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 at 7 feet tall and 245 pounds, he was an enforcer, an

instigator

, and at times, an outright bully. Every year he played, we only had Sally and Willis. Hit each other now too Willis punched Sally in the face and in the seventh game of the 19 Eastern Conference semi-finals, while playing for the Atlanta Hawks, he tried to fight his way through Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics , it was a lot of hits. There were two referees at the time so you could go in and hit, they can't catch

ever

ything, they hit you in the mouth, they hit you with the elbow on the chin, what

ever

it is and sometimes they catch you, sometimes they don't.

There is blood. The right side of Dennis Johnson's face has a cut over his right eye when he comes out on defense, but that's how we played, it was a recent conference and I loved it, I appreciated it and they taught me a lot, so I knew what referee. you can get away with this and what referees, you can't do anything with Tommy, there is no loss of love between Willis and Mcale in this series, it's been going on all series, a little contact here and there, watch it right now and here's some serious things. Migale held them and then Willis just punched them in the nose and then Migel comes back and they call the second one.

He didn't see the first one. All you did was watch the second one if you want to leave a mark. this game you want to make a name for yourself the physical part that was great do it when you need to but it's all mental it was mental unfortunately Kevin Willis picked the wrong player to play mental games because at the end of the third quarter with Larry Bird having a relatively quiet game up to that point , Kevin Willis did something that lit up Larry Bird and the ultimate

instigator

accidentally sparked one of the greatest fourth quarter performances of all time, that fourth quarter maybe the

best

fourth quarter as far as uh monkey is concerned. monkey of all time in that series Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics were facing the

best

Atlanta Hawks team in franchise hi

story

led by the movie The Human Highlight Dominique Wilkins 15 seconds here is Eddie Johnson and what a spectacular dunk he was spectacular I just spectacular uh the dunks the explosion to the basket so we're playing is Nick is Nick is a rookie he comes on the ball go up you know, you know, I press C web, you know how you clear space you get that rebound every day you're not even worried about that because I push and go up to grab it and all of a sudden a guy there's a force on my shoulder grabs it and dunks it you know those shorts were here I'm telling you right now I mean he threw that thing down and I was like, oh God, and Larry has the classic line, Larry says, you know, Larry is cute, Larry, Larry never got too excited, he's going to shoot, he better box that guy.

I suggest, I suggest you put a body on it, that was one. One of the craziest things I've ever seen a guy that tall in my life, he just pulled him down, sure he's here, huh, boy, here, honey, not that. I still have nightmares about that video, obviously, when I was young, at basketball camps, the kids Always ask me: have you ever been abandoned? And I said in every game my teammate played. You know, I don't know how many times I thought he was getting an offensive rebound and all of a sudden this guy jumps on me.

Know? I had just said that a lot of people can go to the top floor but very few people can go to the attic, yes, but when the series started, Larry Bird set the tone in the first game by dropping 24 points in the first quarter to Larry searching. three put it in Larry pushed by the fall of Wilkins Bird, yes, why did I say the top

bird

will be ready? 24 in the first quarter a new Garden record, the most points ever scored in a quarter in a Boston Garden game, well the whole series was Crazy, uh, in games one and two, the Celtics won by 80 combined points, as if we had been eliminated.

I remember coming back for the third game in Atlanta and the big article, uh, in the Atlanta, uh Journal, he was put with a fork, we're done, you know? then we won the third game and then we won the fourth game going to Boston and we won the fifth game, we won the fifth game in Boston, we weren't supposed to win that game, you know, the critics say, so we knew we were going to the Game six, I said, man, we could, we could. we advance and we can beat these guys and then on the last play of the sixth game, I passed the ball to Cliff Livingston and he was supposed to dribble the pass to me or to Dominique.

Cliff looked at Dominique and then Cliff went off alone and shot Cliff. righty hit a left hook uh to end that game look for Dominique wikins to start here we go Livingston no Boston has won the game we wasted our chance and at the end of the game we drew up a play and it turned into a broken play and Cliff Li went down low with left hand, uh, running hook. He was mad because the play was supposed to come to me and I said, Woody, don't break the play, bro, and we ended up losing that. and we had won and we were expecting to play the winner of Atlanta Boston, they beat all of you in game six in Atlanta D Mars and I on the phone because we were watching the game and taking notes after you guys lost game six, Joe and I hung up and we said okay, we'll play in Boston because they're not going to win in Boston.

Thank you. D. I appreciate it. Then I remember landing in Boston and I remember this old lady at the airport and I'm not exaggerating, she was invented in the 80s and she comes up to me hey Rivers, you thought you wouldn't come back, right? I'll never forget wishing I knew who that lady was after game six uh Barrett made a prediction, he said Atlanta blew their chance. Guaranteed to win in Boston, well, they had their chance. You know, they had a great chance to beat us. I think now we're going to go out and play like we did tonight, but we'll be home and our shots.

We're going to fall a little better and we're going to run a little faster, so I would say Sunday is going to be a big win for the Celtics and we had to look at that big righty starter, so I remember we got Boston and we came out of the locker room and I I stopped. I said we're going to win this game, beep, beep. I said if you're not ready to fight, you're not ready to go to war, don't let whoever is protecting come here. I'm going to have a long night tonight. He leaves quickly here with six points.

