Bird hazes rookie Dominique

[theatlfan]

Caught this on another board earlier today and figured I'd share:
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25063798/dominique-wilkins-shares-awesome-larry-bird-trash-talk-story

For those of you who are too young or were too wasted to remember the 80's, "Homes" was huge then and didn't really mean anything - it was used to refer to someone without using their name. Not necessarily mean-spirited nor a term of endearment although it could be either in the proper context. I do think, however, that it would actually be spelled "Holmes" though.

[ATLHawksfan21]

Bird was the greatest talker of all-time. Here's a bunch of stories that had me laughing hard when I read them.

Clyde Drexler has a memory of Larry from his rookie year:

“I was guarding him my rookie year, he looked at me and he goes “you can’t stop me”…I looked at him and said “gosh, boy you’re so confident”. He goes “Confident? You’re a rookie, you don’t know anything!”
“He proceeded to score 10 straight points on me, coach took me out the game, he walks by and he’s laughing at me.”


“I remember the time when Larry got on a roll, started shooting the ball, every shot was going in. He run by the bench and goes “that’s a heat check to see how hot I am,” he runs by Frank Layden who’s the funniest guy in the league and Frank is coaching and Larry says to him:
“Hey, Frank, haven’t you got anyone on the bench who can guard me? Because nobody out here can.”
Frank looks down the Bench and he goes, ‘no!'”.


Michael Cooper shared this one:
“Larry walks in and says I hope all you guys in here are thinking about second place, because I’m winning this…’EXCUSE ME?!’
“And he started shooting and he just didn’t miss.”

Of course, he won, lifting his finger in the air before the final shot went in, and not even removing his warm up jacket.
The following year, in the same All-Star 3-point shooting contest Dale Ellis told the press that Bird didn’t have much to say this year. Bird said, “There’s no need to talk this time. We all know who’s going to win.”
Later on, after Craig Hodges won the NBA All-Star Game Three-Point contest in Bird’s absence, Hodges was asked if the victory was tainted because Bird hadn’t participated. “He knows where he can find me,” was Hodges retort.
Told of Hodges’ challenge, Bird replied, “Yeah, at the end of the Bulls bench.”

[ATLHawksfan21]

Let's add some more....

Remember Bird’s legendary game against the Hawks when he dropped 60?

We’ll allow Doc Rivers to tell the story:

“Bird got in the zone and he started calling the shots, he started saying “off the glass”, that was the one game I think he tortured Dominique.

“He saw Dominique as this up and coming player and he just tortured him, mentally. He tortured all of us, he was calling shots,”off the glass” “who’s next”, “where you want this one from” and he just made one after another. When he got to about the 55th point you knew it was something special.”

“Even as a player, and that usually doesn’t happen, but we were down so much at the time, you got time to realise the game. The last shot, he said “in the trainer’s lap” coming down the court, which meant it was going to be a three and it was going to from deep, and then he said “who wants it?”. Then I think Reggie Brown, I’m not sure who it was, ran out after him, he shot this high rainbow, it goes in, Reggie bumps into him and accidentally knocks him on our trainer’s lap.

“So it was exactly what he said, it was an accident but it was almost fate. They show a shot of our bench, Cliff Livingston and Eddie Johnson are standing up giving each other high fives, it was pretty awesome.

“That night was not awesome. We had to go back to the room, and Mike Fratello, instead of going out to eat, he had a team meeting and put the film in and says “it’s one thing to be in awe, it’s another thing to cheer for the other team”. And he shows this back and forth, and kept rewinding the high five. It was awesome.”
“At the end of one of the trips,” Walton start. “He had accomplished every goal, we hadn’t lost a game on the trip and Larry told all of us players and the media too, we were all standing around waiting to leave, he said “Tomorrow night’s the last game of the trip, I’m going to play this one left-handed, at least through three quarters”.

“At the end of three quarters, the next night in Portland against poor Jerome Kersey, he had 27 points. It was a remarkable performance.”

Bird finished with 47 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and dished out 11 assists (21-34 FG). For good measure, he hit the game tying shot to send the game to OT, and then made the game winning shot.
Larry used to come in the locker rooms, he’d be getting his ankles taped and he would say “hey mop boy, go run and find the scoring record in this building” – he needed those kind of challenges.” said Danny Ainge.
Late in a tied game against the Seattle SuperSonics, Bird told Supersonics forward Xavier McDaniel, who was guarding him, “I’m going to get it [the ball] right here and I am going to shoot it right in your face.” As McDaniel remembers it, he responded by saying, “I know, I’ll be waiting.” After a timeout, Bird made two baseline cuts, then posted in the exact spot he had indicated to McDaniel, paused, turned, and made it in his face. He finished up the sequence by telling McDaniel, “I didn’t mean to leave two seconds on the clock.”

“I walked back to the sideline like, ‘damn!'”, concluded McDaniel.
Reggie Miller recalled his encounter with Larry Bird’s legendary trash talking ability in his book “I Love Being The Enemy”. Reggie tried to disrupt Larry’s concentration when he was shooting free throws late in a game. Larry glared at him, made the first free throw and said, “Rook, I am the best ****ing shooter in the league. In the league, understand? And you’re up here trying to ****ing tell me something?” Then Larry buried the second free throw.
After Bird made four straight baskets with Rodman guarding him, he ran over to Chuck Daly and asked “who’s guarding me, Chuck? Is anyone guarding me? You better get someone on me or I’m gonna go for 60.” Then he’d continue the banter the next time he got the ball with Rodman inches away.

