{"id":1908752,"date":"2023-04-02T06:42:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T10:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/isaiah-thomas-says-larry-bird-felt-disrespected-pistons-used-white-players-to-guard-him\/"},"modified":"2023-04-02T06:45:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T10:45:46","slug":"isaiah-thomas-says-larry-bird-felt-disrespected-pistons-used-white-players-to-guard-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/isaiah-thomas-says-larry-bird-felt-disrespected-pistons-used-white-players-to-guard-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah Thomas Says Larry Bird Felt Disrespected Pistons Used White Players to Guard Him"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fisaiah-thomas-says-larry-bird-felt-disrespected-pistons-used-white-players-to-guard-him%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1908752&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<div id=\"primary\" role=\"main\">\n<article id=\"post-542431\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Article\">\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<div id=\"jw\">\n<h2><span>Videos by OutKick<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"outki-9291c63f02e7df698dd6957a22ecabf5\">\n<h2><span>Videos by OutKick<\/span><\/h2>\n<div id=\"botr_HYH6RvlJ_bl37PYGe_div\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"Video Player\" role=\"application\" aria-describedby=\"jw-botr_HYH6RvlJ_bl37PYGe_div-shortcuts-tooltip-explanation\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>Don&#8217;t @ Me: Kia&#8217;s Are Safe Baby!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span aria-live=\"assertive\">0 seconds of 2 minutes, 5 seconds<\/span><span aria-live=\"assertive\">Volume 0%<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Pistons&#8217; choice to allocate white players to guard Larry Bird during NBA games was a show of disrespect, according to fellow NBA legend Isaiah Thomas, who revealed this on &#8220;All The Smoke&#8221;. Bird, formerly of the Boston Celtics, dominated the NBA for over a decade without opposition, thus resulting in multiple debates over whether or not he is the best white player in the history of the league. Bird was silky smooth and carved up defenses easily en route to clinching three titles.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Larry Bird was insulted by white guys guarding him. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein\/NBAE via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"h-larry-bird-wanted-to-be-guarded-by-black-opponents\">Larry Bird preferred to be guarded by black opponents.<\/h2>\n<p>Bird was not impressed by Detroit Pistons&#8217; use of an all-white front court against him. He saw it as an insult to his talent. \u201cHe said, \u2018Hey man, you can\u2019t put no white dude on me. That is straight disrespect. Don\u2019t put no white dude on me.\u2019 So, check this out. The next year we come back, and I said, \u2018We got somebody for your ass.\u2019 He said, \u2018Who you got?\u2019 I said, \u2018Rodman,\u201d Thomas explained as he fought back laughter.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@shobasketball\/video\/7216373046934768938\" data-video-id=\"7216373046934768938\" data-embed-from=\"oembed\" id=\"v73856229805482620\"><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>The legend of Bird continues to grow.<\/h2>\n<p>The fact that Bird was insulted if he wasn&#8217;t guarded by black players can be considered amusing, but not surprising. Bird was known to be a gutsy, in-your-face kind of player. He was not the kind of player one could easily subdue. Larry Bird was unstoppable for most of his career and possibly the best American-born white player in NBA history. Jerry West or Pete Maravich could also be part of the conversation, but Bird&#8217;s three championship rings made him a distinguished NBA legend. He, along with Magic Johnson, was one of the leading faces of the NBA for a long time. And it appears you had better have some \u201cbrothers\u201d (Isaiah Thomas\u2019 words) to guard him, or he wasn&#8217;t going to be satisfied.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Larry Bird viewed being guarded by white players as a sign of disrespect. (Photo by Dick Raphael\/NBAE via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For those curious about how fiercely Bird played against the Pistons, in his career, he played Detroit 53 times, averaging 25 points per game and 10.3 rebounds. Whether white or black players were guarding him, it seemed that it didn&#8217;t matter; he always tore up Detroit. He did much better against the Pistons than he did against the average NBA team. Perhaps Bird&#8217;s comments to Thomas had some truth in them. <\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Larry Bird didn&#8217;t like being guarded by white players. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein\/NBAE via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Now, we can look back at Bird\u2019s comments and laugh. Nowadays, if a player made any comment about race, the NBA would be set ablaze. Fortunately, it was a simpler time when Bird dominated the NBA and clinched championships.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/tag\/boston-celtics\/\">Boston Celtics<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/tag\/detroit-pistons\/\">Detroit Pistons<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/tag\/isaiah-thomas\/\">Isaiah Thomas<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/tag\/larry-bird\/\">Larry Bird<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\n<figure>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/author\/david-hookstead\/\"> <\/a><br \/>\n            <\/figure>\n<header>\n<h2>Written by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/author\/david-hookstead\/\"><span itemprop=\"name\">David Hookstead<\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<div itemprop=\"description\">\n<p>David Hookstead reports for OutKick and covers a wide range of topics with a focus on football and culture.<\/p>\n<p>He also hosts the podcast <i>American Joyride<\/i> which is available on OutKick, where he interviews American heroes and tells their unique stories. Before joining OutKick, Hookstead worked for the Daily Caller for seven years covering similar topics. <\/p>\n<p>Hookstead is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>        <meta itemprop=\"mainEntityOfPage\" content=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/larry-bird-felt-disrespected-pistons-used-white-players-to-guard-him\/\"> <\/p>\n<p>        <span itemprop=\"publisher\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Organization\"><br \/>\n            <meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"OutKick\"><br \/>\n            <meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\"><br \/>\n            <span itemprop=\"logo\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><br \/>\n                <meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/7-1.png\"><br \/>\n            <\/span><br \/>\n        <\/span> <\/p>\n<p>        <span itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><br \/>\n            <meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Larry-Bird.jpg\"><br \/>\n            <meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"1200\"><br \/>\n            <meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"677\"><br \/>\n        <\/span><br \/>\n    <\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Videos by OutKick Videos by OutKick Don&#8217;t @ Me: Kia&#8217;s Are Safe Baby!0 seconds of 2 minutes, 5 secondsVolume 0% Larry Bird wasn\u2019t a fan of the Detroit Pistons using white guys to lock him up. Bird was a dominant player for more than a decade in the NBA, and plenty of guys have debated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1908753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[7173,23370,4570,23369,4794,10822,9502,10215,3765],"class_list":["post-1908752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bird","tag-disrespected","tag-guard","tag-isaiah","tag-larry","tag-pistons","tag-players","tag-thomas","tag-white"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1908752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1908753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1908752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1908752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1908752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}