Me, too. Never another like it.

All business

Yeah, people don't give DJ enough credit for his part in this. He broke to the basket anticipating Larry's stealing the ball.

RIP Legend Dennis Johnson

Textbook perfect !

I promise you one thing Larry knows DJ made this play. Best twosome in NBA history

Larry made an awesome steal, but DJ had to put it in the bucket. 🎉

I noticed that too. He actually stays up on his toes to avoid stepping on the baseline. Amazing heads up play 👍

That's why he's the 🐐

Check out the You Tube video of Isaiah talking about this play. It's a terrific insight.

While Bird couldn’t block shots like Wilt Chamberlain, the rest of His game was so complete like no one else ever !

@@susanbloodgood3572 I know that talking about basketball, the NBA is the top. And I love Bird, is my favourite player. But in terms of skills, IQ and phisycal power, I didn't see another like the young Arvydas Sabonis. When I was a boy, saw him at 20 years old, breaking the backboard with one hand. He could dunk from the freethrows line. Rebounds, blocks, assists, three points... 7'3". Faster, bigger and stronger than any other, except Wilt, may be. But much more gifted for the game, much more skills.

And with one second left on the clock DJ and Bird were on defense 🙂

Almost as good as Hot Rod's. Miss both of them.

It's not even right to watch this play without that voice in the background.

Sorry, we were spoiled and had Chick Hearn in LA, only a Celtic fan could like that voice, like he had his voice box filled with razor blades. Bird is still the GOAT!

@@evermar1 We were too. Johnny was the best of the homers. Once he said Bill Laimbeer hit Robert Parrish’s elbow with his eye. lol. How can you not love how he called that clip? An even better one is when ML Carr stole Magic’s pass in the ‘84 Finals. Couldn’t find it though.

@@DJ-bj8ku Another great one is when Havlichek stole the ball to win the NBA championship.

Yeah that was a good one

They were still focused on the prize too.

It's a part of NBA lore.

Actually, the greatest play!!! You will see many game winning shots. But when do you see a steal against a championship team when your team is down????!!!!!!!

@@anthonyzarate9807 with a couple seconds left

@@anthonyzarate9807 Jordan's steal on Malone is in that same discussion. Everybody always talks about "The Shot".. But "the steal" was more important. Esp since Jordan could have stolen the ball from him a few times but saved it for when he really needed to.

@@thisguy8106 that steal wasn't the same. There was 19 seconds left. With Bird's steal, it was last play of game on an inbounds pass with Isaiah inbounding to Laimbeer (to of the smartest players in history). Malone was very overrated and not clutch at all. The clutch player on that team was Stockton. I watched both games live. I felt that the Bulls were still winning that game, honestly. Before Bird stole the ball, everyone Watching in arena and home (including me) thought the game was over and Detroit had won. Isaiah Thomas said that is the play that taught him you have to play for 48 mins 47:55. He said that is what taught him and Pistons what they needed to win titles and get over the hump. But no doubt was the Jordan steal big. It is bigger (and so is Birds steal) than LeBron's chase down block. In fact the top 3 plays of Lebron's career were not made by him. The Allen 3pt shot, the Kyrie 3pt shot, and Bosh rebound are 3 biggest plays of Lebron's career.

I'd love to hear Gorman's call instead.

Joe Dumars not Thomas.

Dumars

I guess that's why Bird says D.J. is the best basketball player he ever played with. You'd figure, or I would figure he'd say Kevin McHale but no, D.J. is THE MAN!

Actually I think it was Rodman

@@MyMy-zi7yv He's wrong though, it was McHale.

Clutch as can be! The 2nd best Celtic behind The Legend.

I loved watching Dennis Johnson play...

larry weinberg And He was the least flashy player ever also , loved Him !

DJ was so clutch on Seattle, Phoenix and Boston.

He was a very smart player. He was always where he needed to be, just like that wonderful day. Bird stole the ball, but DJ made the layup and was smart enough to watch Bird

dude, totally the other way around....geeesh

@@eggsmann594 if you look at DJ's layup he almost missed. And had a guy right on him. If anything it's equal

@@eggsmann594 I was sitting basically ten rows under the basket to the same side as Larry's steal. Not that it really matters but

There was so much that happened...not only the bird steel, but Sichting staying to contest, DJ having the presence of mind to cut, bird somehow staying in bounds AND staying alert to the play that was coming....

As Oscar Robertson said: Lebron James is the greatest basketball player he has ever seen, 2nd best not even close!

@@chetroberson5760 LeWho?

