“Get Dennis Rodman off me before I drop 60!”: When Larry Bird’s challenge to Piston’s Coach had just ignorance for the 2-time DPOY

There are some wild trash-talking stories of Larry Bird out there but this one that includes Dennis Rodman and Chuck Daly was one of his best ever.

Larry Bird is one of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball and he used to let every opponent know that fact either by his game or his mouth, but generally, both.

The Celtics legend had his way of going about business around the court, that never changed. Not when he came into the league in 1978, not when he played the legends, and until he called it a day.

A rookie Bird once walked by an opponent’s bench and told them he’d score 43 points on them. Why exactly 43? Well, that’s how he did things. Larry Legend was one best trash talkers that walked the basketball court, and he was that all the time, irrespective of who he was facing.

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And he would always keep his end of the bargain as he did in that rookie season by scoring 43 by the 3rd quarter itself and checking himself out of the game.

It didn’t matter if it were the Showtime Lakers starring his rival from the college days – Magic Johnson and already a legend of the game – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, neither it mattered when it was the “Bad Boys” Piston, Bird wouldn’t spare anybody on his heyday.

That’s what happened when a young Dennis Rodman got caught on the opposite end of Bird’s wrath.

Larry Bird just assumed Dennis Rodman was invisible on defense

Rodman as we know was as fiercely competitive as anybody in the game, the man would just numb the opposition’s best player on good days while collecting half of his team’s rebounds.

The man was a machine, but so was Larry’s mouth. The 12x All-Star did Dennis too dirty by just considering him invisible in a Celtics-Piston game. He’d go to Piston’s coach Chuck Daly and ask him to put a defender on him, or otherwise, he’ll give him a 60-piece while Dennis Rodman tried his best to guard him.

Bird wouldn’t score 60 points in this game but finished with 32 points, which was the game-high and he helped the Celtics win the match with a score of 121-110. Rodman remembered this from that game.

Yes, that’s how Larry treated the man who in the future would go on to become a 7-time All-Defensive First Team and 2-time Defensive Player of the Year.

Both of them would face each other several times after that game, with Rodman’s Pistons even coming out winners in the 1988 Playoffs as well.

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It wasn’t much of a knock on Dennis anyways as barely any defender could guard the 6’9 wonder’s jump shots. But still, Rodman must have taken that disrespect on his chin, which made him one of the best defenders to ever play the game.