Pacers Ex-Player Reveals How Larry Bird Came to His Rescue and Put an End to Coach’s Name-Calling Drama
Larry Bird is one of the NBA’s greatest forwards of all time. Standing at 6 feet 9 inches, the Boston Celtics legend was one of the toughest players of the 1980s. He was also an exemplary leader who led by action and won 3 NBA championships (1981, 1984, and 1986) for the Boston Celtics organization.
In a recent podcast episode, a former NBA star recalls an incident when Larry Bird stood up for him when he was being hazed.
How Larry Bird put an end to the coach’s name-calling drama
In a recent episode of “The 85 South Comedy Show”, Indiana Pacers veteran Shawne Williams tells the story of how Larry Bird came to his rescue during his time as the Pacers’ ‘President of basketball operations.’
Shawne Williams talks about how Larry Bird had “hand-picked” him to play for the Indiana Pacers. He then recalls the one time when Rick Carlisle, the then coach of Indiana Pacers, called him a racial slur.
He further says, “When I get there (Pacers’ practice), your hand and sh*t get rusty. Knee caps rusty, hands rusty and sh*t. So, they gave me the nickname “We gonna call you ‘Ghetto’ dawg.” So the nickname had took onto me for a minute. When we were at practice once, Rick Carlisle called me that sh*t.”
Williams then talks about Larry Bird’s reaction to what Rick Carlisle had just said. The former Indiana Pacers player says, “I looked up at Larry, cause he would sit in all the practices, and his face was red as a motherf*****!”
Larry Bird then calls both Rick Carlisle and Shawne Williams to his office after practice. He then gives an earful to the coach in front of the young Pacers star and then tells the coach to never repeat such a thing again. He also tells Shawne Williams to never be okay with nicknames like that.