@@chetroberson5760 nice sarcasm

Dirk nowitzki; Nikola jokic; LeBron James would've scored 50s points against Larry bird

Walton did nothing warm the bench!

He was funny and vocal during his bench warmer years. He was pretty animated on the Celtics sidelines in key moments.

​@@markwickering7000yup

Good way to describe it. I was actually listening to it on the radio; I don't think it was on regular TV and my family didn't have cable. But even with one or two seconds left, you stayed tuned and still held out hope because the Celtic's (and especially Bird's) track record for pulling rabbits out of the hat.

@@mikegulliver4885 I saw him play live the next preseason I believe in Worcester. My uncle got company tickets two rows behind the scorers table by the tunnel where the guys came in. Got to give all the guys high fives. They were gigantic to me. I’m 6’3” now, but back then they were trees, especially Chief. Larry played hard in that game like it was regular season. He and Dominique chased a loose ball right into the table in front of me and I almost got the ball, but a bigger guy grabbed it. That few seconds was a microcosm of how the greats of the 80s played. Spud was something else!

@@fezzik7619 Great memories! You never appreciate how tall seven feet is until you see up close.

@@mikegulliver4885 well my twin brother is 6’8” so I’m accustomed now to being around tall people, but 7’ is overwhelming. I’m an account manager for a security company. In my early days I worked the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament and I was assigned to the section where the players who weren’t in the current game were sitting. One team had a third string Freshman center who was 7’2”, nearly a full foot taller than I and it was amazing. Now I know how women 5’4” and under feel standing next to me 😆

I noticed that too, at 00.34 - 00.36

So true. Makes you think if he "failed" on purpose the play before just to make it more fun and put the dagger on them. Won't be surprised if he did. He was always playing Chess while the rest were playing checkers!! Genius!

Exactly

Me too.

Same

Easily top ten in any book. Well, top 8 Detroit would have went up 3-2.

I agree

No, because it required galactic class stupidity on the part of isiah Thomas to make it possible.

@@JStarStar00 Not confused by the brilliance of Larry Legend🥳

One of the best!!!

You’re right about that!!!

Everyone else was celebrating, but not him.

DJ also went on defense. That's another video which shows why Bird loved him.

@@bamp618 Uhhh...DJ literally was wolfing the inbounds. Stop trying to make your white dude the only guy capable of making the heady play. FOH. Bird was the truth, you white fans making him more than he was, is not.

@@manuginobilisbaldspot424 You are an idiot. Nobody, black, white, or polka dot, has had more good things to say about DJ than Larry Bird...those of us WHITE fans back in the day, knew and respected just how great DJ was...including his contribution to this steal/win.

@@manuginobilisbaldspot424 Really have to put "White" there huh?

John havlichek did the same thing

Ive watched it 100 times

Lump of crap. Haha. That gave me a laugh

@@jr6200 I’ll get you banned from KZfaq for laughing at what he said when he was a lump of crap

Why didn't you like him ? Because he beat your teams ass ?

Their* number

@@bamp618 obviously, that and he was a cocky asshole on the court.

@@fezzik7619 Thank you. The spellchecker gave me that (there) and I didn't catch it.

Larry Bird was the best basketball player in the nba history.

@SkyH23 Whatchoo talkin bout Willis? Larry Bird is my TRUE GOAT 🐐

Bird was the equivalent of a world class grand master's chess champion playing against checkers players ! For a guy that "can't run fast or jump high" he sure tore up the defenders using his high basketball IQ !

He saw that Isaiah was only looking where he wanted to throw it, so Bird stayed out of Thomas' line of vision until the ball was in the air. Thomas had tunnel vision at the worst possible moment and Bird could see that.

Amen

Larry Bird was the best basketball player in the NBA history.

@Carnell Bell He was the absolute best of white, black, yellow, green, purple and blue.

@Samuel Hopkins Shhhhh.....the adults are talking now.

@Samuel Hopkins Ok...you're sorry. Larry Legend is the best ever. Next!

He did it in a 9 year window. Had he not been "moppin up the floors" his whole career, he would have had a longer and more amazing career. Growing up he was by far my favorite player and Celtics were my favorite team, and I grew up in Milwaukee. My grandpa told me their was a special player (Bird) in college in 1978-79. So I watched the tournament (especially final 4) and was hooked on Bird! I was only like 8, but fell in love with basketball because of Larry!

Chris Roberts, what’s YEASTERDAY?😆

Wow. Profound analysis there. 😟

@@fezzik7619 let me guess. You only watched Bird's highlights on KZfaq?

