Posted on April 16, 2023
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0 It was the beginning of one of the most legendary basketball rivalries in the history of the NBA, with Bird and Magic Johnson facing off against each other for the first time. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Why did the Philadelphia 76ers trade Charles Barkley to the Phoenix Suns? The Cs took game 5 at home behind Larry Birds 34 points and 17 boards. 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, "Here Are Some Final Facts on NBA Playoffs", Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs, The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1984_NBA_Finals&oldid=1141615206, 20th century in Los Angeles County, California, Basketball competitions in Inglewood, California, May 1984 sports events in the United States, June 1984 sports events in the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, No. In terms of individual honors, he won the 1979-80 Rookie of the Year title, claimed three MVP crowns, and earned two NBA Finals MVP nods. Bird's Boston Celtics won the NBA championship three times during his career (1981 and '86 vs. the Houston Rockets, '84 vs. the Los Angeles Lakers), and Bird won Finals MVP in '84 and '86. Things werent as cheerful from this point forward for Boston though. The series was not a close one: the Cs took a 3-0 lead before Milwaukee won their second home game to stay alive. Featuring prime Larry Legend, apex Kevin Mchale, Robert Parish, and Dennis Johnson. . In Game 5, the Celtics took a 3-2 series lead with a 121-103 victory, as Larry Bird scored 34 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. Adding one more hall of famer, Bill Walton, put this team over the top. Larry led the team to a Game 7 victory while averaging 26-13-5, putting up a great stat line of 23-11-5 with 5 steals in the deciding Game 7. Fast forward a couple of seasons and Bird marched his team back into the 1984 postseason. Bird retired from the NBA in 1992 and immediately took up an advisory role with the Boston Celtics. Larry averaged 27-10-7 and led the Celtics with 36 points in a game-five win that saw the Celtics beat the Hawks by 33 points. The kick-off of one of the greatest rivalries of all time. The Bucks took them to seven games before they were able to advance and the Pistons took them to seven in the Conference Finals. Houston lost a close game 1 then won a tight game 2 in Boston. The game after setting an NBA finals record for made threes with eight in game 2 against the Lakers in 2010, Ray Allen . Allen Iverson Jersey Mitchell and Ness: A Complete Guide. If you were wondering about his career numbers while we wrap this up, he averaged 24.3 points, 10 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.8 blocks per game. Larry Joe Bird. The Houston Rockets were mostly a completely different team from the Moses Malone-led Rockets of the 1981 Finals. Game 7 at the Boston Garden was one for the ages! The Celtics were led by Bird, who won his first MVP award, and was complemented by 1981 Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell, first-time all-star and Sixth Man Award winner Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Gerald Henderson and Danny Ainge. Larry Bird is one of the ten greatest players in the history of the NBA. These performances earned Bird his second MVP award. During that year Lesley Visser, Stockton's wife, became the first woman to cover the NBA Finals for CBS. The seeds of the 1984 Finals were first sown five years earlier, during the 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.In the final game of the tournament, Larry Bird and his erstwhile unbeaten Indiana State Sycamores lost to Magic Johnson and his Michigan State Spartans by the score of 75-64. Bird outscored Dr. J 26.7 to 19.9 ppg in the series, led all players in rebounds and was second on Boston in assists. NY Knicks 4-3, 1984 Eastern Conference Final: Celtics def. . Whether he makes an All-Defense team this season remains to be seen, but few wings in the association deserve more recognition than McDaniels this campaign. With a new head coach in KC Jones and plenty of uncertainties, Carr said their motto for the season was Dont be denied. He won his second NBA Finals MVP. Player stats broken down into various categories; i.e. In this first iconic matchup, eight Hall of Famers saw play. Boston entered the new decade by winning the 1981 NBA Finals. In MVP voting, Bird dominated the competition as he took home his third straight MVP award. Birds Boston Celtics finished 16-15 in NBA Finals games and 3-2 in NBA Finals series. Unfortunately, the team was defeated by the Philadelphia 76ers in five games and they were sent home. The Celtics won the Finals convincingly 4-2. This was the last NBA Finals to use the 22111 format until 2014. Before the season began, the Lakers traded long-time guard Norm Nixon to the San Diego Clippers in exchange for the draft rights to Byron Scott. The Rockets swept the Sacramento Kings in round 1, then took six games to get by a fun Denver Nuggets team starring Alex English and Fat Lever. So for an entire decade, the NBA Finals included one of the two marquee franchises. He worked the first half, but was replaced by John Vanak for the second half. The Lakers were coached by Pat Riley and also featured defensive ace Michael Cooper, a young. In his second season with the Celtics, Boston finished first in the East as they had done the previous year. 9 John Vanak (alternate, replaced Evans), This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 23:16. The Celtics ended the series shooting 52% from the field while holding the Bucks to 44% shooting. The Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Celtics in the conference finals before losing to the Lakers in the 1980 NBA Finals, with Johnson earning Finals MVP honors for his Game 6 performance. Get the latest news on Larry Bird, biographical info . The Detroit Pistons took two games off them in the second round but it didnt matter, Bird averaged 28 points per game as they won in six. The Celtics won a very close game 3 in Houston to take control of the series with a 3-1 lead. Larry Bird averaged 23.1 points, 11.6 rebounds and 6.0 assists in 31 games in the NBA Finals in his career. After