In a recent podcast interview with Vice Sports, former NBA All Star Jayson Williams talked about what it was like as a rookie playing against the great Larry Bird.
At the time, Bird was slowing down at the end of his career due to frequent back issues, which would hamper the legend into retirement just a year later, in 1992.
According to Williams, he felt confident enough that he could check an aging Bird on the court. When his coach put him in the game, Jayson got more than what he bargained for.
Williams recalls Bird immediately making him fall for pump fakes, trash talking him, and hitting consecutive three-pointers in his face.
Bird, known as a notorious trash talker, heckled Williams throughout the game and scored on him without a sweat.
In less than a minute, Bird made Williams nervous. He was unsure of what to do, and Bird continued his scoring onslaught regardless of his efforts.
Once Williams had enough, he challenged Bird to a duel in the post, which ended even worse. Not only was Williams losing confidence, but Bird showed no mercy.
Bird called for a post play, spun around Williams, and dunked the ball before Jayson could fathom what happened.
From that point, Williams not only doubted he should be playing NBA basketball, but he contemplated suicide for a brief moment. Bird had destroyed his confidence in an instant, and when the coach tried to insert Williams back into the game, he looked into the stands hoping the coach wouldn't make eye contact because he was afraid to face Bird again.
Listen to the rest of the story about Larry Bird and more experiences that they had here, starting at 18:00 minutes.
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