Bird Spells It Out
One important factor that separated Larry Bird from most of the other trash talkers in the league was that the Celtics star would back up whatever he said. In a 1986 game against the Dallas Mavericks, Bird walked over to their bench after a timeout and told them that Danny Ainge would inbound the ball to Dennis Johnson, or “DJ,” who would find him in the corner and he would step back to attempt a three-pointer. After detailing the entire play, Bird asked the Mavs bench, “So you got that? I’m gonna stand right here. I’m not going to move. They’ll pass me the ball, and the next sound you hear will be the ball hitting the bottom of the net.” And that is exactly what happened.
