Larry Bird gave work to almost every NBA team in the 1980s, nobody was safe when he was in his prime. One of his most iconic performances came against the Atlanta Hawks in 1985. Larry Bird dropped an excellent 60 points on the Hawks while scoring just one three-pointer.
Everyone remembers the time that Larry Bird destroyed the Hawks so hard, he had their bench cheering for him as he continued to torch their team. For any player, this would be one of their greatest memories, but Bird wasn’t the biggest fan. Speaking to ESPN in an interview once, he revealed why he didn’t think it was that good of a game.
“It wasn’t that good of a game,” Bird told Mike Mazzeo. “I like the hard-fought, scrappy games, pound it inside. It was just a loosey-goosey game. It was a pretty close game, as I remember. We weren’t up 20, 25, but we were up 10 the whole way, and it just wasn’t a good game. I ran a 5-mile race two days before that, and actually, I was very sore. My legs were really sore. I wasn’t tired or anything, but I was really sore.”
It would be understandable that the other factors on the night were the only thing that made Larry Legend not enjoy himself so much, but there was more to it than that. He went on to say that it just wasn’t his type of game.
“I knew I was gonna play that night,” Bird continued. “I just didn’t know how effective I was going to be. But once I started going, I was making shots. But it just wasn’t a fun game to play in. It wasn’t my type of game.”
This is a little hard to believe and it must feel weird for those Hawks players to know considering how badly he beat them. But if Dominique Wilkins is to be believed, Larry had an agenda for playing the way he did that night.
Larry Bird Scored 60 Points To Break Kevin McHale’s Record, Said Dominique Wilkins
Dominique Wilkins was the main star of the Hawks and he was good enough to hang with the greatest players of the 80s. And even though Bird didn’t like his 60-point game, Wilkins once revealed that he went into it with a plan.
“I’ll give you a game. Well, Kevin McHale scored 57 one night, so Bird said, ‘I’m gonna break your record against Atlanta’. I’m like, ‘Won’t get 55, not here.’ Well, he got so hot in that game that you talk about that patented step back, he was doing that step back and he switched it to his left hand three separate times that game. Hit a three. He was scoring anywhere on the floor he wanted.”
An unbelievable night for many players ultimately can be remembered as just another day by a legendary player. The ability to do something truly historic while making it look easy is what makes superstars like Larry Legend who they are. He may not remember it too fondly, but Celtics fans and NBA fans surely do.
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