{"id":348622,"date":"2025-11-01T19:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T19:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/348622\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T19:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T19:16:10","slug":"im-the-only-one-playing-like-a-sissy-larry-birds-ruthless-self-critique-after-celtics-game-3-collapse-in-1985-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/348622\/","title":{"rendered":"“I’m the only one playing like a sissy” – Larry Bird’s ruthless self-critique after Celtics’ Game 3 collapse in 1985 Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Larry Bird<\/a> used to spare no one, including himself, in the name of winning. Roughly a year after criticizing his Boston Celtics<\/a> teammates\u2019 collective hearts, he went all out in criticizing his performance in Game 3 of the 1985 NBA finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t play any worse than I did today. You could play better than I did today. I don\u2019t know what it is. I shoot well in practice and then\u2026,\u201d Bird told<\/a> The\u00a0Boston Globe\u2019s Leigh Montville, per Dan Shaugnessy\u2019s book \u201cWish it Lasted Forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

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After he was reminded of the fact that he ripped the team\u2019s effort<\/a> after Game 3 of the 1984 finals, Bird candidly stated: \u201cI can\u2019t say that now because I\u2019m the only one playing like a sissy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larry has not shot particularly well in the 1985 Eastern Conference finals, and his struggles spilled over to the biggest stage. Besides a decent 8-for-14 showing in a Game 1 blowout in Boston\u2019s favor, Bird shot 17-for-42 in the next two games, a far cry from the standard he set for himself.<\/p>\n

The Celtics faced challenges as defending champs<\/strong><\/p>\n

At that point, there was a reason why the NBA had not seen a back-to-back champion since the 1968 and 1969 Celtics led by Bill Russell. It takes a lot of luck and a different type of motivation to repeat, not to mention overcoming internal tussles and issues.<\/p>\n

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The 1985 Celtics were no different. They won 63 games in the season, but something was off. For instance, everyone on the team could see and feel that Cedric Maxwell\u2019s commitment was almost non-existent. \u201cCornbread\u201d bagged MVP honors in 1981 and was starting for Green and White ever since he got there.<\/p>\n

The historic franchise, however, was already pivoting towards making Kevin McHale the full-time starter. Maxwell had knee issues<\/a>, causing him to miss 25 games. As a result, Max\u2019s contributions towards the end of the 1984-85 regular season were hardly felt. By the time the playoffs rolled around, he had completely lost his starting job to McHale, who averaged over 22 points and shot nearly 57 percent in the postseason.<\/p>\n

That said, the issue ran deeper than Maxwell being hurt and McHale was not. The Celtics knew what Ced was capable of, but he was zoning out in front of everyone\u2019s eyes. He did not take his rehab seriously.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Robert Leach, who performed the surgery, said, \u201cThe big problem was getting Max to do the work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It pissed off everyone in the organization from top to bottom, including the ever-vocal Bird. In Jackie MacMullan\u2019s \u201cWhen the Game was Ours,\u201d Bird went guns ablaze on his teammate, accusing him of “taking his money and quitting,” probably referring to the lucrative pay<\/a> of around $800,000 he received that year (according to Shaughnessy, the Celtics and Maxwell agreed to a four-year, $3.2 million contract after winning the \u201884 title).<\/p>\n

For Bird, winning back-to-back was well within reach, two years after not accomplishing the feat, because of Bill Fitch. That all went down the drain when Maxwell allegedly acted up from losing his starting job and joking around like the team\u2019s goal was not serious.<\/p>\n

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Boston was not as invincible as they were a year ago without their feared frontline rotation. Imagine Maxwell averaging nearly 12 points per contest in 1983-84, and then an 18-PPG scorer like McHale coming off the bench. By 1985, \u201cBread\u201d didn\u2019t do much of anything: 3.8 points and 2.4 rebounds, seeing under 12 minutes of action.<\/p>\n

That same summer, the Celtics traded him to the Clippers for the legendary, but oft-injured, big man, Bill Walton. He received the NBA\u2019s Sixth Man of the Year award in 1986.<\/p>\n

Related: “This is ridiculous” – Jerry West admits he was embarrassed to win Finals MVP after losing to the Celtics in 1969<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not just a Maxwell situation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maxwell took the brunt of the heat within the organization, but the truth was, the Celtics started off the 1984-85 season on the wrong foot. Their regular-season and early-round success in the playoffs masked their bench issues, which the Purple and Gold later exposed (none of the Lakers\u2019 starters averaged 40 minutes in the \u201885 finals, but the Celtics had three).<\/p>\n

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Before the season began, Red Auerbach was already looking to undo what he saw as a mistake financially \u2014 re-signing starting guard Gerald Henderson. Henderson secured a hefty, four-year deal worth $325,000 a season, which should probably be around $19 million in today\u2019s salary circumstances.<\/p>\n

Red saw an opportunity present itself. He immediately dealt Henderson, who averaged 12 points and four assists in the 1984 finals, to the lowly Seattle SuperSonics for an unprotected first-round pick \u2014 that selection later became Len Bias.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, it was smart, a move that practically set the Celtics up for a new era. However, in the short term, it gave the Celtics\u2019 starters a small margin of error.<\/p>\n

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That meant Danny Ainge moved to the opening lineup, leaving no other playmaking guard to spell for him. Bird\u2019s beer buddy, Quinn Buckner, would be a choice, but his best days were clearly behind him. With the Lakers running around all day, Boston\u2019s thin bench struggled to keep up with the pace and energy of the series.<\/p>\n

Bird also experienced some discomfort of his own. Before Game 5, the Hick from French Lick practiced with a heavily bandaged right hand \u2014 ring and pinker fingers wrapped together, and so were his middle and index fingers.<\/p>\n

As great as Larry was, there was no way he could shoot the way he always did. Moreover, the 2-3-2 format wasn\u2019t doing the team any favors; in fact, both Auerbach and Bird saw it as a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe earn home court advantage and we got to play three of the first five out here. It ain\u2019t right,\u201d Bird quipped.<\/p>\n

All those factors combined to create the perfect storm for Boston\u2019s downfall. Between Maxwell\u2019s detachment, a thin rotation, and Bird\u2019s lingering hand issue, the Celtics weren\u2019t the same battle-ready group that took down the Lakers a year earlier.<\/p>\n

The hunger was still there, but the edge was gone. By the time the Lakers finished the job, the Celtics had run out of answers.<\/p>\n

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Related: Larry Bird once revealed why Julius Erving was his most enjoyable matchup in the NBA: “I love to beat him”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Nov 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Larry Bird used to spare no one, including himself, in the name of winning. Roughly a year after…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":348623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[170954,2731,3125,170956,7197,170955,3963,3961,3141,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-348622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-1985-nba-finals","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-cedric-maxwell","12":"tag-clippers","13":"tag-imagine-maxwell","14":"tag-kevin-mchale","15":"tag-larry-bird","16":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115476050110643346","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}