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 the basketball

bird

in the Magic's coast-to-coast war and his amazing styles will They 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 how

good

he really was. Today we see NBA players

explain

ing how incredibly

good

Larry Bird was in his prime before we get there. In all that, if you want to win a PS5 with NBA 2K 22 and Madden NFL 22 included, he leaves a similar comment, subscribe and activate notifications to participate in the giveaway.

When you talk about the NBA's all-time greats, there are always five or 10 guys who hit the Each list includes a different generation, from Bill Russell of the 50s to Wilt Chamberlain of the 60s to Kareem Abdul Jabar of the 70s Magic Johnson of the 80s Michael Jordan of the 9s Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant of the 2000s to the LeBron James of today, some are overlooked when they shouldn't, for example Tim Duncan and others are left behind due to the lack of titles like Charles Barkley, what happens when all these players talk about another great as if he were like no other?

Larry Bird was praised by most of these Legends because he was one of them too, he was consistent and tough. Offensively masterful and one of the first greats to shoot many three-point shots, LeBron James spoke candidly in an interview about how he was one of the few guys to win a three-point contest with a warm-up jersey on LeBron, referring to When Larry won his third consecutive three-point contest, James continued for the young people who don't know him, you know, they think of Larry Bird as a jump shooter, uh, but he was much more than a passer, we're averaging double digits. . rebounds, he definitely took charges and, you know, he's a complete basketball player and I 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 by shooting more from behind the arc LeBron was considered a big guy but he started shooting more threes and was undoubtedly heavily influenced by the fact that Larry Legend had already accomplished this feat in the 80s in another interview when asked about his top three of all time, LeBron put Larry.

Bird firmly there with MJ and Dr. J, oh my god, three, yes, Larry Bird, Dr. J. Michael had a very different opinion about Larry initially saying he didn't like Bird because he was jealous and thought how could he this kind of normal look do everything? chance to play against Larry Bird, but he actually used to hate Larry Bird. He hated Sha. I soon realized, as he grew older and wiser, that despite having the luck of the Irish with the Celtics, Larry made his own luck when it came to shooting the ball to Shaq. At 7ft 1, of course, he had a completely different style of play at the time as he built for Max and used Brute Force to impose his will on the defense and rack up points, blocks and rebounds.

Shaq was also faster than most give him credit for. in the first part of his run on the rebound, now the magic with the last shot opportunity, O'Neal runs down the court and takes it all the way. On a different planet, he once took a shot from behind the backboard that O'Neal attributed to a fluke after a bet with his friend Vincent, a

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and leaves when he enters. I have seen everything. Shaq never really got it right. opportunity to play against Larry Bird, which is unfortunate because I don't think it would have taken him that long to recognize greatness, on the other hand, six-time NBA champion Kareem Abdul Jabar fought the bird on numerous occasions while playing with the Lakers showtime bird.

Kareem talked about how Larry might have been the best he had ever played against and said how good the people were. I don't think people. people look at him and think, oh, he's a white guy, a slow guy, a chubby white guy, he wore us out, you know, because look, this was this muscle here, the one between his ears, yeah, that was it. best he could, you know, because he made the three points and he had assists and rebounds, he was always in 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 against 11-time All-Star Charles Barkley, a regular season MVP during a Starfield.

The 90 was once asked if you are better than a bird and he took a long pause before answering, which is very telling: am I better than a bird? Oh man, that's a great question. Most great players respond immediately by saying that they believe they are the best because you have to. you have that kind of mentality to get to the top, instead, Barkley responded: 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 that you have to have that mentality no, no, you know, you know, you know, uh, like I think you know it's a team game.

I think deep down he knew Bird was a better player and for someone as good as Chuck to be stumped like that in a The interview shows how heavy the weight of Larry Bird's legacy was, former teammate Kevin Mcale too refers to how unreal it was to play with Bird. Mcale was Bird's right-hand man while he played with Boston and took home the Sixth Man of the Year award twice along with seven All-Star appearances, his story of a specific Detroit game is fascinating, there was a little time left in the clock and we had beaten Detroit and I scored 56 and I walked off the court and Larry said, he said, where are you going?, I said.

