In addition, Bird gave McDaniel the location of the game-winning shot.
Over the years, there have been many skirmishes between Larry Bird and Xavier McDaniel, with the Boston Celtics legend emerging victorious in more of them. But, given his reputation as a ferocious competitor, X-Man was never one to give up easily. Maybe that’s why Bird seemed to enjoy berating him with insults.
McDaniel was recently featured on the podcast “No Nonsense”. He told guests Tim Thomas and Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson a couple stories about Larry, one of which involved how Bird hurt the Seattle SuperSonics by breaking their hearts.
McDaniel stated, “I believe we were up by one or was tied—one of the two.” “I was like, ‘Okay,’ because this dude actually told me where he was going to get the ball. Nice. I will be present. And you can see us arguing and squabbling with one another. “Damn, I didn’t mean to leave nothing on the clock,” he murmured, looking at me after he hit it.
McDaniel was shown who’s boss by Bird.
It appears from McDaniel’s story that the game he was thinking of was the Celtics vs. Sonics game on December 30, 1986. He and Bird traded buckets all night long during the competition.
X, who was only a sophomore at the time, led his team with 25 points. With a last-second basket over McDaniel and a helpful play from Dale Ellis, Bird ended with two more points than his opponent, allowing Boston to win 104–102. The Sonics had a chance to win the game, but they let “Larry Legend” score the game-winning basket even though they knew where the shot would be attempted.
Even though Bird was certain the ball would go through the goal, he slightly misjudged the shot because he most likely wanted to deny McDaniel or any of his teammates a last-second opportunity. As it happened, following Larry’s field goal, there were still two seconds on the clock.
