While Larry Bird is recognized by his former Boston Celtics teammates for his remarkable greatness, he is also remembered for his iconic trash-talk and in-game shenanigans. For former Celtics power forward Kevin McHale, one incident that always stood out was when Bird used him to taunt Elvin Hayes.
McHale had always known Bird for saying a lot of crazy things. However, he was admittedly caught off guard when Larry Legend egged Hayes just before tipoff and made up a story about McHale’s menacing remark towards ‘The Big E.’
To this day, McHale still vividly recalls how he was forced to just agree with what Bird said. Not because he liked the idea but because he didn’t have enough time to contest or even react to it.
“I was getting ready to start a game, get up to the jump ball and Larry said, you know, just out of the blue, he goes, ‘Go ahead Kevin, tell Elvin Hayes what you told me.’ I didn’t tell him anything,” Kevin once recalled. “And he said, ‘Go ahead and tell him like, you said you’re going to kick his a**.’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, man!’ Elvin Hayes is looking at me. Well, at that point it was hard to say, ‘No, I didn’t say anything. I said, ‘I guess so.'”
“But you know, Larry just got stuff started up,” he continued. “Larry is a funny guy.”
Bird just wanted to have fun
What Bird did to McHale wasn’t the only time he pulled a prank on his teammate. As it turns out, Bird had been fond of poking fun at his teammates all throughout his career.
In his defense, “The Hick from French Lick” once revealed that he wasn’t the only member of the ’80s Celtics who had a penchant for pranking their teammates. In fact, Bird even named McHale as one of the most notorious pranksters on the team.
For Bird, there was nothing wrong with it as it was human nature to have fun, especially during the season. Based on how he described it, fooling around and pranking each other were just some of the things they did to loosen up, eliminate stress and get in the zone.
“Those 82-game seasons are long, so you’ve got to have some fun. McHale was one of the biggest jokesters. Danny, too. Robert was quiet in public, but he was a different person in private. We had a lot of fun,” Bird once revealed.
Larry Legend was no joke on the court
Kidding aside, Bird was completely different once the game started. On the court, Larry Legend had no time for silly jokes. Even though he talked a lot of trash, Bird made it a point to always back it up with his game.
This is precisely why Bird’s fiercest rivals were dead serious about beating him. They knew that Larry was not one to play around when it came to business.
In retrospect, McHale’s story only shows that despite knowing how to have fun, Bird still took every game seriously and more importantly, he proved that he never joked about winning.