Many stories perfectly describe how great Larry Bird was. The Boston Celtics legend was a fierce competitor that didn’t hesitate to call out people and destroy them on the court to assert his dominance. Bird was always ready to put up a show to bring his rivals down while giving fans what they wanted to see.
We already know how passionate he was about basketball and how serious he was about winning. Larry was very confident in his talents, and he predicted how things would go before they happened. Besides predicting that he would win contests, Larry also often dared to say how many points he would score before a game and reached that exact number too.
When another legend was starting his NBA career, he saw firsthand how great Larry was and how serious he was about fulfilling his promises. John Stockton saw Larry Legend doing his thing at a young age, which is something he’ll never forget.
John Stockton Remembers When Larry Bird Predicted He Would Score 43 Points On The Utah Jazz
Back in 2018, during an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, the Utah Jazz legend talked about his favorite Larry Bird story of all time, and he didn’t hesitate, choosing one that he lived during his first campaign in the association.
John Stockton says Larry Bird came up to the Jazz bench pre-game:
Bird told them he felt like scoring 43 points that night.
Got to exactly 43 points in the 3rd quarter and then checked himself out of the game.
Legend. pic.twitter.com/sOK3A1ioSx
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) May 3, 2018
“I remember as a rookie Larry Bird walked by our bench and said, ‘I feel like 43 tonight.’ Then he came out and scored 43 points by the 3rd quarter and checked himself out.”
John has a great memory, especially of those times. It’s been almost 40 years since that game happened and he recalled it very well. However, the most points Bird scored in a game against the Utah Jazz happened in 1989 when he dropped 40 on Stockton and co. His second best outing came in 1987 when Larry scored 38 on them, so, as great as this story is, the greatest passer of all time has mixed up the numbers.
Still, this shows how incredible Larry was. He could say a number, went for it and then left the game. He had that dog in him, and even though he didn’t look like the fierce competitor he was, Larry always proved to people why they should have never messed up with him.
He once was close to recording a quadruple-double and checked himself out because he had ‘done enough damage‘, so you know this guy was very different.