I mean, every time I got to Lane there was Paris, there was Dennis on the streets, there was Kevin Mcel, so I had to be creative, but I felt that in that. game, it didn't matter what they threw at me, it didn't matter the offense for them from the perimeter that runs the offense 20 points for Dominique and for the first three quarters everyone could see that Larry Bird didn't look like his normal dominant self. so the

bird

hasn't taken over and maybe the father's age and time are starting to take notice. The bird cuts through the free rings by moving hard on Johnson after he resumes his dribbling against the double team.

The bird falls short again. The bird in the pullup doesn't make the roll, so the Superstar who put all the pressure on his shoulders by guaranteeing a win here for Boston at number seven struggles in the first period. And when Kevin Willis saw a glimpse of weakness, he became too arrogant and decided that this was his chance to break Larry Bird's defense. 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 and then force the team and all that, and I had to try to protect Dominique and so when Willis When I became an assistant coach, Willis listened to me and said, man, listen, the physicality is great, but it's the mental set of the game that I want you to start focusing on, never forget this Kevin Willis, we were going down the court in the third quarter and he.

He reached out on Bur's chest, so it was Kevin Willis, it was Larry and I, we ran down the court and Kevin caught up with the goth. I put his hands on him and B walks up to me and puts his finger on Larry Bir's chest, he said, don't let this and that. score more tonight said don't let this and that score more no more tonight said don't let this and that score more tonight I'm like don't let this motherfucker score more Bird's eyes got this I look at Kevin, do you? what are you doing? and I looked at Kevin.

I said, what the hell are you doing? You don't want to wake up a sleeping giant. He scored 12 points. No, don't wake him up. And look. Kevin, uh, what are you doing? You're crazy? Let him, let him fall asleep, yeah, he got hot and the coach said, Nick, come out, stop, I tell him, stop him, he's hot, now forget 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 that the bird goes low on the turn against wils the bird is now free to show at the initial moment the bird is up The shot Mike Forell might need an early timeout.

The bird started two out of seven. He hit his last three L birds that night. Listen, uh, he, he was amazing and he was so focused. Nick was so focused that night. It's just that Larry in the. the fourth quarter was Unstoppable Bird Cut the left hands free 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 carrying Buck bucket down the street they were going towards it Larry was torturing him Dominique was torturing me when I had the ball this is a who's going to blink first wins answer what game that last fourth maybe the best last quarter as far as uh monkey monkey of all time.

Happ between the two, it's Bird's turn and he has the advantage, oh man you know that was crazy too because it's rare in a game that you feel like it's right, that was one of the few games I was in, this was a great game at this time, it was a great game and what's even more impressive is that in those 1988 playoffs, Ly Bird had painful bone spurs in both feet, they were so bad that he didn't. He didn't even play the next season because he had to have surgery on both feet and although 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, no matter what.

However, on this night with two bad feet Larry Bird ignored the pain and went shot for shot with one of the greatest scorers of all time and once again showed why he is the toughest player in NBA hi

story

in '88 In this series, I remember before this big game against Dominique, Larry was shooting and I was shooting early on one end of the court. Larry was on the other end and I noticed Larry was down there like throwing hooks with his left hand. from about 12 or 15 feet now he hit shots with his left hand, but I saw him shooting jump hooks with his right hand from 12 or 15 feet and I came down and said what are you doing, he says, my Achilles tendons are killing me , my step back is It won't work tonight.

I need that jump hook and he did something in that game. I mean, it's just incredible, that just tells you how confident he was and tells you what kind of player he was, just to have a game plan of what shots. He was going to do it that night, but when he tries to free himself he stays with him and the foul is the continuation for Larry Bird. Oh what a bird, he just takes the ball and rolls into the defense he hits and lets it fly. Lefty Hil Mary as she rehearsed it. Watching him just gut it out and just force his body to finish that game let alone score 20 in the fourth quarter of game seven is mind-blowing to me, man, he was doing a little bit of everything, I don't really know. what he was doing in that last quarter with the things he was doing was incredible, man, I mean, he was throwing left-handed shots, running hooks, his game was on another level, we were trying to match each other's will, like that that it was just a game that he was going to bat first and it's bird and he continues 42 for Wilkins 30 for bird is 112 107 Boston there were probably 30 40 seconds left in the game, but I remember him saying: you know we both deserve to win, but someone had to go home 112 109 47 seconds another essential defensive stop here for the Hops they knew who was going to receive the balls as Robert perish always said 40,000 eyes on Larry Bird because they knew he was going to receive the ball and uh we knew it our opponents knew it they knew now it's their turn to stop him Johnson makes the birdie and Wilkins is there bird comes free bird for the layup you're seeing what greatness is all about we start the broadcast telling you about Larry Bird who After game six The Celtics' victory in Atlanta guaranteed a win at number seven, saying the Hawks blew their chance by losing number six.

Larry Bird started the game slowly, but here, in the fourth quarter, he has shown you why he is a future Hall of Famer 20. points this quarter he is nine of 10 in this period he has made 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 Boston 118 Atlanta 116 I meanIt was one of the greatest I've ever seen a guy perform in those circumstances because you're talking about Game 7 in the playoffs to carry his team like he did in that fourth quarter. To his credit, he took the Celtics and put them on his back and that was pretty much it.