NBA legend Larry Bird loved to to humiliate rookies and a long list of guys eventually came forth to tell their stories of Bird embarrassing them and thereby introducing them to the NBA’s pecking order.
And naturally, Bird saw himself at the top of that order and went to great lengths to keep himself there.
In Kemp’s case, before the game started, Bird asked him if he was the guy who broke all his high school records and then dunked all over his brother Eddie.
Yes, Kemp confirmed, he did those things.
Then Bird started to do Bird things to him - telling him what he was going to do, shooting left-handed when Kemp attacked his right, even telling him exactly what he was going to do before he did it and then slapping him on the butt after he did it.