Remembering Nov. 15, 1988, this day marks the end of the third Celtic dynasty Double because to Larry Bird's injury.

Remembering Nov. 15, 1988, this day marks the end of the third Celtic dynasty Double because to Larry Bird’s injury.

Early in the 1988–89 season, two Achilles surgeries signaled the end for the Bird–led Celtics, who had progressed to the East Finals in all but one of their previous seasons (1980–88), never to return.

After almost ten years of supremacy, the Boston Celtics, an elderly but proud team, remained at the top of the NBA standings in the fall of 1988, albeit precariously.

Despite playing two-thirds of its games in the challenging Eastern Conference and suffering critical injuries that likely cost them at least two more NBA titles, Boston had the best composite record in the league and had won three NBA titles since Larry Bird entered the struggling league in 1979 and revived a faltering franchise.

However, the team’s and the league’s fortunes drastically declined just six games into the 1988–89 NBA season.

Already the Celtics, seemingly poised for another championship run following a transcendent 67-15 championship campaign in 1985–86, had been rocked by the summertime death of top lottery pick Len Bias and the forced retirements of star reserves Scott Wedman and Bill Walton due to injuries.

Adding surefire great Bias to the lineup would have allowed its players to receive more rest instead of playing too much and suffering injuries that ended their careers, as many basketball observers believe that this is the best team in league history.

A fearsome team predicated on exceptional skill and halfcourt execution, high basketball IQ, competitive grit, and guile, the Boston club had persevered despite losing Bias and their two best reserves. The team was still a title contender.

But there were indications that the third Celtic dynasty was beginning to fall apart. Following the dramatic and exhausting journey of the undermanned Celtics to the 1987 Finals, Kevin McHale had undergone foot surgery, missing the first twenty-one games of the 1987–88 season.

Center Dennis Johnson, the starting guard, was 33 years old, and Robert Parish was 34. Nearly thirty years old hyper guard Danny Ainge was the young pup of the iron five.

And Bird, after earning first team all-league honors in each of his first nine seasons from 1979-88, was nearing 32. The year before he had posted his highest scoring average and the best in Celtic annals at 29.9, good for third in the NBA behind less well-rounded gunners Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins.

But the weight of carrying the team on his balky back had started to take a toll. A few months earlier the previous spring, he had answered any remaining critics and reinforced his greatness with a classic seventh game shootout win over Atlanta and Dominique Wilkins.

With many fans expecting Boston to wilt against the younger, high-flying Larry Legend refused to give in to Father Time.

Bird made nine of ten field goals in a fourth quarter to remember, including a three-pointer and an incredible three-point, falling-down, left-handed hook. He would have shot 10-10 if he hadn’t missed the one shot, a 20-footer over Kevin Willis, which rimmed all the way down and came out.

Boston needed each and every one of his shots to win 118–116. However, even Bird demonstrated his humanity versus Detroit in the conference finals.

A year prior, he had led Boston to an incredible seven-game victory against the youthful, ferocious, and physically tough Pistons with a brilliant theft and assist to DJ with a second remaining in game five.

However, a more seasoned and focused Detroit team defeated Boston 4-2 a year later in 1988.

Boston had not progressed to the NBA Finals since 1983 for the first time in history—a four-year East run that has never been topped. In contrast to the Eastern powerhouses of Boston, the 76ers, the Pistons, the Bucks, and the Hawks from the 1980s, the Miami Heat of 2011–14 equaled the run, but they did so in an East that is so weak that it is best described as a JV conference.

Following his rout of the Hawks, Bird was limited to just 19.8 points per game on a very un-Larry-like 35 percent field goal shooting after being hounded by the vicious Bad Boy Piston defense.

In keeping with his all-around abilities, Bird did manage to grab more than 12 rebounds per game, dish out 6.2 assists, and grab over three rebounds a game.

Boston’s early entry into the highly anticipated 1988–89 season began with the team competing in the second McDonald’s Open four-team tournament held in Spain. The elder Celtics were already exhausted from their nine-year run of at least eight East finals appearances, so they were not thrilled about traveling abroad.

However, as this was the first Mickey D’s Open held outside of the United States, commissioner David Stern of the NBA decided to send the league’s most illustrious team to represent the country.