I'm done, I said I'm exhausted, I'm tired, Larry says, don't do it man, because when I get so hot I won't get out of the game a week later, he got so hot, he looked at me about 50 points and told me looked and said, I told you the pair would win three titles together and the man would go on to tell stories that will live in Celtics folklore forever. The highlight is a throwback to the brutal trash talk of a bird in a game in Phoenix, we have a play out of Bounce play, I'm taking it out and um, Larry says I'm going to finish the play and I'm just going to go out and I'm going to shoot a three and I'm like we're down by two, I said, no, don't do that, I told him, let's just shoot his two, please go to the hole, try to get fouled, let's go into overtime, let's see if We can't win this game and Larry.

He says no, I'm just going to bust a three and I'm like, oh my God, so he tells the Phoenix bench, um, he tells the coaches, yeah, I'm just busting a three for them and I'm going home. I'm tired of this and he gets the ball, jumps and makes the play, puts the ball in the slot, shoots the ball while the ball is in the air, turns to the Phoenix B yels I told you so Larry's mental game was such that I could just open any computer and destroy it. He would use psychological warfare on a regular basis.

Players talk about his toughness, not because of his size or his physique, but because of his mind. He would impose his will on the opponents and could force them to retreat. his game as much as he could change it, he is a mastermind in Trash Talk tactics Larry Bird will always go down in history as one of the best trash talkers of all time and in the 80s that mattered with players like Bill lambier hakee aluan Magic Johnson and the eventual emergence of the bird Michael Jordan did what was necessary to gain that mental advantage that took him to the top.

James Worthy, the 1988 Finals MVP, simply stated that Larry talked trash all the time, but the problem was that he could back down. Oh yeah, he and he could back it up, so when you're an American and you can back it up, you're not just good and, uh, and Larry was good, even more so for his teammate, Magic Johnson talked about the fact that he felt a true dislike for Larry Bird since his college playing days for the simple reason that Larry constantly brought out the best in him, Johnson said in a recent interview during a press prep for the Broadway play about the couple who after Larry beat the NCAA championship game in 1979, the most watched college basketball game in history, when the Lakers came, it was zero and 8 for the Celtics, you had to hate the Celtics to beat them because when I got here there were 04 of us, believe. 8 and then the first time against the Celtics in the championship series and then we lost that in '84, that made us 0 for 9, I think, and then it's quoted as saying that when I played, Larry Bird was the only one I didn't fear evil When hearing it from a five-time champion and one of the true all-time great basketball players at the 2019 NBA Awards, Johnson received the NBA Lifetime Achievement Award, but was left guessing who Larry Bird was.

In fact, getting out and walking, listen, man, retirement is great for you because you never talked that long. Dominique Wilkins recounts one of the most famous games in which Larry Bird promised Kevin McCale that he was going to break Mel's record against Atlanta. Wilkins said he got so hot. in that game you talk about that patented step back, he was taking that step back and he switched it to his left hand three different times in that game and hit a three, he was scoring anywhere on the court he wanted, is this, when was each one? others, did you fight with them after the game?

Forget it, forget it, Larry, did you beat any of the five? He's scoring me. Each of those guys got F3,000. Larry's legend lives on thanks to the greats who want to tell him about it. The reason there is a list of top 10 players that consistently call Bird their toughest opponent or one of their all-time greats is because Larry himself is on that list. Larry is one of the top 10 players of all time. His style doesn't matter as long as his ability does. Synchronize the opposition because, above all, the opposition will remember, they will remember the steals, the shots, the clutch shots and the trash talk, they will remember the bird from the early 80s, not the early 90s, the Larry who came out on the court in his warm-up jacket and made Michael Jordan recoil in envy.

MJ announced that he took off his shirt, but look, he took off his shirt well when the bird did, it was all business. He might as well have thrown a mop and bucket on the floor because he was. about to clean up, he was a brash and never-relenting opponent who took the life of anyone who stepped on his battlefield. Consensus is a resounding hallmark of the legendary statistician St for the man who will always go down in the history books as one of the greatest. All the players and possibly the best Celtic of all time for Grace on the pitch.

What did you think of Larry Bird in his prime?