Larry Bird One of the NBA’s biggest trash talkers, Bird was always thought to be. It’s still with the Boston Celtics great.
During All-Star Weekend, Bird was questioned about his renowned theft in the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals against Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons during a rare sit-down interview with former Indiana Pacers sharpshooter Reggie Miller and Pistons icon. The play, which is regarded as one of the greatest in Celtics history, helped Boston defeat the Pistons in the playoffs. Boston eventually prevailed in the series and advanced to the NBA Finals for the fourth time in a row.
Bird couldn’t resist giving Thomas some advise during the interview that he should have followed at the time.
During the discussion that was shown on NBA on TNT, Bird reopened some old wounds for Thomas and the Pistons. With the series deadlocked at two games each and the Pistons with a one-point lead and the ball with five seconds left, Miller questioned Thomas and Bird about that Game 5 at Boston Garden.
At that point, Thomas sent a hastily aimed inbounds pass at center Bill Laimbeer. With only a second remaining, Bird won the game by anticipating the pass, staying inbounds, and cutting down Dennis Johnson, who made the game-winning layup. The series was eventually won by Boston in seven games.
The famous Pistons point guard claimed that the ’87 Celtics loss and the Bird heist were lessons learned, even though Thomas and the Pistons eventually defeated the team in 1988.
“What did that teach us?” Thomas posed a rhetorical question.
Miller laughed as Bird said, “Call a timeout.”
Thomas retorted, “Call a timeout and 48 minutes.” You then began to hear us for the first 48 minutes of each play.
For the Pistons, Thomas was not typically the player to take the ball out of bounds. Rick Mahorn, a forward/center, was the man for it.
In 2020, Mahorn provided his interpretation of events that transpired in the latter moments of Game 5 of the conference finals on “The Cedric Maxwell Podcast.”
Mahorn just produced a brilliant defensive move to take the ball off Bird’s leg, handing the Pistons a 107-106 lead with five seconds remaining. Then, he was astounded by what he witnessed and how quickly everything transpired.
“I’m observing the bench and Chuck Daly, as well as Daly’s call for a timeout,” Mahorn remarked. Isiah took off running. He ran and had a brain fart, although normally I’m the one taking it out. Hell no, I thought to myself when he threw it in. Why are you removing the ball? That is what I do.
In a video that NBA History uploaded, Bird discussed what he saw during the play.
“You want to put some pressure on a guy who’s taking the ball out of bounds to force him to throw a lob pass or a soft pass out there,” the man said. “I thought I had a chance at it once I saw the ball being lobbed over (Jerry) Sichting’s head.” I reached inside and took it. I turned as soon as I saw a white jersey streaking down towards the hoop. It was, naturally, DJ. Once he has it, he lays it in.
“It was just one of those plays that happened too quickly for you to react to.”
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