Following a sluggish beginning, the Celtics easily won two games against teams that included future NBA stars from Yugoslavia, including Drazen Petrovic, Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc, and mid-1990s Celtic Dino Radja.

However, in its first season under new head coach Jimmy Rodgers, the fragile, short-handed club suffered more from the preseason tour. Player favorite K.C. Jones was removed from his position following five seasons in which he led the Celtics to two NBA titles, four NBA Finals, and five East Finals.

In part to placate him and prevent the curly-headed thinker from joining the rival Knicks, who had attempted to entice Jimmy away as their head coach, longtime assistant Rodgers took over.

On the understanding that he would take over once K.C. stepped down, he agreed to stay in Boston. Unfortunately, it was his terrible luck to ultimately take over when the old squad was about to collapse due to the injury of its superstar.

On November 4th, the season got off to a respectable start at home against the Knicks. Before the Boston Garden’s customary sellout crowd, the Celtics fought late to force overtime at 107-107.

Boston overcame the feisty Knicks 15-8 in the extra session to win 122-115 on the road. With 29 points on 12 of 23 field goals and perfect five-for-five free throw accuracy, Bird led all scorers.

In 47 minutes, Larry Legend contributed four—yes, four—blocked shots, five assists, two steals, but surprisingly, just five rebounds. To get just five rebounds (all on the defensive glass) in such a short amount of time for a player who had previously averaged around 11 caroms per game was a clear indication that something was off.

Among the five Celtic starters who scored in double digits were McHale, who scored 25 points, Parish, who scored 21 points and grabbed 22 rebounds. With 28 points, Patrick Ewing defeated NY, while Mark Jackson, the Rookie of the Year winner and player for Bird ten years later when he led the Indiana Pacers to the Finals, finished with 16 points and six assists.

The fissures were evident the following evening at another formidable Eastern foe in Philadelphia. The 76ers defeated Boston 129-115 after a dominant 41-24 third quarter.

In just 31 minutes, Bird scored 27 points, sunk 13 of his 22 field goals, and pulled down five rebounds and seven assists. McHale scored 18 and Parish scored 19.

However, the Sixers outscored the Celtics, making 51 of 89 shots at 57 percent shooting from the field. Cliff Robinson scored the most points for the winners with 25, followed by Charles Barkley with 24 and Mike Gminski with 18.

Gerald Henderson, a former guard for the Celtics who was sold to Seattle in 1984 for Len Bias’ draft selection, scored 14 points, made three steals, and gave out six assists in just 23 minutes after coming off the bench for the Sixers.

The lackluster performance could be attributed to two tough games in a row against bitter rivals who were both attempting to defeat Boston. The league’s TV darlings came home on November 9 to play the Chicago Bulls and the Celtics, but the rigorous opening schedule would not let up for the team.

Boston overcame an early deficit to take a 79-78 lead into the last round. The Celtics would typically shut out opponents in the fourth quarter when playing at home.

However, the youthful and resolute Bulls, who had previously lost 17 straight games against the Celtics and had been soundly defeated by Boston in the 1986 and 1987 playoffs, did not appear to be afraid.

In the fourth quarter, they outscored Boston 32–25, winning 110–104. Jordan scored 52 points using 18-33 field goal shooting, two 3-pointers, and 14-16 foul shooting. He would go on to lead the NBA in scoring at 35 points per game, while Larry finished third, and won his first season MVP award (Bird was second).

Chicago managed to pull off the shock despite the Bull starting lineup’s combined 31 shot attempts, with Bird managing to make just seven of 19 from the field. The fact that the Celtics consistently got the best shot from every other team in a game was further proof that the league could have caught up to Boston and that they were still the team to beat.

Parish only scored nine points, while McHale scored 29. In 34 minutes, Bird pulled down a season-high 10 rebounds, all from the defensive glass. He distributed six assists as well. After starting in lieu of an injured Ainge, rookie guard Brian Shaw scored eighteen points.

Two nights later, Boston played home to the Pistons, the team that had upset them as Eastern champions in May of the previous year. This was the perfect opportunity to reclaim the title at home and make a statement if there was ever an early-season opportunity to do so.

