Former Indiana Pacers forward Glenn Robinson III was born two years after Larry Bird officially retired from the NBA. He may have heard some stories from his father about Bird, but it’s understandable if he had no idea about the NBA icon’s trash-talking legacy.
However, it didn’t take long before Robinson III witnessed Bird’s other skill. According to Glenn, he always heard Larry Legend talking nonstop, but he never really understood what he was saying.
Based on how Robinson III described it, Bird, who was a Pacers executive at the time, was either talking trash or taunting him. Fortunately for “GR3,” Larry’s words weren’t clear because he wouldn’t want to know what the latter was telling him, for sure.
“I don’t have many stories about Larry,” Robinson III once revealed. “But I will say this: He barks a lot. I’ll be coming around a corner in the team facilities and he’s just howling, like there’s a full moon or something. Can’t say I get it, but that’s what he does.”
It’s hard to understand what Bird means sometimes
Jalen Rose was another former Pacers player who also had a somewhat similar experience with Bird. The Boston Celtics legend was the head coach of the Pacers when he said something that Rose still doesn’t fully understand to this day.
According to Jalen, he knew how sharp Larry’s tongue was, but he didn’t really talk smack at the time. Instead, Bird was more of boasting about something that he would do.
“I just remember him telling me that he was gonna coach part of the series left-handed before the tipoff for the first game, and I’ve watched that series so many times now and I can’t tell when he’s coaching with the left or with his right,” he added.
Bird never considered himself a trash-talker
Almost every NBA player who had played against, worked with, or even just interacted with Bird described him as a savage trash-talker. However, the man in question never believed in his trash-talking legacy.
The way Larry saw it, he admittedly spoke to his opponents sometimes, but only to gain a mental edge. However, Bird is not convinced that he did it on a regular basis, as people said.
“I’ve heard some other players say I talk a lot, but if I do, I don’t hear myself,” Larry Legend once said.
Everybody understood why Bird is a legend
If there is something that everybody understood clearly about Bird, it’s his legendary career. In that aspect, it’s safe to say Larry doesn’t need to say a lot as his resume already speaks for itself.
On the court, Bird may have ran his mouth, but unlike other loud players, he also let his game do the talking. More often than not, Larry Legend would walk the walk, which is why he earned the respect of his opponents, and not one of them hated him for talking a lot of trash.
All told, these stories only prove that in terms of trash-talking, there is Bird on the top, and then everybody else.