No Way Would Larry Bird Have Finished in the Three-Point Error…
It is hard to ignore Larry Bird in the hall of famed NBA shooters. Even if three-point shooting wasn’t as important in the 1980s as it is now, the star player for the Celtics could easily make baskets behind the arc. By winning the first three NBA Three-Point Contests and using some foul language along the way, he further demonstrated the correctness of his prediction.
But the course of basketball history may have been very different. As a matter of fact, Larry Legend may have avoided the shootout altogether.
It appears that the other Celtics, especially Robert Parish, deserve a particular shout-out for their assistance. Bird might have remained on the sidelines if there hadn’t been some backstage trash talk.
In addition to being an amazing basketball player, Larry Bird was a fierce rival. Basketball history was changed by that fact in a number of ways, including one crucial choice made during the 1986 All-Star break.
The renowned forward, as everyone knows, took part in the first-ever three-point competition that year and won. After that victory, Larry Legend went on to win the first three titles before anybody else, in this case Dale Ellis, did. Still, that dominant streak came close to never occurring.
An insider’s account of the 1986 Three-Point Shootout was outlined by ESPN’s Jeff Caplan in 2010. He cited Bird as saying in it that he needed some prodding from his Boston teammates to get on the floor.
