Rumors

Rick Carlisle: ‘Nobody can tell me that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird wouldn't have been top players in the league today. Greatness is going to be great regardless of the era. You are going to try to tell me that Russell wouldn't be great in this era? Russell, the guy who threw up before every game because he couldn't stomach the idea of losing and he had such impact on winning, can you imagine having that guy leading your team? That was the early version of Draymond Green.’

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It's a dangerous path to specifically go after the Knicks, but it doesn't feel as if they're going anywhere. That is, of course, a similar thought to the way the league felt about the 2025 Thunder, the 2024 Celtics and the 2023 Denver Nuggets. "In the old days, you knew [Larry Bird's] Celtics were at the top and you had to chase them. Then it was Isiah [Thomas] and Detroit. Then Michael [Jordan] and the Bulls," the executive said. "It's not like that anymore. You have to build a sustainable winner that's deep and can play multiple styles of basketball."

ESPN

Jorge Sierra: Jaylen Brown won more games with Boston than Dave Cowens. (Cowens finished his Celtic career with two titles, one MVP and eight All-Star selections). Only 12 players have more wins in Boston than Brown. The youngest of those 12 are Paul Pierce and Larry Bird.

bsky.app

James Ham: According to Alex Karaban, he chose No. 33 because Danny Hurley called him Larry Bird all the time at UConn.

Twitter

Cedric Maxwell: "I say the best player I ever played with wasn't Larry. But I played my last year, I played with Hakeem Olajuwon. I think Hakeem Olajuwon was maybe the greatest player of all-time that nobody talks about, because he dominated the floor better than anybody on both ends as ever. Larry was so cold-blooded, man. He would always talk to guys and say, 'Is your coach mad at you?' I'm like, 'Why?' He said, 'Because you have to guard me.' He would tell the coach, 'You must be kidding me.' If you put this white guy on me, I'm embarrassed that you put a white guy to guard me. Larry just had some stuff about him that was a little unusual, a little hickish, but man, what a great player he was."

YouTube

While James won’t directly make the case that he’s the most influential athlete of the past half-century, on the barroom debate about the basketball GOAT, he doesn’t hesitate. “I’m not taking nobody over me,” says James. “There’s no question. But I think Mike will say the same thing. Rest his soul, Kobe will say the same thing. Magic will say the same thing. Bird will say the same thing. Shaq could say the same thing. The late great Wilt. Kareem. I don’t think none of us are going to take somebody else. If there’s a general manager and he’s eyeballing all of us on a baseline, with the No. 1 pick, it’s gonna be hard not to take me, champ.”

TIME

Hall of Famer and former Celtics star Kevin McHale, for one, bristles whenever he hears a current player question whether Larry Bird would be a superstar in 2026. “These are the same dudes that can’t guard [Lakers star] Luka Doncic, and Luka Doncic is lighting them up,” McHale said with a sigh during a recent phone call. “And I’m thinking, ‘Larry is bigger, stronger, faster, and meaner than Luka Doncic. And if Luka is lighting these dudes up, it’d be a five-alarm fire what Larry would do.’ ”

Boston Globe

Bird was a 12-time All-Star, three-time MVP, and three-time NBA champion with the Celtics from 1979-92, even while dealing with injuries throughout his career. McHale said that with sports science advances, Bird would have the tools and support to dominate today’s game, too. “I just laugh at these people today,” he said. “Larry would go by you a hell of a lot faster than Luka would go by you. He was a straight-line driver, and he was also just a horse.”

Boston Globe

Back in the early 1980s, when the NBA was still trying to regain its footing after falling out of favor with large swaths of the American sporting public during the ’70s, the league didn’t have much on which to hang its hat. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were just at the beginning of their pro careers. Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing were in college. The NBA’s championship series was still being shown on tape delay — 11:30 p.m. ET, then-Johnny Carson time — to the East Coast of the United States. And no one knew what to call the series.

New York Times

Those comments have generated some buzz after Brunson received the Larry Bird Trophy for MVP of the Eastern Conference finals after the Knicks swept the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night. He averaged 25.5 points and 7.8 assists in the series. The Knicks will face defending champion Oklahoma City or San Antonio in the finals. “I speak from experience,” Hammon said Tuesday. “Allen Iverson got MVP and he lost in the finals. I think the two best teams are probably in the West, but I’m up for being proven wrong. That’s the other thing, I think Jalen Brunson’s a hell of a player, a hell of a player. I’m speaking historically on the NBA with what I said. I don’t know why everybody’s so stuck on that. I said it two years ago. “I said what I said. If he proves me wrong, he proves me wrong.”

TSN

Cavs Notes: James Harden now has 3 steals tonight and has moved past Larry Bird (296 STL) for the 8th-most steals in NBA Playoff History.

Twitter

NBA History: Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown record their 50th playoff game both scoring 20+ PTS, becoming the 8th duo to reach the mark. They join Larry Bird & Kevin McHale as the only Celtics duos to do so. The other duos: 74 - Jerry West & Elgin Baylor; 68 - Scottie Pippen & Michael Jordan; 67 - Shaquille O'Neal & Kobe Bryant; 58 - Kevin McHale & Larry Bird; 56 - Russell Westbrook & Kevin Durant; 53 - Klay Thompson & Stephen Curry; 50 - Tony Parker & Tim Duncan.

Twitter

NBA: Congrats to @James Harden of the @cavs for moving up to 13th on the all-time PLAYOFFS SCORING list!

Twitter

David Aldridge: Larry Bird, on the passing of Hall of Famer Oscar Schmidt Friday: "I always admired Oscar and considered him a friend, he was, without a doubt, one of the greatest players to ever play the game. "It was an honor of a lifetime when Oscar asked me to present him at his well deserved induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. My sincere condolences to Oscar's family."

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