Boston Celtics luminary Larry Bird has had some of the franchise’s most iconic moments, with steals that rival John Havlicek’s, even producing the best play NBA legend Red Auerbach ever saw. His trademark audacity coupled with the otherworldly skill made for a degree of showmanship that has seldom been matched with the talent to back it up — and the trash talk to make it sting enough to put opponents off balance.
Whether a 3-point contest or the waning seconds of a championship series, Bird approached most games with the same intense competitive drive that brought him and the Celtics three banners over the course of his 13-season career, all with Boston.
Watch the video below, assembled by the folks at ESPN, for 10 of the Hick from French Lick’s best moments in green and white.
The Boston Celtics will enter the 2024-25 season as the overwhelming favorites to once again represent the east in the NBA Finals. Not only do they deserve that title as the defending champions, but at the time of this writing, the Celtics appear to have the deepest and most balanced roster in the conference.
Boston will spend the year as the team to beat until proven otherwise, a mantle plenty of other clubs are also gunning for. The conference has a number of bona fide contenders as well as another of teams knocking on that door. There are also a few franchises who are positioning themselves to land the No. 1 overall pick in next season’s draft, with Cooper Flagg projected to be available. For the Celtics, that means this upcoming regular season will see a very wide range of competition. But we can still do our best to make sense of the landscape in the east.
