“Did Larry Bird’s Basketball Pride Cost Kelly Tripucka When He Took Offense to Being Guarded by Anyone Shorter Than 6-Foot-6?”

“Did Larry Bird’s Basketball Pride Cost Kelly Tripucka When He Took Offense to Being Guarded by Anyone Shorter Than 6-Foot-6?”

When he was on the court, Larry Bird had complete faith in his abilities. The legendary Boston Celtics player was even known to reveal to his opponents his specific scoring strategy before executing it. But that wasn’t his only peculiarity with defenders.

Bird stated in a previous interview that he thought it was insulting to that game to have a “white guy” protecting him. However, we now know from a more recent conversation that Larry Legend disliked having someone under six feet tall protect him as well. And Kelly Tripucka paid the price for her preference, according to Rex Chapman.

It was going to be a hard night for whoever had to guard Larry Bird, considering his height and general competence. However, there would be an extra challenge for players who scored lower than 6-6. In addition to his obvious height disadvantage, the Celtics forward would presumably be a little more fired up when playing against them.

Rex Chapman reminisced on The Rich Eisen Show, “I remember Kelly Tripucka was going to guard him, and we had Jerry Sichting on our team, who had played with Larry.” “And at shoot-around, Jerry informed us, Larry, that no man in the world who was 6 feet 6 inches or shorter could protect him. And he finds it offensive. Thus, if you observe closely, even during Boston’s game against the Bulls,

Given that anecdote, one could assume that assigning a larger defender to stop Larry Bird was the wisest course of action. But in practice, it was easier said than done.

John Salley said that Bird “put fear” in him when he appeared on The Rich Eisen Show. The 6-foot-11 opponent didn’t even cause the Celtics star to falter. Just take a look at the narrative that the center offered (source: Indianapolis Star).

“You on me?” said the bird.