Your respect for Larry Bird just increased

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...jordans-cooler

In 1998, Larry Bird coached Michael Jordan in the All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden. The next year he published a book with Jackie MacMullan called "Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching the Game I Love."

More than a dozen years after the fact, allow me to point out the book is fascinating and fun to read, and includes this anecdote from the "Space Jam" set:

The movie people really took care of us. They had this big room in the hotel filled with food, drinks, anything you wanted. One cooler had beer, another had soda, another had sandwiches. And then there was this big cooler marked MICHAEL ONLY.

You weren't supposed to touch that one, because it was all Michael Jordan's special stuff they flew in just for him. So one day Bill Murray and I are sitting in there, and I go over to Michael's cooler and lift up the lid.

There was this girl there, and her only job was to make sure everything was just right for Michael Jordan, and she starts yelling at me, "Larry, you can't go in there!" I said, "What are you talking about? That's bull. Everyone here is family." She was getting all nervous and said,"No, no. Those are all the things Michael told me he wanted, and if you take something out of there, Michael won't be able to have it, and we just can't let that happen!"

Bill Murray is laughing the whole time listening to this, because whenever Michael walked into the room he always went to one of the other coolers and pulled something out, just like the rest of us. He hardly ever opened his own cooler.

Anyhow, I waited until the girl left, then I reached in and started grabbing stuff out of Michael's cooler and throwing it out to the crew, all over the set. I threw it everywhere! Gatorade bottles, some special drink he liked, candy bars ... She was so mad at me.

For the rest of our stay, every time I went by that cooler I took something out.

[jiveturkey]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Birdman does not give a ****; love him. The Bird/Magic documentary was a really good view IMHO.

Fully agree. It made me appreciate the NBA again.

Then I watched a game and lost that appreciation.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

"Alot of black guys will come up to me and say 'was Larry Bird really that good?!' and I tell them 'Man, Larry Bird......was so good it was frightening.'"

-Magic Johnson (the quote above appears very early in the clip below)

Good of Magic to come to Bird's aids.

[mnchiefsguy]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

"Alot of black guys will come up to me and say 'was Larry Bird really that good?!' and I tell them 'Man, Larry Bird......was so good it was frightening.'"

-Magic Johnson (the quote above appears very early in the clip below)

What is amazing is is that video did not even have what many consider to be Bird's greatest play (and one the greatest plays in general)....his steal of Isaiah Thomas's pass to Bill Lambeer with four seconds left in game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals. Pistons were up 107-106, and were finally, finally, going to beat the Celts in the Garden...but Larry Legend stepped in, stole the pass, and hit DJ for a wide open layup to steal the game, and ultimately the series, for the Celtics.

[mikey23545]

Originally Posted by Satanic Goat

The movie people really took care of us. They had this big room in the hotel filled with food, drinks, anything you wanted. One cooler had beer, another had soda, another had sandwiches. And then there was this big cooler marked MICHAEL ONLY.

You weren't supposed to touch that one, because it was all Michael Jordan's special stuff they flew in just for him. So one day Bill Murray and I are sitting in there, and I go over to Michael's cooler and lift up the lid.

There was this girl there, and her only job was to make sure everything was just right for Michael Jordan, and she starts yelling at me, "Larry, you can't go in there!" I said, "What are you talking about? That's bull. Everyone here is family." She was getting all nervous and said,"No, no. Those are all the things Michael told me he wanted, and if you take something out of there, Michael won't be able to have it, and we just can't let that happen!"

Bill Murray is laughing the whole time listening to this, because whenever Michael walked into the room he always went to one of the other coolers and pulled something out, just like the rest of us. He hardly ever opened his own cooler.

Anyhow, I waited until the girl left, then I reached in and started grabbing stuff out of Michael's cooler and throwing it out to the crew, all over the set. I threw it everywhere! Gatorade bottles, some special drink he liked, candy bars ... She was so mad at me.

For the rest of our stay, every time I went by that cooler I took something out.

[mnchiefsguy]

[mnchiefsguy]

Here is another video of that play, with Bird talking about it 25 years later.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by jiveturkey

Fully agree. It made me appreciate the NBA again.

Then I watched a game and lost that appreciation.

Hah! Sad but ****ing true.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

"I seen DJ coming"

What a hick, lol.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

"Alot of black guys will come up to me and say 'was Larry Bird really that good?!' and I tell them 'Man, Larry Bird......was so good it was frightening.'"

-Magic Johnson (the quote above appears very early in the clip below)

My goodness. That guy was good. If he had played in a major east coast market he'd be famous.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

Good of Magic to come to Bird's aids.

HIV what you did there.

[HemiEd]

Bird was about the only opponent that came into the "roundhouse" and could shut us fans up, and make us gawk in awe. He was amazing.

[Setsuna]

You all disappoint me.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Setsuna

Justin Blackmon disappoints me.

fixed it for you

[MVChiefFan]

According to many who played against him, he was quite a trash talker too. I remember hearing about a game he played (against the Knicks if I'm not mistaken) where he put up his first shot of the game, which was a three pointer. He shot right in front of the Knicks bench and as the ball left his hands and was still in the air, he turned to the opposing coach and said "you better get somebody that can guard me", then the ball swished through the net...that's just gross!

[Garcia Bronco]

The golden age of basketball. It's starting to get that good again.