Neither guy has relented in the slightest since. He came up swinging and, after they were separated, fired the basketball at Laimbeer’s head (Robert Parish paid Laimbeer back in the next game as you’ll see). And when Laimbeer took Bird down in the 1987 playoffs, Bird was enraged. Bird had 42 points as opposed to Ervings 6 points, and being the notorious trash-talker, he is, Larry was all in Juliuss ear. That never happened between Laimbeer and Bird and probably never will.īird regarded Laimbeer - rightly - as a dirty player. As for Erving, they shook hands the next game and made up. With both though he respected them immensely and Jabbar later said that Bird was the toughest player he ever encountered. He famously had a big fight with Julius Erving where they each had his hand on the other’s throat, and also got into a heated confrontation with the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. by Mike Thomas Published on Ap3 min read View Comments Larry Bird and Julius Erving were two of the NBA’s biggest stars in the early 1980s. Danny Ainge recently explained what really irked Bird about that melee. Some guys unquestionably got under Bird’s skin. Larry Bird and Julius Erving had a heated on-court fight in 1984. Larry Bird backed up his boasting and won the inaugural threepoint contest. One of the nastiest one-on-one rivalries of all was between Larry Bird and Bill Laimbeer. J's last shot in Reunion Arena was a 50-foot gamewinning swish. The NBA has always had intense rivalries.
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