Larry Bird was a master trash talker during his career. Jamal Mashburn recently reminded everyone about that.
Mashburn was a guest on the “Knuckleheads” podcast with former young Clippers stars Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles. Mashburn, who was a college star at Kentucky and later made one All-Star team in the NBA, told a great story about Bird.
Mashburn was part of a group of eight college players who were picked to work out with the Dream Team ahead of the 1992 Olympics (the USA Men’s Developmental Team). He says he and a few players were walking through their hotel in La Jolla in San Diego, Calif. and ran into Bird.
Bird asked them if they were the college kids, and Bird told them to “rest up” because it was going to be a long week. But that was just the start of the trash talk.
According to Mashburn, the college guys came out in a scrimmage against the Dream Team and actually were beating them before Chuck Daly ended the game abruptly. Then back at the hotel, former Wake Forest star Rodney Rodgers decided to zing Bird.
“Hey Larry, you ain’t hit a jumper since ’94!” Rodgers said, according to Mashburn.
Mashburn says Magic Johnson heard the remark and apparently took note. The next day, Magic fed Bird the ball about eight straight times in practice. Each time, Bird told Rogers exactly what he was going to do, and then scored on Rogers. It happened eight or nine times in a row, according to Mashburn.
Larry Legend!!
pic.twitter.com/KfJGAcKiGO— Quentin Richardson (@QRich) June 30, 2021
That was a great story.
The Dream Team ended up crushing the developmental team the rest of the week. Maybe Rogers should have kept his mouth shut.
If you enjoyed that story, you also will love the trash talking story Shawn Kemp shared about Bird in December.
