The NBA was once dominated by the Magic Johnson and the Larry Bird rivalry when Michael Jordan entered the league with the Chicago Bulls. Jordan faced Larry Legend many times in his career as both teams were from the Eastern Conference.
Jordan does not have fond memories of facing Larry Bird in the regular season or in the playoffs. The experienced Boston Celtics roster allowed Bird to have the edge over Michael Jordan. However, Bird was not entirely relying on his teammates to see him through in fact the story was way opposite as Larry used to lead them and others would follow. This made the Boston Celtics one of the best franchises in NBA history.
But as the people from the current generation do not have much video evidence or are not well versed with it, many of them ask how good exactly was Larry Bird? So The Ringer journalist Jackie McMullan caught Michael Jordan sharing his thoughts about his nemesis Larry Bird as he kept on praising the Celtics legend and shared his greatness.
“I get so many questions about Larry Bird. The thing is, ‘Was he really that good?’ I say, ‘Yeah! He was really that good. White, black, green or yellow, he was really that good! When you see a player like Luka (Doncic) when you see a player like Dirk (Nowitzki), they’re great players, but they’re not Larry Bird [laughs], by no means,” Jordan stated.
MJ shared how despite his flaws he kept pushing with a large work ethic and turned everything around and made it tough for his opponents. “You have to have a great appreciation to play against a guy who athletically, every single night, is at a disadvantage. But yet mentally and in the way his work ethic was, he was way above the game, he was way above everybody else,” he added.
It was huge for Michael Jordan to open up like that and praise Larry Bird who was once considered as one of the greatest ever to grace the NBA. His Airness had several opportunities to witness Larry Legend in full flow on the court. Bird won the rookie of the year in 1980 where he beat his rival Magic johnson to the accolade and later guided the Celtics to the first of his three Championships.
Larry Bird has a sensational record against Michael Jordan in the playoffs. MJ could not get past Larry Legend in the postseason as Larry has a 6-0 winning record against Jordan at the business end of the season. He is also considered a big-time clutch player in NBA history.
