If there was one man whom other NBA players feared talking trash to, it was Larry Bird. The Hick from French Lick was more than just one of the best all-around players to ever grace the court. He had the gift of gab and wasn’t afraid to be vulgar to his own teammates, especially if things weren’t going well.
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Bird loved playing mind games, and Los Angeles Lakers legend Michael Cooper can attest to that. The five-time NBA champ recently recalled some of Bird’s most famous — or shall we say infamous — moments during an appearance on the Click Clack podcast.
Cooper recalled how Bird got the better of him during the 1984 championship series between the Lakers and the Boston Celtics. He walked up to Cooper and, with his trademark explicit jabs, got into his head.
“He came down, and I was all up on him. And he’s like, ‘Man, I’m gonna wearing your mother f****** a** out.’ So I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s go.'” Cooper then described how it looked like he and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had Bird trapped in the corner, but Larry Legend had that nickname for a reason, as he somehow got a pass off to Robert Parish for a slam dunk.
“I don’t know how he got this pass because Kareem was there with both hands. Got this pass through to Parish, and Parish dunked it. He said, ‘I told you mother f*****.'”
There are plenty of stories about Bird doing that to his rivals, but to his own coach? That’s not something you hear every day. Cooper revealed how K.C. Jones, the Celtics coach, was once drawing up a play against them when Larry shut it down rather rudely and told the boss what to run instead.
“K.C. Jones was drawing up a play against us. Larry is kind of getting frustrated because nothing going,” he stated. “So coach has the board, he’s drawing the play up. Larry goes, ‘No, no, no. F*** this sh**. Give me the ball and the rest of you f****** get out the way.”
How did that work out? “And he went out and scored,” revealed Cooper, as if it were a punchline. Of course it worked. Few players in history would be able to get away with such a disrespectful move. Bird is at the top of the list. Sometimes you just have to feed the rock to the man who got you to the show in the first place.
This also shows that Bird understood how the Celtics’ offense operated. He most likely manipulated a mismatch that Jones just wasn’t seeing. Or he just took it down the court in a fit of rage and managed to sink another one of his famed jump shots. Both options would have worked.
Cooper once called Bird the toughest player he’s ever had to guard
Calling Bird one of the hardest stars to play defense against wouldn’t be a wild statement. However, Cooper once explained exactly why Bird stood alone at the top of that list.
In an interview with Stephen Jackson, Cooper broke down how he used to study game tape and what he recognized about elite scorers like Bird. “The one thing I’ve always recognized about great offensive players is there are spots on the court that they shoot the ball well from,” he began.
“In thinking like that, my job was to just keep him off that spot, and Larry, that’s what I tried to do with him,” Cooper added. It’s a good mindset to have when scheming up a game plan against Bird and the Celtics. However, that wasn’t the real problem when it came to guarding Bird.
“People ask me all the time, who is the hardest player? And I say him. Larry never gonna take a break. He’s gonna do something to impact that possession,” he stated, after mentioning how even Michael Jordan or George Gervin tended to take a breather. And that’s why in 2025, Bird is still as relevant in basketball conversations as ever.
The Celtics legend’s Hall of Fame resume includes three NBA Championships, three league MVPs, and two Finals MVPs. You don’t get that without rattling some cages.
