Boston Celtics great Larry Bird is undoubtedly one of the most creative, unique and simply best basketball players in the history of the planet, winning three titles and three MVPs during his illustrious career. “The Legend” is also heralded, in a purely basketball sense, as perhaps the greatest troll in hoops history.
Bird was a magician, a trickster and a savage smack-talker. The stories are legendary: Whether it was the time he informed Seattle SuperSonics’ Xavier McDaniel precisely where he going to take the final shot from, waved a Joe Namath finger of triumph before his final shot in the 1988 three-point shootout splashed home or when he fought Dr. J. That’s just to name a few.
A favorite instance of Bird’s shenanigans came on Valentine's Day, 1986, when he showed absolutely no love to the Portland Trail Blazers, recording a 47-point triple-double, using his left-hand for much of the game, including multiple clutch buckets.
On an otherwise nondescript regular season night amid the doldrums of February, the Celtics were in Portland for the penultimate game of an extended road trip, two nights before a showdown with their bitter rivals, the defending-champion Los Angeles Lakers.
The Blazers were no slouch. They were a playoff team featuring Clyde “The Glide” Drexler and Jerome Kersey. Plus, the Celtics were taking the court on the second night of a back-to-back without their second-best player, Kevin McHale, who was then averaging 21.3 points and 8.1 rebounds on 57.4 percent shooting. Boston had won 14 of 15 coming in, despite McHale missing nine games (the 1986 Celtics were historically good).
Prior to the game, the famously dry-witted Bird told his teammates and the media that he planned on playing southpaw that night. “I’m saving my right hand for the Lakers,” he had famously said.
At least, that’s how he explained the seemingly random decision. It’s entirely plausible, perhaps probable, that a bored Bird was being facetious, and was simply looking to spice things up pre-All Star break. Either way, what followed was one of the most memorable and mythologized single-game efforts of his prolific career.
Bird opened the game with a block using his left hand, then nailed a lefty floater. From then on, most of Bird’s lefty makes were relatively easy layups, while every perimeter shot and free throw was a right-handed attempt. On the downside, he was sloppier than usual, as he committed five turnovers in the first quarter, and eight overall.
However, it's what he did late in the game that truly makes this a signature Bird performance.
Celtics center Bill Walton recalled Bird telling the locker room he was “going to play this one left-handed, at least through three quarters.” Take Walton’s recollection with a grain of salt, because Bird didn’t exactly adhere to that supposed game plan.
In fact, as The Athletic’s Jay King pointed out, Bird’s most impressive string of left-handed moves came late in the fourth quarter. Over the span of five consecutive possessions, Bird nailed three outrageous lefty shots: A tricky floater in transition, a lefty hook that would earn a letter in H-O-R-S-E, then a humorous and-one lefty shot in the lane.
Bird also nailed a jumper to send the game to overtime, then hit a a pull-up to win it for the Celtics in the extra period. Boringly, he did both with his right hand.
In the end, Bird would post 47 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, with 10 of his 21 field goals coming using his off-hand. It would be Bird’s second-highest scoring game of the Celtics' 1985-86 season, and his second triple-double in as many days, after he had put up 31 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists on the Sacramento Kings in 43 minutes less than 24 hours before.
Bird’s macro-plan worked, too. Boston won at the L.A. Forum two nights later, 105-99, led by 22 points, 18 rebounds and seven assists from Bird.
Overall, the 1986 campaign was arguably Bird’s peak. He averaged 25.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 2.0 steals, with .496/.423/.896 splits and contributed a career-high in Win Shares (15.8) and WS/48 (.244). Bird was named league MVP and the Celtics would defeat the Houston Rockets in the NBA Finals.
Despite being a regular season contest, his half-lefty performance has to rank amongst Bird’s greatest and most disrespectful, and a perfectly encapsulation of his wily ways of flexing on the league. Yet, it may not even be the most impressive of his 59 career triple-doubles. He also messed around and had a 39-point triple-double on the New York Knicks in Game 7 of the 1984 Eastern Conference Semifinals, and had two triple-doubles in the 1986 Finals (Games 3 and 6).
Bird’s lefty show for the Celtics is also the type of playfully arrogant stunt that would likely never happen now — Kobe Bryant, characteristically, was the last to try it — with the amount of eyeballs, instant social media scrutinization, First Take debates and brand implications that impact every decision modern NBA players make.
Needless to say, if a player did announce pre-game that he was going to play lefty and then roasted the other team while doing so, NBA Twitter and League Pass servers might actually crash.
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