Rodman also told the story:

“I would be all over him, trying to deny him the ball, and all Larry was doing was yelling at his teammates, I’m open! Hurry up before they notice nobody is guarding me!” then he would stick an elbow in my jaw and stick the jumper in my face, then he would start in on my coach “Coach you better get this guy out and send in somebody who’s going to D me up, because its too easy when I’m wide open like this”

On a West Coast trip in 1986, Bird told the entire Dallas Mavericks bench that after the time out, Ainge would inbounds the pass to DJ, who would hit Bird in the corner where Bird would step back and take a three. “So you got that?” Bird queried the bench. “I’m gonna stand right here. I’m not going to move. They’ll pass me the ball, and the next sound you here will be the ball hitting the bottom of the net.” And that’s exactly what happened. Bird winked at the Maverick before heading back down to the other end of the court.

[ATLHawksfan21]

To Cooper, Larry Bird was still merely larry bird (lowercase intended) — an overrated Great White Hype who captured a nation’s imagination more for his pigmentation than his playing ability. Cooper had seen it all before. Doug Collins. Mike Dunleavy. Tom McMillen. Mike O’Koren. White guys came, white guys went. Larry Bird? Who the hell was scared of Lar–

“I’m getting ready to wear your ****ing ass out.”

The words were uttered softly. Almost in a whisper. Had the white boy just spoken in such a manner to Michael Cooper? Had he really said such a thing? Barely two minutes had passed in the opening quarter and Bird was already slinging yang.

“Bring it, mother****er,” replied Cooper, hardly a linguistic wallflower. “Bring it.”

Larry Bird brought it. Celtics guard Nate Archibald dribbled the ball down the court. Cooper followed Bird toward the top of the key — “Larry’s standing there talking to me, talking to me. Nonstop talking” — then shadowed him as he walked down the lane and circled around a Robert Parish pick. “About to wear your ass out,” Bird said. “Wear … it … out … ” Bird pushed off Cooper. Cooper pushed off Bird. “Bring it,” the Laker said. “C’mon, **** … “

Bird jumped back, caught a pass from Johnson. “I’m still here, mother****er,” Cooper said, grabbing a handful of Bird’s green-and-white jersey. “I’m still here.” Abdul-Jabbar, guarding Parish, stepped off his man to help. Bird jumped to shoot, and Cooper lunged toward him — certain he was about to block the shot.

Then, quick as a dragonfly, Bird somehow brought the ball down and wrapped it around to a wide-open Parish. “I still have no idea how he got the ball to him,” said Cooper, “because my hands are up in the air, Kareem is coming out — and the only way he could have gotten it to him was to lob it over the top. But he didn’t lob it over the top. I’m still confused.” Cooper spun, just in time to see Parish slam the basketball through the hoop.

He looked back toward Bird, who smirked. “Wearing your ass out, mother****er,” he said. “Wearing it out."

[ATLHawksfan21]

"I started talking a little trash to him," Horace Grant recalled, when the Celtics were the defending champions. "I'm saying, 'You're not going to score. You're not getting this basket. I remember him then telling me exactly what he was going to do to me. He says he's going to fake me left and then he's going to shoot a right-hand hook over me. And then he goes and does it and scores."

(At a recent practice) He picked a ball up that had rolled over. He rolled up his sleeves and made about 15 in a row and just walked out like nothing just happened. It was the craziest thing I’ve seen. We were speechless. We didn’t know whether to keep shooting or just to end practice. It was sweet, man." -Paul George

Charles Barkley: "One thing you don't want to do, is drink beer with Larry Bird. Larry Bird drinks Budweiser, which Budweiser is the strongest beer in the world. And my head hurt for like two days."

Brad Daugherty: Larry Bird catches the ball in the corner. I took off running out at Larry Bird, and right when he's getting ready to shoot, I jump and as I go by, he tells me he says, "Fly bird." And I go right by him and he shoots the ball it's nothing but nylon.

During one game on Christmas Day against the Indiana Pacers, before the game Bird told Chuck Person that he had a Christmas present waiting for him. During the game, when Person was on the bench, Bird shot a three-pointer on the baseline right in front of Person. Immediately after releasing the ball, Bird said to Person, "Merry ****ing Christmas!", and then the shot went in. Prior to the game, Person (nicknamed the "Rifleman") stated "The Rifleman is coming, and he's going Bird hunting".

I remember one practice, I don’t know if I was head coaching or not, but we had a pretty tough period of our schedule. We had a lot of games, the team was a little bit tired. We had practice planned out at a little seminary out there in Boston where we used to play and practice and we decided let’s give these guys an opportunity. These guys look a little tired, we said. If anyone can make a half court shot, practice is off for the day, you guys can all go home. So Larry said, “Give me the ball.” So he steps up to half court, throws one and it’s immediately nothing but net. Everybody is hollering and hooting and that was the end of the day. He could do stuff like that. The thing you say, oh that’s impossible, no one is going to do that, he said give me the ball. Probably in his heart and soul he knew this team needed a rest, I’ll take it on myself. Like I said, whatever was needed, he would step forward and do whatever it took to get the job done.

Bird even precipitated a fight with Julius Erving by repeating a single phrase over and over. The phrase? 42-5, or the number of points each had scored during an easy Boston victory.

Shawn Kemp was guarding Larry Bird one night. On the last three-pointer, Larry Shot in Kemp's face and he said, "I'm the best damn player from Indiana."

“The one thing that always bothered me when I played in the NBA was I really got irritated when they put a white guy on me. I still don't understand why. A white guy would come out (and) I would always ask him: 'What, do you have a problem with your coach? Did your coach do this to you?' ” — Larry Bird

One time he kicked Michael Jordan’s ball over the fence before a scrimmage in 1984 against the Olympic team.