Rather, Detroit strengthened its series victory by winning 116-107 and improving to 5-0 after overcoming an 81-81 stalemate after three stanzas.

Adrian Dantley led the Pistons with 31 points on the strength of 15–16 foul shooting, as Boston fell to 1-3 with the defeat. The finest backcourt in the NBA was in complete control as Joe Dumars scored 24 points and Isiah Thomas added 23 points and 10 assists.

Detroit’s defensive performance was unsettling as they shot 55.4 percent from the field (41–74). McHale, who was nearly invincible against Detroit (having scored 56 points against them in March 1985), finished with 30 points on a productive 11 of 14 shooting effort.

Bird scored 24 points, making 8 of 14 field goals and 8 of 9 foul shots. In 35 minutes, he also pulled down 10 rebounds, all of them on the defensive, and dished out six assists.

However, no other Celtic scored more than 11 points, and the combined point total of the other three Boston starters was only 25.

The Celtics’ poor start nearly reached panic proportions as they lost a close game the following night at Milwaukee, falling short by a score of 108-100 in the fourth quarter.

With a 1-4 record, Boston had the worst start since the Bird era. In 26 minutes, Larry only attempted six threes and six foul throws, made just six of his 19 attempts, and grabbed six rebounds. Additionally, he only provided three assists.

With 13 caroms and 23 points, the Chief led Boston, but Terry Cummings scored the most points of any player with 27, followed by the versatile Buck Paul Pressey with 25.

The University of Utah’s current coach, Larry Krystkowiak, scored 15 points, and Jack Sikma contributed 14 points and nine rebounds. Fred Roberts, a forward backup who was just released from the Celtics, scored four points off the Buck bench.

It was obvious that something was off. It’s true that Boston had faced five excellent teams and had only won once, against the Knicks at home in overtime.

But three of the games had been played at home, where they had already dropped two more games than they had all season (50-1). Moreover, in three of the defeats, the opposition had shot well over 50 percent from the field.

On November 15, 1998, three nights later, the season collapsed.

For the first time ever, Boston was playing at Miami, a brand-new expansion team. The tenacious Heat, led by former Pistons assistant coach Ron Rothstein, defeated Boston 18–16 in the first frame.

As they attempted to capture their first-ever victory as a team, Miami’s starting lineup consisted of newcomer Rony Seikaly from Syracuse at center, Pat Cummings and Sylvester Gray at forward, and Rory Sparrow and Pearl Washington at guard.

Bird received a ball on the fast break during the second quarter and made a transition layup that appeared unremarkable. Nevertheless, he appeared to fall awkwardly and had to leave the game.

Nobody realized he was done for the season—possibly not even the highly sensitive Bird. It was a classic illustration of how the world ended with a whimper rather than a bang, to borrow the words of author T.S. Eliot. Or perhaps Ivan Ilyich from Tolstoy.

The eventual factor that brought Larry down wasn’t a Bad Boy tackle or a Laker takdown, but rather the steady weakening of both Achilles due to persistent usage and strain as well as his stubbornness to give in to agony and sit.

He had two assists, one rebound, and six points in 16 minutes. It would turn out that the layup was his final attempt of the year.

In the last frame, Boston trailed by barely 62–56 without their clear leader. However, the shooting-struggled Heat were limited to just nine points by the Celtics in the fourth quarter. They then went on to win ugly, 84-65, ending their four-game losing streak and sending the Heat to 0-5.

Despite making only four of their twenty attempts from the field, Washington managed to grab 11 rebounds and dish out seven assists during the game. With a pitiful 10 points, Sparrow was the only Miamian in double figures.

With just 17 points, McHale led all scorers, and Parish pulled down 16 rebounds in a final score reminiscent of the punchless NBA offense known as “sluggo ball” in the 1990s.

After the game, there was discussion on Bird’s unusual early departure from the match. He had only missed 27 games throughout the regular season out of a possible 744 games in his first nine plus seasons.

Following his x-rays, the shocking discovery stunned the public and devastated a league that counted on Bird and the Celtics to be contenders to generate large crowds and high viewership. It was discovered that Larry Legend had excruciating bone spurs in both of his Achilles tendon and would need surgery right away.

