Together with Magic Johnson, Larry Bird was the dominant force in the NBA during the 1980s.

Bird and Johnson dominated the league and shared an intense rivalry that went on for a decade. In the 80s, Johnson led the Los Angeles Lakers dynasty to five championship runs, while he won three Finals MVPs. Meanwhile, Bird and the Boston Celtics grabbed three championships, with Bird taking two Finals MVPs.

Bird was one of the greatest basketball players and greatest shooters of all time and should find his place on every Top-10 of all time list.

One thing that separated Larry Bird from other fierce competitors in NBA history, was his renown savagery. We always hear and talk about Michael Jordan and his ruthless trash-talking, but we surely cannot forget about Bird. The retired Boston Celtics forward probably had one of the best verbal jabs in his bag.

In 1992, former All-Star Jamal Mashburn and a group of college stars called the “Select Team” were brought in to scrimmage the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team, aka the “Dream Team” of Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and other NBA superstars.

When Mashburn made an appearance on the Knuckleheads podcast some time ago, he shared the story about how his teammate Rodney Rogers got into a talking match with Bird at practice, and ended up regretting it.

“[Larry Bird] walked by us and said ‘yall those college guys?’ and we said yeah. He looked at us and he said ‘get some f***ing rest, it’s going to be a long week.”

“So we lit their a** up and we get back to the hotel. Rodney Rogers says something to them and everybody’s shooting the sh*t. And Rodney said, ‘Hey Larry, you ain’t hit a jumper since ’84.’ Magic heard that sh*t. The next day we came in, Magic Johnson fed Larry Bird the ball probably 8 times in a row. Bird got the ball on Rogers and every time he made a move, he told him what he was going to do. ‘One dribble, pull-up, going left, off glass? Bucket’. He scored 8 or 9 times in a row, left the court to lay down, and said ‘young fella, you like ’84 huh?”

Lesson learned: Don’t trash talk Larry Bird.

Hear @jamalmashburn tell the story of facing the Dream Team in college.

For the full episode of Knuckleheads with @QRich and @21Blackking: https://t.co/ZyWXxhSVbO

In partnership with @wingstop. pic.twitter.com/4tOV4Vjdd1

— The Players’ Tribune (@PlayersTribune) June 29, 2021