Larry Bird, in addition to being an all-time great, is also perhaps the ultimate trash talker in NBA history. Over the years, legends like Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley have praised the Boston Celtics legend’s ability to back up his talk on the court and get into his opponents’ heads with his words.
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One of Bird’s longtime teammates, Robert Parish, recently weighed in and revealed that Bird was the best at talking smack. Interestingly, Bird wasn’t at his most relentless when his shots were falling. His verbal attacks actually got stronger when he wasn’t playing all that well.
During an appearance on The Coach JB Show with Big Smitty, Parish explained that Bird could go 1-for-19 from the field and still talk like he’d gone 19-for-19. It was truly a unique way of antagonizing his rivals.
“He never shut the f**k up,” Parish said, before sharing a story from a game against the Phoenix Suns — one of his favorite Bird moments. “It was like three seconds left on the clock, we was down by two. KC drew up a three-point play for Larry to take the last shot. So, we broke the huddle early. Larry walks over to the Phoenix huddle, lean over their shoulders of [Tom] Chambers and of coach MacLeod. He told them, ‘The only white man that can guard me is god,'” Parish recalled.
Bird then pointed to the exact spot on the floor where he was going to take the final shot. According to Parish, Bird caught the inbound pass, rose, and let it fly, without even looking back to see if it went in, much like what Stephen Curry does today. Needless to say, the shot was pure. It went in, all net, and the Celtics won the game.
Byron Scott is one of the biggest fans of Bird’s trash talk
When Bird was terrorizing the league with his trash talk and skills, it had to be a tough time for his opponents. But decades later, they all look back on those moments with awe and have nothing but respect for Larry Legend. Byron Scott has even gone on record saying he enjoyed playing against Bird because it was so much fun.
Per the former Laker, Bird had a lot in his arsenal. Digs that would hurt any player. Even simple comments like, “You jump high, but you don’t jump that high,” or “Listen guys, don’t worry about the play. I’m gonna go right over there and catch it and shoot it in y’all face and there ain’t a damn thing y’all could do about it.”
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Bird’s trash talk wasn’t about theatrics as he meant every word he said. That’s what made it so effective, and why he could talk trash even on nights when he wasn’t playing well. From telling John Hensley’s coach in Denver not to put “a white guy” on him because it was “disrespectful,” to warning Chuck Daly that if he kept Dennis Rodman on him he might drop 60, Bird had cracked the code for delivering the most legendary trash talk the game has ever seen.
