“The Larry Bird and Julius Erving fight was my ‘Welcome to the NBA’ moment”: Charles Barkley reminisces about how the Celtics and Sixers legend fought in Chuck’s rookie season

Charles Barkley says that seeing Julius Erving and Larry Bird get into a scuffle on the court was his ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment. 

The Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics had a storied rivalry well before Charles Barkley made it to the NBA in 1984. The 1981 Playoffs saw Larry Bird and the Celts knock the Sixers out of title contention and the latter would return the favor in 1982 in a grueling series 7 game series in the Eastern Conference Finals. 

Even in Larry Bird’s rookie season, Julius Erving and the 76ers used merely five games to send the Celtics back home, packing, in the ECSF. Prior to the Bird-Erving rivalry, the Philly and Boston would be pitted against one another due to the fact that Philly featured Wilt Chamberlain in the 60s while the Celts were led by eventual 11x champion, Bill Russell.

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So, it’s safe to say that Charles Barkley was in for a rather competitive preseason game in his rookie season when facing against the mighty Boston Celtics. 

Charles Barkley on his ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment. 

Charles Barkley, on NBA Open Court, recounts the time he faced off against Boston for the first time in his career. Even though it was a preseason game, according to him, the atmosphere in the locker room was different prior to the bout. 

Of course, as everybody knows, that same game saw Larry Bird and Julius Erving square up with one another for a couple seconds before the benches got cleared and the two were separated. Charles Barkley claims that this moment was his defining, ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment.

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The NBA dished out $7500 fines to both Bird and Erving; an amount that was quite hefty at the time and the largest fine in league history. Funnily enough, Chuck was also handed a fine of an undisclosed amount for holding back Bird. 

The league believed Barkley was holding Larry Bird in place so that his vet could land a few punches on him when in reality, he was simply trying to stop him from landing any more punches. “I won’t ever forgive the NBA for dining me. They owe me money to this day,” said Charles Barkley.