4X NBA Champion Hints at Conspiracy Behind Iconic Larry Bird Play in 1987: ?That Has to Be Something Outside of Us?

In a recent podcast, Club Shay Shay, four-time NBA champion John Salley discussed his two cents on the conspiracy theories about the Los Angeles Lakers and Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics. He chuckled as he narrated an example. He talked about the iconic game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference finals between the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons. John Salley firmly believed that there was no precedent to that final play in history.

After four games, the series was tied 2-2. The Pistons were on the verge of winning game 5 and taking a 3-2 lead with only a few seconds left in regulation.

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Larry Bird’s layup attempt was blocked, and the ball went out-of-bounds giving possession to the Pistons. All the Pistons had to do was inbound the ball and keep it for a few seconds for the time to run out.

John Salley about the iconic play of Larry Bird

Talking about the iconic play, Salley said, “We are all in shock, we got them beat. And Isiah looking, we are all looking and he grabs the ball to take it out. Out of nowhere, Larry Bird accepts the ball and throws it to DJ.”

Dennis Johnson made the game-winning shot, and the Celtics won the game with a scoreline of 108-107. The Celtics went on to win the series as well.

“There’s no way in history could that two have happened in that sequence. I was like, ‘That has to be something outside of us.’,” Salley recalled.

Salley added that Thomas could have been trying to pass the ball to Bill Laimbeer. But Salley claimed that in a usual setup, Thomas as a guard wouldn’t have gone to take the outbound pass. It was a plot “twist” during the game. Because that ultimately resulted in Larry Bird stealing the ball, and winning the game to an unbelievable victory.

Bird has been widely lauded for his basketball IQ which was evident from the way he anticipated the pass. He jumped in front of Laimbeer and stole the ball. With few seconds left on the clock, he swiftly passed the ball to Dennis Johnson who finished the play.

Former Pistons player Rick Mahorn once?recalled the play and shared his curiosity about why Isiah Thomas took the ball out. He wondered why Thomas would do such a thing when it was not his job to do so. “He ran and had a brain fart,”?claimed Mahorn.

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In an interview with Open Court, Isiah Thomas spoke about the play and confessed it taught him a lot. However, Bird confessed that he was simply trying to foul Laimbeer.