Indiana State Athletics (DR)
A true scientist of the orange ball, Larry Bird is particularly good at unearthing talent. While still playing in the league, the Celtics winger notably revealed that the best basketball player on the planet was playing in the NCAA… and the sequel proved him right!
Some current players are often compared to him, including stars like Luka Doncic and LeBron James. But in fact, Larry Bord remains to this day still a unique figure in the history of the NBA. Because the Boston icon was not only a fabulous basketball player, the expression “to understand everything about the game” literally takes on its full meaning with him.
After having already been triple consecutive MVP, double MVP of the Finals and having won three champion rings on the floors, the Hall of Famer has experienced a crazy conversion. On the side of the Pacers of his native state of Indiana, he thus became Coach of the Year and Manager of the Year in 1998 and 2012, respectively. If that isn’t ultimate proof of the guy’s insane basketball IQ…
As a result, Larry Legend knew how to recognize talent when he saw it and that was also confirmed in 1989. During an exchange with Reggie Miller, he announced that the future face of the league after his retirement was a player NCAA well known to fans:
I think that Shaquille O’Neal is the best player in the world. Once he gets to the pro level, he’s going to smash everything.
Larry Bird’s 1989 Shaq 5-Star Prediction
Decades later, we can only validate the prediction of n°33 as it turned out to be correct. After all, we are talking about the most physically dominant player in the modern era of basketball. What’s crazy is that when the Bostonian spoke about Shaqfu, the latter had just started his college career at LSU. But it didn’t take long to make a name for himself!
In three seasons with the Tigers, the four-time NBA champion has averaged more than 21 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks, including a mind-blowing sophomore campaign with 27.6 points, 14.7 shots and 5 blocked shots per game. But beyond the numbers, it was this overpower that he displayed on the ground that had convinced the Magic scouts in particular, before his draft with the first pick in 1992. The rest, we know it.
Shaq was a man amongst boys at LSU. Dominance. pic.twitter.com/r172sxSZ1r
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) April 1, 2019
Even though Shaquille O’Neal was still playing at university, Larry Bird had a good nose when he announced that the Big Diesel was going to smash everything once at the professional level. Even today, the pivot is considered one of the players most dominant in history.
