{"id":1131669,"date":"2020-04-04T14:56:03","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T18:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1131669"},"modified":"2020-04-04T14:56:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T18:56:04","slug":"larry-bird-still-carries-his-strong-dislike-for-bill-laimbeer-off-the-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/larry-bird-still-carries-his-strong-dislike-for-bill-laimbeer-off-the-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Bird Still Carries His Strong Dislike for Bill Laimbeer Off the Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It\u2019s no secret there was no love lost between Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons in the 1980s. Detroit\u2019s Bad Boys, made up of Bill Laimbeer, <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/dennis-rodmans-net-worth-is-much-lower-than-what-you-think\/\">Dennis Rodman<\/a>, and Isiah Thomas, were always battling Boston\u2019s Big 3 of <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/what-is-larry-birds-net-worth\/\">Larry Bird<\/a>, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Those meetings were intense and some of them got downright ugly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Boston Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons was a heated rivalry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yhm-WMwRW4o\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>From 1985-91, the Boston Celtics and the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/andre-drummond-was-not-happy-about-his-pistons-to-cavs-trade\/\">Detroit Pistons<\/a> met in the playoffs with two of those matchups being in the Eastern Conference Finals. In 1987, the Celtics outlasted the Pistons in seven games to reach the NBA Finals, while the Pistons got revenge the next year in the ECF, winning 4-2. That was the first of back-to-back NBA Finals appearances by the Pistons.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/playoffs\/1987-nba-eastern-conference-finals-pistons-vs-celtics.html\">1987 Eastern Conference Finals<\/a>, the Pistons used their physical play, oftentimes called dirty play, and intimidation against the Celtics. In Game 3 of the series,\u00a0play began to get ugly when Laimbeer took down Bird with a hard foul. A fight ensued and both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/sports\/1987\/05\/24\/laimbeer-bird-tossed-for-4th-period-fight\/2c298e48-e2bc-4fb1-a92c-d7c204b2a827\/\">Bird and Laimbeer were ejected<\/a>.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Game 5 was the turning point as the Pistons were ahead by a point with five seconds remaining and were taking the ball out of bounds. Bird stole the inbounds pass from Isiah Thomas and hit Dennis Johnson for the game-winning layup that gave the Celtics a 3-2 lead in the series. Earlier in the game, Celtics center Robert Parish was ejected for punching Laimbeer and was suspended for Game 6. The Celtics went on to win the series in seven games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bill Laimbeer's reputation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Larry Bird and Bill Laimbeer have genuinely hated each other for over 30 years\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0bTsLSN0-68?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Bill Laimbeer was arguably the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mitchalbom.com\/laimbeer-deserves-his-terrible-reputation\/\">NBA's most hated player<\/a>. He carried the label of being a dirty player. Back when he was playing, he felt like opposing players and coaches were out to get him and he felt his bad-boy reputation was unwarranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I truly believe that because of the reputation I've had attached to me, other coaches and general managers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/news\/ct-xpm-1989-02-12-8903050263-story.html\">tell their players to stand up to my aggressive play<\/a>,&#8221; Laimbeer said in 1989.  &#8220;A lot of players don't know how to do that, other than by hitting, swinging and elbowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8221;Guys are coming at me to fight, where normally if it was someone else, they wouldn't. I don't want to fight, but I have to protect my well-being. If that's not a Catch-22 situation, I don't know what is.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Laimbeer's former teammate Isiah Thomas even said, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theemike.com\/15-best-sports-quotes-isaiah-thomas-bill-laimbeer\/\">&#8220;If I didn't know Bill Laimbeer<\/a>, I wouldn't like him either.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Larry Bird still doesn't like Bill Laimbeer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ThHiVDaVmbQ\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To this day, <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/larry-bird-once-ate-way-too-much-ice-cream-and-wedding-cake-after-having-surgery\/\">Larry Bird<\/a> still doesn't have any respect for Bill Laimbeer, even off the court. In an interview with Bill Simmons, formerly of ESPN, Simmons asked Bird if he ever liked Laimbeer in any social situation. Bird was extremely quick to answer no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It's because he was a dirty player,&#8221; Bird continued. &#8220;He had to do what he had to do and I understand that, but you take like (former Piston) Ricky Mahorn, he'd hit you and you knew you were going to get hit. He didn't try to maim you. Bill tried to hurt you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;He was one of them guys when you tried to shoot a jumper, he would try to slide his foot underneath your ankle so you'd twist your ankle.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apparently the no-love feeling is mutual. Laimbeer was once asked during a radio interview <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VfG88kczWUg\">if Larry Bird was sitting next to you<\/a>, what would you say to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I'd probably go to a different table,&#8221; Laimbeer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird still carries his strong dislike for Bill Laimbeer off the basketball court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":1131713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4814,4816,62310,91],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Larry Bird Still Carries His Strong Dislike for Bill Laimbeer Off the Court - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird still carries his strong dislike for Bill Laimbeer off the basketball court.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/larry-bird-still-carries-his-strong-dislike-for-bill-laimbeer-off-the-court\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Larry Bird Still Carries His Strong Dislike for Bill Laimbeer Off the Court\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird still carries his strong dislike for Bill Laimbeer off the basketball court.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/larry-bird-still-carries-his-strong-dislike-for-bill-laimbeer-off-the-court\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-04T18:56:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-04T18:56:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Larry-Bird-Bill-Laimbeer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"756\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@NostraThomas123\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/larry-bird-still-carries-his-strong-dislike-for-bill-laimbeer-off-the-court\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/larry-bird-still-carries-his-strong-dislike-for-bill-laimbeer-off-the-court\/\",\"name\":\"Larry Bird Still Carries His Strong Dislike for Bill Laimbeer Off the Court - 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