I know most people will say Lakers "Showtime" was the greatest in the 80's and I admit they were fun to watch. But I'll go to my grave believing the beautiful, artistic, intellectual brand of basketball from the Boston Celtics in the mid to late 80's was the best and most enjoyable to watch. It was truly poetry in motion. 86 was as great as it will ever get. Unfortunate for the Celtics they played in the vastly superior East in the 80's and had to grind through wars to even make the NBA Finals while the Lakers got to coast through a pussy Western Conference where the biggest threat was probably these Dallas Mavericks, who would've been a 7 or 8 seed in the East at best. In short, Larry Bird is the smartest and greatest all around player of all time and the 1985-86 Boston Celtics are easily and without a single doubt the greatest TEAM of all time. Vastly superior to any of the 60's Celtics teams, the 80's Laker teams, the 90's Bulls teams, the early 2000 Lakers teams and the current Warriors teams. And don't even bring up shit head Lebron or any of his weak ass teams who would've been nothing more than a scrimmage for the Celtics, Lakers, Pistons, 76er's or Bucks teams of the 80's. Thank YOU Larry Legend both the player and the RU-vid Dude who posts these amazing videos. I watch them every single day and appreciate them more than you can ever know. Keep it going!
Renee Pena love how the whole team is absolutely unselfish in their approach. If theres a player open or jusst in a better position he gets the ball. If they can pass and pass until they open the defence they do it. Theres no prima donnas in the team, even with the GOAT on the roster. Bird could have scored 10-15 more points EVERY GAME if he played like a selfish prat coughmichaeljordancough. They just move the ball so well. Love watching these old games (im late coming to basketball) theyre waaaay more entertaining than the pampered kiddies playing todays nba. And watching any mj highlights package im just struck by what a damned ball hogging showoff he was. It was alllll about him, allll the time. Bird made everyone he played with better. The TEAM got better. And frankly Bird schooled mj pretty much every time they played. Nuff said. Who schooled Bird? Nooooone...
I still get more enjoyment out of a beautiful seemingly impossible pass by these Celtics than nearly any move Jordan inflicted on his opponents. And these 86 Celtics, when their shots were nothing but net were the loudest swishes I’ve ever heard.
Larry & Kevin in their prime were unstoppable.And as much love as DJ deservedly gets, Danny Ainge was a superb wing man. Great hustle and passing. And did my eyes deceive me or did Robert Parish pass off to Bird? Whaaatt???
@@joemartin1253 Sadly not the case. He first injured his back in the summer of 1985 shoveling rock at his mother's house although it got progressively worse in the late '80's. This game was played in 1986 and Heinzman even mentioned his back injury early in the video. Larry played much of his career in pain.
Im watching this games, and still enjoying them, The celtics team were not shy, Look at the way the communicate to each other, a great combination , Thats how every team should play, Communicating every move to get only one result,to Be the Winner.
The best team in history, would have beaten any other team, Bulls, Warriors, or Lakers. Len Bias died in 1986 after draft and Walton, and many others injured, but the 1985-86 team the greatest.
2:44 Bird's crisp pass fake made this play to Walton possible. Bird could break ankles of half the guys on the other team at the same time, without having to waste effort on a single crossover move.
Good stuff, yet again. They were killing them, not much Dallas could do about it. Imagine them having more prime/peak years together like this, they only had like two of those, Bird started his best years in 1984, McHale in 1985, Larry had his peak in 1986, Kevin in 1987 then he was never quite the same again due to injury, Bird was never the same after 1988... Better yet, imagine the Celtics on this 1986 level for more than one season, opponents would be in deep trouble. That between the opponent's legs pass by Bird at 6:01 was just crazy, in fact, Celtics' overall passing game was just crazy.
At 3:43, "Bird had Donaldson almost selling programs"... That's James Donaldson, 7'2" 275 lbs. Bird had a lot of natural strength...he was an outstanding rebounder.
thats gotta be larrys 4th between the leg pass im aware of,,,including one on hakeem,sikma(the most famous one),this one,and one vs the warriors where he put most of his arm between some guys legs(his arm had to be one inch blow the guys sack,funny stuff),its the very first play in this vid Larry Bird Greatest Passer of All Time
Yes, really good at offense. Defense was terrible, here. You don't give Bird 3 or 4 feet, on the perimeter. He could have smoked Aguire for 60, or more points, if he chose to.
In my opinion the Boston Celtics used to use a very beautifuly playing style based on amazing passes but it started to go down when these players had to face and suffer the furious and close defense from LA. Lakers and mainly from the bad boys, Detroit Piston. That aggressive and, in some cases, dirty defense against them, wore down to the Celtics players causing them fatigue and severe and painful injuries. We begin to see that after 1986 NBA season. The Celtics never more were the same. They didn't come back to the top until the crown in 2008.
Got to thinking about another duo that was pretty good and that was Dr J and Pete Maravich who still hold the college scoring record. Pete brought the passing game to what it is today.
Officially the highest-scoring game for the famous '86 Celtics (137 points). They also had a pair of 135 pointers (The famous third quarter vs. Atlanta, Jordan's 63)
I think we should refer to Jordan's 63 as Jordan's 63pt loss. As remarkable as 63pts in a double OT game was for a playoff, it should always and I mean a l w a y s be referred to as a loss. I can't recall ever referring to one of Larry's games as wow he scored 50pts in that loss. Sorry...this is aimed at Jordan jockers. As great as MJ was his nemesis was Bird and the 80's Celtics.
@@jjs777fzr Yes. Exactly. Jordan himself said he’d rather have had the win, the points got him nothing. Too bad he didn’t learn the concept of TEAMWORK.
If the Celtics were in the Western Conference Bird would have averaged a Triple Double for the Season. Check his stats when the Celtics travel to the West Coast
