Amazingly intelligent play by Dennis Johnson and Larry Bird

[U3X6785]

RIP Dennis Johnson

[winrx]

LB is indeed the greatest white basketball player ever......

[Herv3]

This isn't the NBA. Where are all the tattoos?

[nychampionship]

@Herv3

WTF?

[mrmike912]

@Herv3 to funny

[streetfightchamp07]

damn

[magikarp64]

what would the stats for the play be for johnson and bird? rebound by bird, missed field goal by johnson?

[SteelyDamned]

great play, but that's not the first time i saw a backboard play like this. allen leavell used to do this with moses malone during their days with the houston rockets in the late 70s-early 80s.

[ipodman20000]

:O

[ultrakool]

thas what you call a "whitey-oop"

[macreal65]

I think every baller, when he was or she was youngster play'n the game, liked the more flashier teams. And Boston wasn't 1 of them, unless you were from Boston. But now as I am much older (45 ) & still do ball. I love the Celts! For about 20yrs now I've been a fan. They play controled & as a team. Even as I'm look'n back at some of the old footage, They was a Team of All Teams. Even tho made a dumb as trade ( Perkins) & got Knocked out early. But they are still my team of All Times. Go Celts!

[jp3813]

@macreal65 This play was pretty flashy. Never seen it done by any other team on a half court offense.

[hautelick]

'Amazingly Intelligent', pretty much sums up Dennis Johnson as a basketball player..

that's before you get into his other gifts.

[nujrz4lyfe]

So cool

[timjumper7]

they had the big five parish,dj,bird,mchale,and ainge

[timjumper7]

todays players arent smart enough to do this

[MrPims33]

amazing rip dennis

[alexaadap]

The big 3 wasn't Bird, Mchale, Parrish.It was Bird, Mchale, DENNIS JOHNSON.

I CAN'T BELIEVE HE'S NOT IN THE HALL OF FAME 

[CoolerKing37]

@alexaadap He's in it now.

[menzelcassini]

Back when the NBA was watchable.

[toomuchfails]

@akonvict You'd be bored as fuck watching basketball where a whistle wasn't blown on some nonsense every two seconds? You'd be bored as fuck watching a game that isn't all about one star on a team doing a few iso moves then running into the lane with no defense because of the no hand-checking rule and overall whistle preference towards perimeter players? I'd much rather watch the game back when the NBA didn't have watered-down talent and defense actually meant more than a cheap whistle.

[LJBwhat]

thats an amazing play.

[mattc941]

That was pretty sick, I've never seen that play in an nba game before.... awesome! The magic need to try that with Dwight Howard.

[robinjbr]

i can do that

[BrunoLS09]

LOL

Amazing.

[xmuscularghandix]

they tried to do this from half court once and DJ accidentally just got it in.

[beakbosox]

Here's hoping D.J. gets voted into the Hall this time. He's is long overdue.

[krms101]

@beakbosox hes dead i think

[jp3813]

@krms101 And???

[krms101]

@jp3813 its sad

[jp3813]

@krms101 Right, which makes the Hall of Fame all the more appropriate.

[paradessence]

DJ was an incredible player, he isn't recognized enough for that. This play is a great example.

[VeteransAgainstKonop]

i taught dj and larry this play

[timjumper7]

somebody here got schooled like their whole team

[agirard77]

weak ass lay up? that's harder than an alley...has to be thrown off the glass and guy has to to catch it in the right position...then he has to execute the shot

[loepower]

Funny thing about this is that if those same announcers and basketball purist saw iverson and amare stoudamire do this in the olympics they'll deride them for not playing fundamentally sound basketball.

[kevypaul10]

SO TRUE

[jp3813]

@loepower If it works, it's always sound.

[grantfl80]

Weak ass lay-up? 2 points is 2 points. And before you call Bird's lay-up weak, do you not see the position he has on that play? Dude was completely sealed. Parish was backside.  That's team basketball right there.

[nomooon]

yeah, pushing against the back is all the strength u need to use for that play

[jp3813]

Rodman got owned!

[michalus]

MJ did that pass with Wizards vs. LA i guess i have this game on my channel,please visit if U want.

[Shawshank23]

nice really nice.And you can see that Larry was expecting such type of pass :)

[MerkinMuffly]

I saw this Bird make this play against a couple of other teams and a game against the Lakers where it failed.  Bird & DJ where telepathic

[80sNBA]

Someone posted a clip of one of these types of passes when DJ (during the '86 playoffs) threw an almost fullcourt pass into the basket!

Here it is:

Ok4zc-adD8s

[youtubin222]

oh shit. how is this not on any highlight films?

[saturndual32]

Wow, you wont see that type of crafty plays nowdays, those guys were too good. Beautiful basketball.

[asdffdsafdsa123]

yeah now you would get a perfectly normal alley-op slam instead of a weak ass lay up

[Jrotten11]

ally oops are a matter of timing + position + vertical. This play's timing was quite different as dj threw the ball hard off the backboard rather than lobbing it, which takes longer, meaning Rodman may have been able to intercept a slower lob pass, also despite Bird's inability to jump very high DJ could have thrown a normal lob pass or an ally lob pass which Larry would have layed in, possibly this wasn't done because again the timing is different.

[nomooon]

that play has a downside tho rite? does that count as an assist?

[saturndual32]

Hehe, I guess it doesnt count as an assist, but i bet these type of players didnt care that much about it.

[derkommissar1917]

@nomooon: I would think it would count as an assist. It's not actually a "shot" since it didn't hit the rim and DJ had no intent at attempting to score himself.

I doubt they cared, though. Rodman has great defense on Bird on that play, but they still burned him for two points in an important game. That's what mattered most.