There are many stories we don’t know about Larry Bird and whenever we learn something new about him, the admiration for the Boston Celtics legend increases. During his 13-year career, Bird became one of the greatest players to ever do it, and also a terrifying trash talker that didn’t hesitate to humiliate people.
Gary Payton suffered that and never forgot about it. During the first episode of ‘Showing Up and Throwing Down,’ The Glove talked about Bird’s talent with words and how he could get under rivals’ skins and win the mental game.
“Bird used to tell me ‘Look here man. I’m gonna go shoot this muthaf*cking jumper in your face right there in that corner. And it’s gonna be your Christmas present. I’m gonna wrap it up and bust your head open.’ All that sh*t. He was the coldest dude I’ve ever seen with that sh*t man. Everybody be talking about these great greats and we always mention him, he was the sh*t. He give it to you any way he wanted to. Larry Bird was cold. Cold dude man, real cold.”
Those words resonated around the league, and LeBron James agreed with Payton, sharing an extract of his appearance on the show where he talks about Bird. James called ‘facts’ and echoed Payton’s remarks.
“Yes, he was!!!” Bron wrote on his Instagram story.
Bird was really great at trashing rivals. He could talk to them all night long and play like it was nothing. The worst part was that he backed all that talking up and demolished players on the court and in their minds. He is one of the greatest legends in NBA history and many people believe he could have been even greater if he wasn’t for his back issues.
Larry legend finished his career as a 12x All-Star, 10x All-NBA player, 3x MVP, and 3x NBA Champion.