the game a Laker fan threw a beer at Celtics guard M.L. I write about games, players and seasons from the past. This Finals had everything. Or maybe youre a younger fan wondering if Bird really deserves his place in the Pantheon of basketball greats. He was still one to wear what he wanted, enjoy the simple pleasures of life, and, in this case, refuse to hype up his own accomplishments. Only the strong survive. As one of the greatest players to ever step foot in the . He won his second NBA Finals MVP. Tatum and the rest of his team are eager to avenge the loss in the Finals . Larry Bird Reacts to Eastern Conference Finals MVP Trophy Named After Him. Larry Bird Playoffs Game Log. In his first trip to the NBA Finals, Tatum averaged 21.5 points, seven assists and 6.8 rebounds, but the Celtics came up short. He shone as a head coach and executive for the Indiana Pacers; in fact, hes the only man in history to win Rookie of the Year, MVP, Finals MVP, All-Star MVP, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year. Have the Phoenix Suns ever won the NBA title? Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Thanks for signing up. That might seem unbelievable this is coming from a man who famously asked his Three-Point Contest peers who was coming in second but it largely fits within Birds character. His first MVP award was in 1984. They did make the playoffs the year after and many thought that they would easily repeat at first. Chicago Bulls 4-1, 1981 Eastern Conference Final: Celtics def. . When discussing his legacy with Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press (h/t the Daily Hampshire Gazette), Bird didnt take much time to sing his own praises. The Houston Rockets were led by their Twin Towers, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson. James Posey shared the culture that made the 2008 Boston Celtics experience so unique. Regardless, Johnson and Bird are widelyregarded as beingtwo of thegreatest players to have ever played the gameand they made for one of the greatest rivalries, one that will never be forgotten. The Celtics stayed unbeaten all-time in home Game 7s with a clear cut 111-102 victory. The #1 and #2 seeds were set to face off in the Conference Finals. Aside from stats, Larry Bird was a winner, bringing home multiple championship rings during his time with the Celtics. Birds Pacers swept the Bucks and the Sixers in the first two rounds of the playoffs and looked likely to make it to the finals as they came up against the eight seed New York Knicks in the conference finals. Nevertheless, it is rare to see a player dominate in so many areas of the game, theres no wonder why the Celtics made multiple deep playoff runs. The 1981 Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell led the team in scoring after saying something like Get on my back boys before the game. The series was the eighth time in NBA history that the Celtics and Lakers met in the NBA finals, with Boston winning each time, and the first championship that the Celtics claimed at home since 1966. Among his accomplishments, Bird set the new single-game franchise record for points. Larry Bird's 1986 Playoff Stats . If you remember, there was Kevin McHales hit on Kurt Rambis, and there was Larry Bird bumping Michael Cooper out of bounds. Join us for a March Madness Webinar on Tuesday, March 7 at 8pm ET. Their rivalry was second to none and saw them meet up in the NBA Finals three times. Nobody thought that the Celtics would beat the Lakers in 1984. After . Join our linker program. There were three Larry Bird championships with the Boston Celtics: in 1981, 1984 and 1986. His first run to the NBA Finals came in his second season, averaging 21-11-5 with 2 steals a game. Head to Head: Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson. What are the abbreviations on the NBA table. This series was a rematch of the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics after their rivalry was revived in 1979 with the Magic JohnsonLarry Bird pair entering the league. As for their averages, Johnson posted 20.7 points, 13.5 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game in their head-to-head matchups in the Finals compared to Bird's 25.3 points, 11.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists. In the first two NBA matchups between Bird and Magic . Larry Bird's Celtics made the Finals in 1985 and 1987 but lost to the Los Angeles Lakers. Johnson evened the series after helping the LA . Finals stats: 19.4 points, 11.7 assists and 7.9 rebounds in 50 games Finals rank: . Indiana State University, High School: Larry Bird was born on as Larry Joe Bird to parents: Georgia and Claude Joseph "Joe" Bird, a veteran of the Korean War.He attended Springs Valley High School. The Rockets fought back to win handily in game 5 at home but the Celtics closed out the series in game 6 in the Boston Garden to take their third title of the Bird era. Despite getting swept in the 1983 NBA Finals by the Philadelphia 76ers, the Lakers entered the season among the favorites to win the title. Bird averaged 22.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game for the series. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. Bird also won Finals MVP in 1986 when he scored 24 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out 10 assists and had 2.7 steals per game. From a statistical perspective, he also averaged 24.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 6.3 assists across his career. Magic Johnson had an 11-8 record in the NBA Finals versus Larry Bird in his career. (Larry Legend, The Hick from French Lick, Kodak, The Great White Hope), Position: Bird won two finals against very different Houston Rockets teams and one against the Showtime Lakers featuring Kareem and Magic. In 1987 the Lakers once again beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals. Magic gets the edge because he finished his career stronger, he was able to get/maybe steal from Charles Barkley the 1990 MVP, and he got the Lakers to another finals in 91, after 88 and the injuries Boston was done being any kind of serious contender they never got past the second round again for the rest of Larry Bird's time but if you're talkin Peak vs. They were defeated by the Golden State Warriors in six games.