MAY 26, 1987 LARRY BIRD
How big of an impact did Larry Bird make on the Boston Celtics? The records say it all: at the end of the 1978–79 NBA season, the year before Bird joined the team, the once-mighty Celtics were the worst team in the Atlantic Division with only 23 wins and 53 losses.
Then Larry Bird came to Boston—and the Celtics zoomed from worst to first with 61 wins and 21 losses, one of the greatest single-season reversals in NBA history.
How did the lanky forward from rural Indiana do it? He was one of the most well-rounded players to come to the game in a long time, rivaled only perhaps by another rookie, Magic Johnson of the Lakers. Bird could shoot. He could pass. He could rebound. Pressure situations? No problem — Bird only got better when the heat was on. Ball bouncing out of bounds? There was Bird, lunging across the floor to make the save.
“Anytime you have Bird on the floor, anything can happen,” NBA great Clyde Drexler once said.
But perhaps what made “Larry Legend” so amazing was his uncanny ability to “read” the game. Like an accomplished chess player, Bird could anticipate how the play was going to unfold and then change it according to how he wanted it to go. That ability isn’t something a player can be taught. He either has it or he doesn’t. Opposing teams soon learned that Bird had it, by the truckload.
Thanks to Bird, the Celtics were once again the “big-time” team of the Eastern Conference. They returned to the playoffs his rookie year, making it through the first round before falling to the Philadelphia 76ers. The next year, the Celtics improved their record by one win, romped through the playoffs, and beat the Houston Rockets four games to two to take the NBA title for the first time since 1976.
The 1981 Finals saw Bird soaring for an average of 21.9 points, 14 rebounds, and 6.1 assists. But his greatest moment was undoubtedly in the fourth quarter of game one. He had the ball in the right-top corner of the key. Two dribbles later, he was outside the foul line. He stopped, took aim, and fired a jump shot from nineteen feet.
The moment the ball left his hands, Bird seemed to know that the shot was going to fall short. So while the defense and the offense clustered under the hoop for the rebound, he darted forward. Sure enough, the ball ricocheted off the rim and bounced high in the air, far out of anybody’s reach — except Bird’s. Still in motion, he leaped, nabbed the rebound with his right hand, and, as his body floated out of bounds, switched the ball to his left and delivered an underhand shot that swished through the net!
Coach Auerbach called the shot the greatest play he had ever seen, which, considering how many unbelievable plays he had seen in his years, was saying quite a lot!
The Celtics won the championship again in 1984 and 1986. Bird was named Finals MVP for each of those two titles. He was also the league’s MVP in those years, as well as in 1985.
Besides sparking the Celtics to ever-greater heights, Bird contributed to the game in another way: he brought excitement back to basketball and, in doing so, brought fans back to the stands. When the Celtics returned to the playoffs again in the 1986–87 season, they played to arenas packed with people who agreed that the NBA was, as its new slogan claimed, “FAN-tastic.”
Several thousand of those fans were sitting in the stands of the Boston Garden for game five of the 1987 Eastern Conference finals. The Boston Celtics were battling the Detroit Pistons that night for the right to advance to the championship series.
Going into the fifth match, the series score was tied at two games apiece. The Pistons had the mental edge, however, having trounced the Celtics, 145–119, in their most recent meeting. Winning game five would increase their psychological advantage — a big step toward their goal of unseating the reigning titleholders.
Of course, Boston wasn’t about to let that happen. Unlike in the previous match, they gave as good as they got throughout and, by the end of the fourth quarter, had racked up nearly as many points as Detroit.
Nearly. With less than ten seconds left on the game clock, the Pistons were ahead, 107–106. Bird got the ball outside the three-point line, did a neat little stagger step that moved his defender out of position, and then drove to the hoop. He leaped, ball held high and on its way to the basket, when — wham! The ball was slapped away, and Bird hit the floor. He slid backward for several feet, and the ball bounced out of bounds.
Although the ball appeared to have been touched last by Detroit, the referees — to the Celtics’ disbelief — called the play in the Pistons’ favor. So with five seconds remaining, the Pistons’ star player, Isiah Thomas, took the ball out of bounds.
Boston set up on defense. Bird guarded his man at the top of the key. But at the same time, he watched Thomas — very, very closely. That’s how he saw Thomas glance at fellow Piston Bill Laimbeer.
In a flash, Bird guessed what that glance meant. Thomas was going to pass to Laimbeer!
Sure enough, Laimbeer cut to the hoop. He was wide open when Thomas threw the ball over his Boston defender.
All of a sudden — voom! Bird flew from the top of the key and snared the ball just before it hit Laimbeer’s outstretched hands! Bird zipped a pass to teammate Dennis “D. J.” Johnson, who had moved underneath their basket. Johnson nabbed the ball under the hoop, turned, and laid it in for two points!
It had all happened so quickly that it took fans a moment to register what had happened. Then announcer Johnny Most spelled it out for them.
“What a play by Bird! Bird stole the inbounding pass!” Most shouted. His voice rose, raspy and frenzied, with each word. “Boston has a one-point lead with one second left! Oh my! This place is going crazy!”
Bird’s steal and D. J.’s shot sealed the win for the Celtics. Boston went on to beat Detroit the next outing to advance to the Finals. Unfortunately, that was the end of the road for the Celtics, who lost the championship to Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers. But their journey would have been much shorter had it not been for Bird’s uncanny ability to read the game.
Larry Bird spent his entire thirteen-year career with the Boston Celtics. After participating in the 1992 Summer Olympics as a member of the original Dream Team, he retired because of nagging back problems. Bird is considered one of the greatest all-around players in NBA history.