A hand injury in a bar fight during the 1985 NBA playoffs wasn't about to stop Larry Bird from hustling a reporter of $160 in a free throw shooting contest.

Bird is one of the most competitive players the NBA ever had, and he never made excuses or shy away from a challenge. Back in the 1985 conference finals, the Boston Celtics were well on their way to advancing to the NBA finals for the second straight year after winning both games at home against the Philadelphia 76ers.

However, there were rumors Bird and some of his teammates got into a huge bar fight at a local bar in Quincy Market after Game 2, causing Bird to show up to practice the next day with his shooting hand heavily wrapped like a boxing glove.

So once practice was over, Boston Globe reporter Dan Shaughnessy walked up to him and told him: “You can't play with your hand taped like that in the game tomorrow.” What followed was a little back-and-forth banter between Bird and Shaughnessy which ultimately led to a free throw contest of 100 free throws, $5 a throw.

Here's an excerpt of Shaughnessy's interview with Adam Himmelsbach in 2015:

“So I challenged him about this taping of the hand, how he could do that in the game, and he said I could tape my whole hand, make more shots than you. He'd call the trainer over, Ray Melchiorre, and said Let's do this, I'll tape my whole hand and make more shots than you.”

How Larry Bird won $160 then hid the cash in his socks for Game 3

Bird and Shaughnessy took turns shooting free throws while rebounding for one another. The first round even ended in a tie with both of them shooting 6 of 10. Unfortunately for Shaughnessy, Bird just needed a bit of warm-up. Bird would only miss eight of his next 90 free throws and defeated Shaughnessy 88-62. The math is a bit off since the difference only amounts to $130, so it could've been worse.  The next day during shootarounds, he gave Bird eight twenty-dollar bills and placed it on his socks for the rest of the day.

Larry Bird finished that game with 26 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals while shooting 57.9% from the field as the Celtics would go on to advance in a gentleman's sweep. His injury did come back to bite him in the end though as the Celtics lost to the Lakers in six games as Bird's scoring and field goal numbers dropped by six.

NBA Legend FAKES Injury To Win $160 🤯 I Clutch #Shorts – YouTube