He had to change his running technique due to years of playing well into June while dealing with a back ailment. Eventually, the pain spread to his feet, causing him to miss time for the first time in his professional career.

Bird had surgery to fix each Achilles, and the results showed that the procedure went well. There was talk that the extraordinary Bird could make a comeback by the end of March. He was Larry Legend, after all.

But as the months passed and Bird sat melancholy on the bench, his walking boots on each foot, it became increasingly clear that he would not be returning anytime soon. He would stiffly stand up and shuffle about during team timeouts,

Recovering from a single Achilles injury was intimidating enough. Numerous careers have been ended by the injury, but both Achilles? The rumors that not even the iron-willed Bird would be able to return grew stronger over time. Fear spread across Beantown, CBS, and the NBA offices.

College football is more enjoyable when Notre Dame is performing well, and NFL football is more engaging when the Dallas Cowboys are playing well. When the Yankees are doing well, baseball becomes more popular. The Celtics are in the similar boat, particularly during the Bird era. It increases attention and TV ratings and makes sports more enjoyable to watch when the glamorous teams that everyone loves to despise are vying for the championship.

Bird was essential to the NBA’s success as the head of the league’s bellwether team, and his predominantly white fan base could relate to him. The NBA, however, began looking around for other big-market stars to build the league around as the decade came to an end and settled on Jordan and Chicago (and, later, to a lesser extent, Shaq, Kobe, and the Lakers) to carry the league in the 1990s and beyond. This was because the league realized that Bird and Johnson would not be around forever.

However, Bird’s injury in 1988–89 was the first to force him to sit and watch for an extended amount of time since his sophomore year of high school, when he was sidelined with a broken foot. Evidently, for a man who required

The Celtics were dying as a result. Without Bird, a club that had averaged more than 60 victories a season between 1980 and 1988 collapsed to a passable 42-40.

Initially, there was talk that Larry would return right before the postseason. Then, there was chatter that Larry Legend would magically make a comeback and take the Celtis to yet another deep playoff run come postseason time.

Bird was expected to return for the second round of the 1989 playoffs provided Boston managed to defeat the top-seeded Pistons. This was the talk when he was sidelined for the opening game of the series against fierce Detroit. The idea that the playoffs would go that spring without the legendary number 33 tearing up the parquet floor simply did not compute for many.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, and the Celtics never felt the same. Naturally, Boston couldn’t defeat the league’s newest powerhouse without Larry.

The Pistons, who would later sweep the Lakers and capture their first NBA title that June, decisively defeated Boston, which had managed to qualify for the playoffs as the eighth and last seed in the East.

After learning how to win via the playoff fights versus the Celtics, Detroit had finally reached the pinnacle (the Bulls would experience a similar learning curve with the Pistons in the years to come).

Bird’s feet did not loosen up at the training camp for the 1989–90 season after a difficult rehabilitation, and he was worried .

However, after experiencing some rough seas, his Achilles began to loosen up and feel better one day during preseason. He went on to have an incredible season. Naturally, unaware of the declining effectiveness of an older Bird, Rodgers attempted to implement an approach that was less reliant on Larry.

Additionally, Larry was subjected to contentious early-season criticism by a teammate who went by the name Jim Paxson. Paxson said that Bird was shooting excessively and “tearing the team apart.” Despite all the obstacles, he managed to triumph and win Comeback Player of the Year with ease.

A focused Bird participated in 75 out of 82 games in 1989–1990, averaging 39.3 minutes per game. He made a league-best 93 percent of his field goal attempts, averaged 24.3 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 7.5 assists per game, and.

Boston had improved by ten games and came within a hair’s breadth of winning the Atlantic Division for only the second time in his ten complete seasons, even though the 34-year-old Bird was back to his excellent but less than MVP form from the mid-1980s.

Despite putting up all-around numbers that 99 percent of the players in league history would have killed for in their prime, let alone during the injury-plagued back end of a career, he was not named to the first team All-NBA for the first time in his career.

Already considered by many to be past his prime, Bird was dropped to the second team all-league, behind younger, more flashy and aggressive forwards Barkley and Karl Malone. It only took a year without Larry to exacerbate the tendency toward flash over substance, which had already begun.

