$75 million Boston Celtics legend gets jumped by Charles Barkley, Moses Malone, and Dr. J! 

Larry Bird and the Celtics hated Charles Barkley and the Philadelphia 76ers, So much so that they were brawling, even in pre-season!

NBA in the 80s and early 90s was ferocious. It was a time when the league had started televising almost every single game, every single incident too.

While the rough nature of the league was quite prominent from the start; it wasn’t in the public eye nor was its visibility enhanced by high-resolution TV cameras. The 80s were a time when both happened.

Viewers at home got to see the brutal and physical nature of the games live on the screens. Soon enough the NBA would start clamping down. But before that happened we got to witness violence on violence.

Even the pre-season games were rough, just take a look at this clip between the Celtics and the 76ers. See if you can recognize any players.

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$75 million NBA legend Larry Bird gets jumped by a gang of 76ers players including Charles Barkley!

Back in the day, the hate was real. So much so that a simple play could incite a riot. The aforementioned clip is from a game between the Celtics and the 76ers and you can see how violent the players got.

Today, Charles Barkley might be a broadcaster extraordinaire, and Larry Bird is worth a cool $75 million. But back then, the two were just players on a court squaring off because they simply hated each other.

Charles Barkley in particular was one to get all crazy. The rivalry between the two was fierce at the time and for a long while, the violence continued.

The NBA did eventually come around to stifle the altercations on the court and stricter fines and rules were imposed to get rid of it. These days the game is far less physical, as the old heads say “the league’s gone soft”.

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