed doors. Right after the embarrassing loss, Rodney Rogers, who was playing for the side of the college team, was feeling upbeat about their win, and during the heat of the moment, he wasn't able to control his mouth and said something like this to Bird. Hey Larry, you ain't hit a jumper since 84. After Rogers said those words, Bird didn't say a single word, but everyone on the Dream Team knew that, uh, Larry took it personally. In the next day's practice, as everyone expected, Larry brought Rogers to school. I mean, he was scoring bucket after bucket over his head, and what's even crazier about all of this is the fact that Bird was telling Rogers how he would score on him. Jamal Mashburns witnessed firsthand how Bird murdered Rogers in that game, and here's what he said. Magic Johnson fed Larry Bird the ball, probably about 8 times in a row down the court. Larry got the ball on Rodney Rogers, and every time he was about to make a move, he told him what he was going to do. One dribble, pull up, going left, off the glass, bucket. One dribble, going right, spin, shot, bucket. He scored 9 times or 8 times in a row, left the court to go lay down because he couldn't sit on a bench because of his back injury, and said, young fella, look like 84, huh? Dominic Wilkins emerged as one of the fiercest rivals of Larry Bird in the mid-80s, but during his rookie season, he had a rude awakening when he found out that Bird wasn't the kumbaya type of guy that you can easily be friends with. According to the Human Highlight Reel, Bird rejected his friendly approach during one of their early matchups, and here's the full story in detail. 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 swish, 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. Though Bird initially got the upper hand, Dominic became so furious with Bird's trash talk game that when the opportunity for payback presented itself, he put him on a poster with a monstrous throwdown. After that dunk, Wilkins finally earned the respect of Bird, but not without some extra dish of trash talk in the end. According to Dominic, Bird got the last laugh. He got up and said, I like you, rookie. You've got guts. I was happy for a second, and then he said, but I'm still going for 40 on you tonight. True to his word, Bird would deliver yet another big game and grab the win for the Celtics, and though he only managed to score 39 that game, he proved once again that you can't outclass Larry Legend, even if you're as legendary as Dominic Wilkins. Anyway, onto another story here. Larry Bird is a competitive guy, as we can all see, and in this tale, he, uh, wanted to prove that he's the greatest Celtic ever. You see, at the time, the Celtics' record for most points in a single game was held by Bird at 53 points, but then on March 3rd, 1985, his teammate Kevin McHale scored 56 points, and then after that, Bird pretty much echoed what Fano said to Thor. He didn't say, you should have gone for the head, but he did say, you should have gone for 60. Well, just nine days later, on the night of March 12th, 1985, the Celtics traveled to the big easy to face the Atlanta Hawks, and, uh, Bird dropped 60 on the Hawks, which effectively erased the record previously set by McHale, which lasted only for nine days. Meanwhile, another teammate, Robert Parrish, said this about Bird that night. He told us at halftime that nobody could stop him, so just give him the ball and get out of the way. Then he went out and started taunting the Atlanta players on the floor, the ones on the bench, their coaches, even the referees. He was talking so much trash, he was buried in it. It was one of those nights when he could have drop kicked the ball in. I loved it. What a way to break your teammate's scoring record, plus get 60 points by trash talking your way there. Anyway, guys, do y'all know one person that players should have never trash talked? Michael Jordan. Yeah, it sounds crazy, but some players in the NBA actually trash talked the goat. Anyway, if you want to know what happened to these poor fellas, then click right here. Trust me when I say that this is a video you don't want to miss. So hurry up and click it, and like always, I'll see you on the other side.