Dominique Wilkins had the honor of playing alongside some top NBA legends during his playing days. However, none came close to Larry Bird, who he played alongside from 1994-95. Speaking about the experience during his interview with DJVlad, Wilkins spoke about how Larry Bird used to trash-talk his opponents whenever he got the chance. Bird would get especially annoyed if he didn’t think the player who was guarding him was “decent.” This led to him concluding that he did not want to play, which ended with Bird committing a few turnovers by choice.
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A 3-time NBA champion and the chief architect behind the Celtics’ dynasty in the 1980s, Larry Bird was also a top-class trash talker. While in recent months people have claimed he might not have been able to play in the current NBA, Bird was still always looking for a chance to get back at his opponents.
Larry Bird would get insulted when “decent players” targetted him
Larry Bird apparently had a range of tricks in order to trick his opponents. Wilkins might have played alongside Bird for only a couple of seasons.
However, that proved enough time for him to conclude that Bird was “nuts.” This was mostly down to the fact that he would deliberately commit turnovers in order to insult opponents sometimes:
“Yeah, he would get insulted if a player twist switches on him, and if he is a decent player, if he switches on Larry, Larry said that I am insulted that they would put a sorry dude like you on me. I don’t even want to play no more. He would drop the ball and take the turnover. I look at this guy and I am like, “He’s nuts.” But he will come back the next 6-7 plays and just embarrass you.”
Of course, while Bird would often commit a turnover on purpose, he would make it up in the next few plays. The talented forward always had enough in his tank to end up embarrassing his opponents.
Michael Jordan thought Bird was the greatest trash-talker of all time
Larry Bird was well-known for his ability to get in his opponents’ heads. As a matter of fact, Michael Jordan once labeled him as the greatest trash talker of all time.
Claiming that some of the things Bird said were simply unbelievable, MJ claimed he had learned everything about getting in his opponents’ heads from Bird. The 3-time champion had the ability to know exactly what to say, and the talent to back it up.
According to The Athletic, a range of incidents shed light on exactly how big of a trash-talker Bird was. This gave him a clear advantage over his opponents and allowed him to dominate proceedings.
