In case you don’t know, trying to troll Larry Bird was never a good idea. Not even Michael Jordan could get away with that, yet some players dared to test this man only to get destroyed shortly after. Even after his prime was over, Bird didn’t have problems demolishing rivals, and Jamal Mashburn has one of the best stories to prove it.
The Boston Celtics legend was always ready to fire back whenever people disrespected him, collecting many stories during his active days. During a recent edition of The Players’ Tribune’s “Knuckleheads,” Mashburn recalled how Rodney Rogers tried to mess with Larry and No. 33 destroyed him.
While the 1992 Dream Team scrimmaged against the college USA select team, Rogers dared to say that Bird hadn’t hit a jumper since 1984 (via Redditor Jaruliday):
We get back to the hotel, Rodney Rogers says something to-its a group of them-it’s Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, and every is shooting their shit. And Rodney Rogers said, “Ay Larry, you ain’t hit a jumper since ’84.” Magic heard that shit, and we ain’t think nothing of it.
The next day we came in, and I never seen this, and this was when I was like this a different breed. Magic Johnson fed Larry Bird the ball, probably about 8 times in a row down court. Larry Bird got the ball on Rodney Rogers, and every time he was about to make a move, he told him what he was going to do.
“One dribble, pullup, going left, off glass.”
“One dribble going right, spin, shot.” bucket
He scored 9 times or 8 times in a row, left the court to go lay down-because he couldn’t sit on the bench, he had to lay down because of his back-and said, “young fella, look like 84 huh?”
So I’m sitting there and I’m like “woowww”.
They kicked our ass for the rest of the week.
After all the stories about Larry’s competitiveness, it’s crazy to see that somebody actually dared to say something to him. Even with his injuries, the man was still world-class. Rogers learned the hard way that you shouldn’t mess with one of the greatest trash-talkers in NBA history.
Larry Legend didn’t care about anything; he went off on Shawn Kemp when the latter was a rookie simply because he broke his records in Indiana. He dropped 43 on a rookie John Stockton after predicting he’d score that exact number of points and more.
He looked like the nicest man on earth, no doubt about it. However, once he entered the court, things changed, and if you dared to taunt him, he’d make you pay.
