NBA – League legend recalls: “Larry Bird didn’t speak to me for 10 years, then he said this”

Par Joël Pütz | Journaliste sportif

Among the greatest NBA legends, Larry Bird is the source of countless anecdotes about his performances, but also, and above all, his colorful personality. Hall of Famer Bernard King was thus given a very special treatment.

By any measure, he’s one of the greatest players to ever grace the league’s courts. A multiple champion and MVP, eternal rival of Magic Johnson and co-captain of the 1992 Dream Team, Larry Bird accomplished it all during his basketball career. And the Celtics forward wasn’t content to just make an impression with the ball, as the countless stories about his iconic trash-talking attest.

That being said, Larry Legend was above all an outstanding competitor who openly hated defeat. And when he felt he was in competition with a peer, he didn’t hesitate to knowingly ignore them for a decade. Just ask Bernard King, who shared a story that perfectly sums up the Hall of Famer’s personality on Cedric Maxwell’s podcast, a former teammate of Bird’s in Bean Town:

The strange relationship between Bernard King and Larry Bird

Bird and I never once said a word to one another on the court. Never in the entire 10-year period that we played against each other. But here’s something you don’t know… After I come back from my injury, I came back for six games. I averaged 22 points a game. I established that I can still play and I’m healthy. So now I’m a free agent and I hired Bob Wolfe. You know, in Boston, he was supposed to be Larry Bird’s attorney, right? But he was the best that there was.

I got a call from Bob and he said, Bernard, the Celtics are interested in signing you. So I get on the plane, I fly to Boston and I meet with Red Auerbach, K.C. Jones. And Red is sitting there smoking his cigar and he says to me, Bernard, why do you want to play for the Celtics? You know, we have a pretty good small forward here. Alluding to Bird without saying his name. And I said, I want to win the championship. That was the end of the meeting.

Quickly smitten with the player, Boston did indeed make an offer to “BK from BK,” but it was ultimately the Bullets who won the auction for the wingman thanks to a large check. But as King explained, Bird had obviously approved of his recruitment… and this was confirmed after the legend joined Washington:

The offer was double what Boston offered. So I had to take it. You know, it was a different era then. We didn’t make the kind of money the guys are making today. And I’ll never forget this, the first game of that season, we played the Celtics. And Bird, remember, we never talked in 10 years. Bird called me and he said, you cost me a championship…