@@fatdaddyeddiejr not sure what makes you think that. I actually watched this game live when I was 11 years old with my family. We all went ape shit. I’m glad they have all of his old highlights on here now. The internet is an amazing thing. Couldn’t have dreamed of something like this growing up in the 80’s. I only made that comment because what you said was pretty self-evident. Larry Legend had great court vision and awareness. That’s how anyone who plays good defense gets steals. The best ever of course was John Stockton who never gets credit for being the best PG ever. If YOU didn’t only watch 80’s highlights on KZfaq and were around then like I was you’d likely be aware that Stockton isn’t just the all-time assist leader by a mile, but steals too. Larry though is the best all around player ever. His career was shortened by injuries because the league didn’t have as many rules protecting its players/investments and Larry busted his ass. I saw him play the Hawks in a preseason game that didn’t even count in Worcester in 88 and he and Dominique went diving over the scorers table ten feet in front of me trying to get a loose ball.

@@fezzik7619 it was like when Flutie for Boston College threw the Hail Mary !

@@seagullpoet Made his career. Played pro in the NFL and CFL

there is an E in Stoled it

Liberty Pastor We were always told “play to the whistle”. For the Pros we can add “not to the crowd”. Exactly what Detroit forgot, but Boston stuck to the fundamentals, and it was epic to watch.

He was actually smiling because of all the trash talk that Mahorn was lobbing at him just before the inbound play.

BOO!!! Hate Johhny Most, glad he's dead.

4747da I was thinking the same thing! Lol

We used to listen to Most as we watched the game on TV. The contrast between his descriptions and the actual game were sometimes pretty funny. He had some great lines, "Fifteen years in the NBA and he still hasn't committed a foul" (about Kareem arguing a call) and "He's a refrigerator with a head" (Charles Barkley).

@@allanmatthews1881 Hilarious. Thanks for those!

We live in Indiana and the local station would carry every Celtics game because Larry grew up just down the road. The memories of listening to Johnny Most call games are still so sweet.

@@brettconnerley8670 Yes, I can relate to what you're saying since I live near Terre Haute. Fun!

Thanks for pointing out what someone explained in the video.

funny thing is Sichting DID NOT pressure Thomas.

@@natalliaf6387 Sichting getting in Isiah's face blocked his view of Bird coming for the ball. Isiah only saw Laimbeer. Laimbeer seemed to be surprised that Isiah was going to inbound to him and therefore didn't notice Bird either. Bird just seemed to appear out of nowhere. 😁

@natalliaf6387 He did enough.. so that Thomas had to alter his in bounds pass.. just enough time for Bird to arrive and get in front of Lambier. I'm sure it is coached that way in practice. Celtics play fundamental basketball. When Havlecek " stole the ball " same thing.. they had someone on the in bounds pass. Never allow the in bounds passer the discretion to see the whole floor.

True. As much as I detested Detroit, the Pistons were a great team.

You're not kidding. I was just a kid in Detroit, but STILL remember this play all these years later. Pistons and Red Wings had to overcome immense adversity to finally win their championships.

Playing the game as dirty as possible as how the Pistons won. They couldn’t defeat Jordan fairly so they used cheap shots and cowardly underhanded tactics instead.

@@theholymackerel072 😢

Those Detroit teams were nasty. It took the bulls forever to get past them

Specially? Did you mean especially? Two different words with very different meanings. Back to third grade

Very likely.

Actually one of the dumbest plays in NBA history as well

In part Laimbeer. It's really the fault of Mahorn and Rodman. They ran to the bench to celebrate and Thomas was forced to throw it right where Bird anticipated and then DJ had an open lane to the basket. I was at that game and could not believe they were celebrating before the game was over.

@@kaflookey it's all on Thomas. Pistons still had a time out in their bag, so Thomas was not "forced" to give that crappy pass.

Bird baited Thomas into making the pass. Outsmarted him. Thomas should have known better. Bird was not about to just give up. 3D chess vs a checkers player.

Your right. And it's not taken anything away from thay 87 Lakers team. But had Mchales foot not been in 2 place, Birds back not killing him, no injuries Chief Ainge or Walton and Len Bias lives and thrives with the Celtics that 1987 Finals might've turned out different.

Celtics were badly banged up. I believe the very next game the Pistons had an injury or two that ended any hope for them. Boston fought the good fight but the Lakers were too much. Celtics starting front line were all hobbled and I don't think Walton was playing at all...

Yes indeed!! Len Bias was another Superman, on the court! It was a shock to know he was lost just after the draft! I recall Bird saying, he would attend rookie camp if they chose Bias. I’d say he would have definitely helped Boston get a few more titles at a minimum!

Dont forget the death of Reggie Lewis. That guy could play and was not a me first guy.