 Welcome to the day that Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics found themselves entangled in a heated exchange of trash talk with the Atlanta Hawks. Little did the Hawks know that this fiery exchange would become the catalyst for an unforgettable performance by Larry Bird and this video brings you that performance. This story is not very well known so the available footage from this Hawks game is limited but we did include the footage that has been found in this video but to maintain the flow and immerse you our audience in the moment we've incorporated some clips from other Atlanta Hawks games for transparency with NBA players that were involved on this day that talk about what happened and this insane story. To truly appreciate Larry Bird's iconic display it's essential to dive into the backstory which provides critical context but I must note that if you want to skip forward feel free you just will be missing some important context. Full credit to all the footage and videos are on display on the screen right now so don't forget to check them out and they're also linked in the description box down below. If you enjoyed this video and desire more content just like this one please support us by giving us a thumbs up let's aim for 3000 likes for the next video and feel free to hit that subscribe button if you want more Larry Bird videos just like this one. I trust that you will enjoy this video and I don't want to keep you guys waiting. We lost a Christmas game a double overtime game in New York played really poorly had every chance to win that game. On Christmas day there was more than presents that came unwrapped. The Celtics got their stocking stuff with the game out of character but it would lead to serve as an inspiration for preventing something similar ever to occur again. With Boston leading by 25 midway through the third quarter New York monitor comeback led by the charge of Patrick Ewing. Driving in but he makes the basket. The potential of what the next can possibly do with a Patrick Ewing. He's got great speed and when he gets up the court he makes a heck of a target. Ewing backs it in. The Knicks in the ball game in an improbable strip that Patrick Ewing has been the engineer. A stunning upset. Teen in many a year. That's where the team got together. Everybody got together and said man we got to play better than this. I mean you know we've been the finals now three straight years that would have been our third straight year going the finals been the finals two straight years this is our best team we've had together. We always had good teams 86 was definitely our best team. Yeah I mean with Bill Walton coming in as your backup Scotty Weddman I mean we did Jerry 16 I mean we were loaded just a stacked team. It was the prime of the best players on that team it was the prime of Bird who was MVP that year it was a prime of McHale. After games used to always come in the locker room and pop a beer and like I win a win a game Bill would come in and open a beer and I was like that was the best game I've ever been involved in the next night that was the absolute best game I've ever been involved with. DJ and Chief were still in their prime and that team was healthy. We were a different group of guys we had won a lot and we expected to win. Following the Christmas day game against the Knicks the Boston Celtics squad was disheartened by surrendering a 25 point lead and ultimately losing. The New York Knicks were the worst team in the entire association and the Celtics were on a championship hunt. The loss to New York on Christmas Day was something that was embarrassing to the players but yet we have the makeup of personalities on the team that nothing really gets them down for long and they were able to bounce back and carry on and you have to do that over an 82 game schedule you can't have those lows that are going to carry on for days and you want to just keep consistent play and carry on. The effects of the Christmas day game were not visibly detected. To change their mood and approach would certainly mean a greater defeat for the Celtics than the one in Madison Square Garden. Everybody said okay look at man we're dedicated we lost a Christmas game a double overtime game in New York played really poorly had every chance to win that game. That's where everybody got together and said man we got to play better than this. Our teams challenges were to stay focused because we could win in any type of game and we all got together and you know I remember Bill Walden. We were a very close team and every night after the game we were out together usually in the Scotch and Sirloin and one night we were sitting around very late and having a really good time. Of course Billson. We're really close to the championship here how about we make a vow right now right here and now amongst ourselves that nobody nobody will take another drink until we win the championship. We're not going to drink until you win the championship. We're planning on winning it this year. And everybody goes yeah yeah I'll drink to that and then Kevin after about a 30 second pause of everybody saying yeah yeah this is great. Kevin said well we're going to win the championship this year aren't we. So Bill said well of course you know everybody quit drinking and we all got together and from that point on I think we were like 60 and 10. The Celtics had beat the rap of Christmas Day and were riding a winning streak in January but getting blown out of the