Tommy Heinsohn is in a bar in 1979, drinking, no longer coaching the
Celtics, and somebody asks him whether Larry Bird will live up to the
hype.
Bird hasn’t played a minute of professional basketball.
Heinsohn says: “He may not be the savior, but he’s definitely an apostle
of team basketball.”
Fourteen years and three championships later, that’s still the best
sentence anyone ever wrote about Larry Bird’s game.
He gets the rest of it right too — the slow-footed knock, the ticket
sales, and the one prediction that mattered most: “The fans will fall in
love with this guy.”
CLNS Founder and NBA Historian Nick Gelso breaks down the tape.
Full video — three RARE tapes recorded before Bird’s first NBA minute,
including Dave Cowens admitting he’d never seen him play:
NBA History on CLNS Media is Powered by:
💰 PrizePicks – Sign up at http://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS & Download the app today and use code CLNS to get $150 instantly in Lineups if you win your first $5 Lineup!