Years later, his once-skeptical teammate Cedric Maxwell became an ardent admirer, saying that Larry was never too concerned with beauty or bling, instead he was all about the game.

At his mother’s house in southern Indiana, he accepted his NBA MVP trophies while sporting bowling clothes and placed the medals on top of his refrigerator. He lived a frugal lifestyle, drove a pickup truck, set screens, dived for loose balls and rebounds, and hardly complained or offered an explanation, unlike a lot of today’s players who receive almost every call, travel, and palm the ball nonstop, expecting to reach the foul line even if they make the initial contact.

As famous official Earl Strom put it, you listened and assumed you had “kicked” or missed the call when Larry Bird did complain about a whistle.

As if the new decade had already begun, the NBA had begun to move past the seemingly unattractive man.

As if a new decade had just begun, the NBA had begun to move past the somewhat unattractive guy who, more than anyone else, had brought the faltering league to unprecedented heights in the legendary, but now late ’80s.

The Celtics lost three straight games in 1990 after blowing a 2-0 lead in their first round best-of-five series against the Knicks. To make matters worse, Bird’s failed reverse slam late in the fourth quarter and Ewing’s desperate three-point shot to seal the upset sealed the game five defeat.

The heartbreaking loss, which marked the first time a Bird team had lost in the opening round, marked the end of the Rodgers era following.

The Celtics defeated Indiana in the opening round of both of his last seasons, but they fell short in a difficult eastern semifinal series. An inaccurate goaltend decision on a McHale tip-in lost Boston a victory in regular, and Detroit defeated the Celts in a memorable game six overtime classic in 1991.

Boston was buried in overtime thanks to an incredible bank three by Isaac Thomas as the shot clock ran out. Boston defeated a youthful, talented Cleveland team led by Brad Daugherty and Mark Price in the Eastern Semifinals of 1992 after winning more than 50 games once more.

After seven games in the series, the Cavaliers won the decisive game at home, forcing Bird to retire following the 1992 Olympics. His meager 12 points in his last NBA game.

Years later, Bird acknowledged that he probably ought to have called it quits in 1989, but he was just too competitive to end his career that way at age 32. Twenty years after Larry Legend’s Achilles rupture in 1992, Boston did not make it past the first round again until 2002, and they did not make it back to the Finals until 2008.

The legendary franchise was also severely damaged by the 1994 deaths of Bias and Reggie Lewis. The third Celtic dynasty came to an end when Walton, Wedman, Bird, and McHale suffered foot problems.

But the Celtic dynasty did not begin to fall apart until the unwavering Bird was ultimately compelled to sit out in excruciating agony. It required.

But in spite of growing older, suffering from a bad back, and having two Achilles repaired—all of which could have ended or severely limited the career of most others—Larry returned to All-Star form, and the Celtics were once again a formidable team when number 33 was on the court. This is a testament to Bird’s true grit and greatness.

Sometimes, like in the pivotal fifth game of the 1991 series against Indiana, he defied the advice of the team doctors and played despite suffering from a broken cheekbone and a bad back, similar to Willis Reed. Despite this, he managed to lead Boston past the Pacers 124-121 and score 32 points.

The thrilling double-OT Sunday afternoon NBC 1992 victory over eventual runner-up Portland, 152-148, was his final great triumph. In the final seconds of regulation, with Boston behind three, Bird made a sprinting, one-footed triple just before the buzzer to send the game into overtime. Larry recorded the highest-scoring (49 point) triple-double in NBA history at the age of 35.

On days like that, he could still rise to the occasion despite all of his bruises and injuries, go back in time, and be the best player overall. He did not play much of the rest of the season, though, as a result of the double overtime classic in Portland.

He took a lot of cheap hits to the back from the Pacers and Blazers in those two games, but he never voiced any complaints. In response, he played his PLAY. He returned and used his shooting ability, excellent passing, strong rebounding, leadership, cunning, and passion to defeat more youthful, determined opponents.

If LeBron James could achieve even half of what Bird did in his mid-30s with a bad back, I’d be shocked. At a comparable age, we have witnessed how much Kobe Bryant has suffered from injuries over the last three years, and he is a better shooter and scorer than LBJ. Even if James is excellent, he doesn’t have Bird’s tenacity or shooting, passing, or rebounding skills.