Anniversary of Larry Bird’s Famous Steal Against Detroit

Larry Legend aka Larry Bird was a part of some iconic moments in NBA history. Arguably, on this date in 1987 was one of his most famous plays and one of the best for Boston Celtics fans. The then-Celtics Big 3 (Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish) were battling the Detroit Piston in a tough Eastern Conference Finals. Many felt it was a changing of the guard as the older Celtics seemed to be having trouble with the rough and younger Detroit team.

The series was tied 2-2 and Boston was down by 1 on their home court with second left. The crowd felt the game slipping away as all Detroit had to do was throw in the ball and get fouled by the Celtics to finish off the game. But Bird was always a gamer and didn’t give up. Laced up in his signature Converse Weapons in black and white, just by natural reaction and intuition he was able to steal the inbound pass by Isaiah Thomas. In the split second he had the ball he passed to Dennis Johnson for an unbelievable layup that lead the Celtics to take a 108-107 victory. They would eventually win the series in Game 7 and face the Lakers in the NBA Finals. The 1987 Finals visit was the team’s last visit to the big dance until 2008.