As arguably the greatest Boston Celtic of all time, Larry Bird's legacy speaks for itself.
Bird was the face of the franchise in the 1980s when he led the C's to NBA titles in '81, '84, and '86. In that '86 championship season, fellow basketball great Bill Walton got to witness Bird's greatness up close and personal.
Although it was Walton's only full season in Boston, the former Celtics center still got the full Larry Bird experience. He told Brian Scalabrine all about it in NBC Sports Boston's Classic Celtics special highlighting the 1986 Finals clincher.
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"Larry did not want halftime. Larry did not want timeouts. Larry did not want days off in-between the games," Walton told Scal. "He wanted seven straight days of basketball and the first team to win four, that's fine. He was not into waiting around.
"He was certainly not into waiting around for any of his teammates. He was not waiting around for the coach. Not waiting around for the television schedule. Larry, he was ready to play and ready to deliver. And did he ever. The way his brain -- just super smart, his analytical ability to figure out what was going to work, when it was going to work, how it was going to work.
"And then the fact that his body was able to just keep carrying how much he worked at being great, how much he worked at having his level of physical because, you know, he had other guys who could do the job, but he made the commitment and the determination, you know, 'I'm going to give my life, I'm going to give my body to the Boston Celtics. And we're going to do everything we can to get it done each and every day."
Watch below:
You can catch NBC Sports Boston's re-airing of the Celtics' 1986 Finals clincher Friday night at 7 p.m. ET. Walton will join Brian Scalabrine throughout the night to provide color commentary.
For upcoming games on the Classic Celtics schedule, click here.