first half in Atlanta the streak seemed in jeopardy. Boston had visions of the infamous Christmas Day game dancing through their heads and decided to mount a comeback of their own which was inspired by more than just Christmas memories. We're playing a game down in Atlanta and this is how long ago this was because Atlanta was a good team and they had Dominique and Doc Rivers and Reggie Theis and Kevin the Penguin Willis and Tree Rollins and all these guys. And Atlanta had been waiting I guess about a month to just get us. They weren't they'd been on a roll and a little bit more coming in that they had this kind of emotion built up already. But Atlanta they talk trash they're about 20 and a half time. Yeah that was in the crowds yelling and all that stuff. And we are getting hammered we're just getting killed we're down 25 at the half and they're all trash talking and fans are throwing stuff at us and they're gonna kill you Celtic bird while Mikhail Parrish DJ you guys are all frauds what are you talking about with the exception of Dominique Wilkins who had too much class to ever say a thing. They started his first quarter off and just ran us off the court. At halftime we're down 23. So we come in at halftime we're just sulking in there with tails between our legs we walk in we're sitting in the locker room and Casey Jones our fantastic coach the most like John wouldn't have any coach I've ever been a part of. Casey Jones got on us three times really hard and that halftime talk he gave is one of the best I've ever heard. Casey walks in he looks at us looks at his watch doesn't say a word walks over to the cooler pulls out a beer pops the beer goes and sit down pounds down the beer just sitting there finishes the beer looks at his watch looks at us goes over to the cooler and gets a second beer pops the beer pounding it down doesn't say a word looks at his watch looks around at us goes and gets a third beer does the same thing and then he gets up looks at his watch for the final time and he says a lot of you guys been for a long time but obviously you don't know what it means to be a Celtic you know even the whole thing. It was not enough that they had had a 23 point lead at the time but they also had to verbalize at halftime and about the person they're talking at us they're slamming us and then they talk it more and he never screamed or never yelled and he goes you know we got it in us to come back and win this game but we have to do it we got to dictate the second half of how we want to play yeah let's go and then the team comes out in the second half just eye the tiger and we went back out the second half and everyone responded so we go out there and we're warming up to start just the third quarter and I got a record shutout crowd there at the Omni and they're gonna start the third quarter and you watch an NBA game and nobody wants to ever take the ball out of bounds because they know they're never gonna get it back Larry Bird always took the ball out of bounds the selfless sacrifice that was Larry Bird's defining personal characteristic what he would do to make other people's dreams come true he's going to take the ball out of bounds and that referee comes and the referee hands the ball to Larry to start the third we're down 25 Larry takes the ball and pushes it back into the midsection of the referee so that he can't get away and referees like startled staggered what's going on here was all right there right in front of the Celtic bench and Larry looks right into the soul right through the eyes of that referee and he says to him we're not gonna quit you make sure you don't quit either try to just like melt it on this spot and we got out there and we ended up beating them and then the second half started and it was just phenomenal because he just kept Larry hit 11 straight shots to start the third including seven threes we were tied at the end of the third we wanted overtime we did not need a plane to get home bird winds up from three yes Larry put listed now a lot of wasted motion there made a tough shot out of what should have been facing birds three or off rivers ain't back the other way and now bird for the Celtic makes the past sometimes it gets in the fourth quarter and three or four minutes ago when everybody'll come and say okay Larry it's time to take over and you know that's the greatest feeling in the world here you're playing with some of the best players in the game and here they come to you and say okay it's time to take over take over the game and that's a heck of a feeling knowing what to do before everybody else knows what to do and that's the type of speed he has and that's what makes him the fastest player in the league there's something within me that just says hey you if you're going to be the best you got to work at it and I'm not afraid to work especially it's something I love to do in the second half the Celtic shot 64 percent from the floor and led by birds 41 points boston nailed down a comeback 125-122 in overtime sending a message to everyone that was my favorite regular season win from the 86 team which is my favorite team Larry bird you're awesome you know first I went through some Casey Jones never drank a beer and a half that's the biggest bunch of BS I've ever heard come on bless bill was drinking one with it and hope you guys enjoyed the video if you did here are two other Larry bird videos I think that you will also enjoy so be sure to check them out and I'll catch you guys in the next one