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Clyde Drexler has a memory of Larry from his rookie year:
“I was guarding him my rookie year, he looked at me and he goes “you can’t stop me”…I looked at him and said “gosh, boy you’re so confident”. He goes “Confident? You’re a rookie, you don’t know anything!”
“He proceeded to score 10 straight points on me, coach took me out the game, he walks by and he’s laughing at me.”
“I remember the time when Larry got on a roll, started shooting the ball, every shot was going in. He run by the bench and goes “that’s a heat check to see how hot I am,” he runs by Frank Layden who’s the funniest guy in the league and Frank is coaching and Larry says to him:
“Hey, Frank, haven’t you got anyone on the bench who can guard me? Because nobody out here can.”
Frank looks down the Bench and he goes, ‘no!'”.
Michael Cooper shared this one:
“Larry walks in and says I hope all you guys in here are thinking about second place, because I’m winning this…’EXCUSE ME?!’
“And he started shooting and he just didn’t miss.”
Of course, he won, lifting his finger in the air before the final shot went in, and not even removing his warm up jacket.
The following year, in the same All-Star 3-point shooting contest Dale Ellis told the press that Bird didn’t have much to say this year. Bird said, “There’s no need to talk this time. We all know who’s going to win.”
Later on, after Craig Hodges won the NBA All-Star Game Three-Point contest in Bird’s absence, Hodges was asked if the victory was tainted because Bird hadn’t participated. “He knows where he can find me,” was Hodges retort.
Told of Hodges’ challenge, Bird replied, “Yeah, at the end of the Bulls bench.”
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