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By Joe Kozlowski
Sports Team Lead
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While Larry Bird was an all-time great player, his skill set wasn't limited to heroics on the hardwood. The Boston Celtics legend was also known for his trash talk, which displayed plenty of understated confidence. Take, for example, one of the forward's most famous moments, which took place during the 1986 NBA All-Star break.
As the story goes, Larry Legend walked into the locker room, looked around and asked his fellow competitors which one of them was coming in second place. He then went out and took home the title, proving that he could talk the talk and walk the walk.
And while that story has entered the realm of legend—successful guarantees are remembered favorably, as they blend bravado and success—the commonly held narrative isn't entirely accurate.
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Allow Bird to explain.
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Bird's Three-Point Question Was a Joke
Although Bird looms large in NBA history, we don't hear from the famous forward that frequently. Ahead of the NBA's Indianapolis All-Star Weekend, though, he did step back into the public eye.
At the NBA All-Tech Summit, for example, Bird spoke with Bob Costas. And, based on a clip shared on X, formerly Twitter, we know that the 1986 Three-Point Contest was a topic of discussion.
Bird shared his perspective on his famous quip, but he also said that it started out as an innocent joke.
"Who's coming in second? That was my first [Three-Point Contest] in Dallas, and I walk in the locker room. And, you know, nobody's talking to each other, nobody's saying anything," Bird recalled. "They're all sitting there, and they sort of put their heads down, and I said, 'Hey, I'm just looking to see who's coming in second.' I just did it for a joke, but they didn't like that very well, Bob."
And, as you might expect, the collective attitude changed after Bird took home the title.
"Then, when I win it, they're all rooting against me," he added. "'Somebody beat him.'"
Newsweek on Tuesday reached out to Prince Marketing Group, which lists Bird as a client, via email and the contact page of their website seeking additional comment on that famous one-liner.
But that wasn't Bird's only interview. He also sat down for a larger conversation with Reggie Miller and Isiah Thomas, which aired on TNT. And in that discussion, he told a similar version of the same trash-talking tale when asked to set the record straight on what actually occurred.
"When I walked in the locker room and the guys were sitting there and, you know, they're nervous," No. 33 recalled. "Now you gotta understand, a lot of these guys came off the bench. And, all of a sudden, they're gonna go out there in front of 20,000 people, 40 sets of eyes on them, shoot the basketball. That's gotta be intimidating. For me, I liked that because I knew the pressure was on them more than me. I, mean, I just looked, I was really just teasing. I looked around ... I go, 'Who's coming in second?' And nobody said a word. I thought maybe they thought I was joking, but maybe they thought I was serious."
And while that might sound a bit ambiguous—"Maybe they thought I was joking" isn't usually something you say when you actually are joking—Larry Legend circled back around to make things abundantly clear.
"It was really a joke," he concluded. "Well, then I had to go out and win it."
Does the fact that he was joking rather than trying to plant a seed of doubt in his competitors' minds make the story that much less impressive? Or is the only thing that matters is that Bird said he would win (even jokingly) and then followed through?
You can be the judge of that.
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