Philly did win Game 4 with Barkley putting up 15 points and 20 rebounds.īarkley’s Sixers never played Bird’s Celtics in the playoffs again, and Philly would never again get out of the second round with Sir Charles on the team.
#RANDY JONES AND CHARLES BARKLEY WIFE SERIES#
Boston won the series 4-1, holding the Sixers to 100 points or fewer in all the Celtics victories. In the Eastern Conference Finals, it met Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, and the vaunted 1980s Celtics.Īs good as that Philadelphia team was, it was no match for the Celtics. In the playoffs, the team beat the then-Washington Bullets 3-1 and swept the Milwaukee Bucks. J” Erving, along with All-Stars Andrew Toney and Bobby Jones on that squad. 5 overall pick in that year’s draft, the team took a 21-year-old forward from Auburn to add to its impressive collection of talent.īarkley joined future Hall of Famers Maurice Cheeks, Moses Malone, and Julius “Dr. The 1984-85 76ers were just two years removed from winning the franchise’s second NBA title (third if you count the Syracuse Nationals’ 1955 championship before they moved to Philly). While Barkley couldn’t get past the ’90s Chicago Bulls later in his career, it was Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics that blocked the path of the most talented team he ever played on. When NBA fans think about Charles Barkley’s career and why he never won an NBA title, most think of Michael Jordan blocking his path. 4pjuSZQmm5- Super 70s Sports October 22, 2020 J is enraged, Charles Barkley is getting jumped from behind, and I think someone has locked in the Million Dollar Dream on Larry Bird. Bird blocked Barkley’s best team from reaching the NBA Finalsĭr. His dry sense of humor is what endeared him to his peers even though he consistently beat them in the 1980s. I said, ‘What’s going on, LB?” He says, ‘Ya’ll being disrespectful to me.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ He says, ‘Ya’ll got a white guy trying to guard me, that’s disrespectful.’ It caught me off guard, and I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘There’s not a white guy on the planet that can guard me.’ I think it was Bob Thorton at the time. I always laugh about Larry because Larry was like, ‘Chuck, I need to talk to you,’ in the middle of a game, Dan. “Larry Bird is one of my favorite people in the world,” Barkley told Patrick before launching into a story about how funny Bird was and how much he loved to trash-talk: One of Bird’s pet peeves during his playing days was a “white guy guarding me,” as he told ESPN in 2004.ĭuring a visit with The Dan Patrick Show ahead of the 2021 NBA Finals, NBA great-turned-analyst Barkley confirmed this with a story about an on-court interaction with Larry Legend. Larry Bird once told Charles Barkley the Philadelphia 76ers were ‘disrespectful’ because of who was guarding him
Bird, who was at the end of his career and struggling with back issues, put up 8.4 points and 3.8 boards per game. On the way to the gold medal, Barkley, in the prime of his career, led the team in scoring with 18.0 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. The two, who are among the best forwards in NBA history, became teammates for a summer on the iconic 1992 USA Dream Team. Bird averaged 23.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 7.0 assists against Barkley, and Barkley put up 21.9 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists a game versus Bird. Statistically, the two were very close in these contests. The two Hall of Famers’ head-to-head record was 17-13 in favor of Boston, according to statmuse. The matchups happened during Barkley’s first eight seasons and Bird’s last eight.īird’s Celtics got the best of Barkley’s Sixers more often than not. Charles Barkley (L-R) Larry Bird, Charles Barkley | Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Imagesīird and Barkley faced off as Eastern Conference rivals for the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers, respectively, 30 times in their NBA careers. The TNT analyst recently joined Dan Patrick and shared a classic story about Bird talking trash that made Barkley laugh on the court. This ability endeared him to many NBA players, including another loquacious Hall of Famer, Charles Barkley. He would tell you what you and your team were doing wrong, then go out and back it up with his performance. One of the truly great trash-talkers of his day was Larry Bird. Trash talk on an NBA court is commonplace, especially back in the 1980s.