The great Larry Bird didn’t become iconic in the sport just because of his legendary career. He also left his mark on most of the people he encountered because of his timeless trash-talking skills. Among them was former Indiana Pacers executive Donnie Walsh.
According to Walsh, trash-talking is also common in his line of work. Some front office guys also talked smack a little, but there was something about Bird’s trash-talks that separated him from other Pacers executives.
Walsh couldn’t pinpoint what made Larry Legend’s sharp tongue different. He could only describe the impact on the people he talked to.
“His style of trash talking is unique,” Walsh once said of Bird. “It’s like an inner monologue turned inside out. I think a lot of people find that discomforting. He’ll say things like, ‘We’re in Indiana now,’ and you won’t be able to respond because that sums up everything.”
Bird still calls his moves
Almost every player who had faced Bird knew he loved calling his moves and doing it exactly how he called it. As it turned out, Bird was still doing that during his tenure as a Pacers boss. The only difference is that Bird was no longer in his Boston Celtics uniform but in a suit and slacks inside the Pacers’ office.
Walsh said he had his fair share of those moments with Bird in Indy. He didn’t think much of it back then, but Walsh was dumbfounded by how precise and calculated Larry Legend was with the way he did things.
“Then he’ll say something like, ‘I’m going to leave this room now and walk down the hall,’ and that’s exactly what he ends up doing,” Walsh added of Bird, who worked as the Pacers president of basketball operations in two separate periods (2003-2012 and 2013-2017).
“Most people don’t have that kind of control, but he does. I remember one time, while standing by the copy machine, he said, ‘Later today I’m going to make copies right here, Donnie,’ and later that day, I saw him making copies right there. His ability to predict his own actions is uncanny, and if he didn’t tell you ahead of time, you probably wouldn’t think anything of it.”
Bird might have been talking trash with everybody in Indiana right now
Over the years, there have been a wide array of stories told about Bird and his vicious trash-talking skills by those who experienced it firsthand. These accounts vary in terms of context, situation, and even setting, but the one thing they have in common is that the people involved concluded that Bird was unbelievably good at talking a whole lot of trash.
In 2023, the Pacers decided to bring Bird back into their organization. He is now working with the team as a consultant.
This means that Bird has been talking a lot as part of his duties and responsibilities. With that in mind, rest assured that we might hear more vintage Larry Legend trash-talking experiences from the members of the Pacers organization, possibly in the near future.