“I’m just looking to see who is going to finish second,” Larry Bird, 1986.
Bird remains one of the NBA’s all-time great trash talkers. His career is laced with claims that he backed up with routine consistency. This one came in Dallas before the first-ever NBA All-Star Weekend long-distance shooting contest. After Bird demolished the competition, he said simply: “That check has had my name on it for a week.”
Two years later, he rallied to win the same event after hitting his final 15 shots, without saying a word.
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