Larry Bird vs. Dominique Wilkins duel

NBA.com releases oral history of famous Boston Celtics-Atlanta Hawks game on 25-year anniversary

NBA.com released an oral history of the legendary Game 7 duel between Larry Bird-Dominique Wilkins in the 1988 NBA playoffs on Wednesday, the 25-year anniversary of the contest.

The game still resonates so many years later mostly because of fourth-quarter heroics from Bird and Wilkins. The former finished with 34 points, including 20 in the fourth quarter, to help Boston stave off a stiff effort from Atlanta, 118-116. Wilkins had 47 points, but was outproduced down the stretch (a description that seems unfair, given how brilliant he was) with "only" 14 points in the final period.

With players, reporters, coaches and media directors rehashing the game, the entire oral history is definitely worth a read. Some highlights are listed below, including some especially interesting bits about Doc Rivers, who played for the Hawks at the time but has obviously become quite a successful head coach with the Celtics.

According to then-Hawks player Scott Hastings, a group of players that included Rivers once lit a man's Celtics jersey on fire inside a bar. The story needs a little more background, of course, since blazing a man's clothing without his permission isn't exactly legal.

Hastings said that during one trip to a bar, he, Rivers and teammate Tree Rollins encountered somebody wearing a Celtics jersey, who said they could burn the jersey if Atlanta ever beat Boston. So after a regular season win against the Celtics, the trio of Hawks "went straight to that bar, ordered a pitcher of beer, got that shirt out, put some lighter fluid on it and torched that sucker right in the middle of the bar."

It's weird to think of Rivers hating the Celtics, but I imagine that wasn't the last time he felt tempted to burn a Boston jersey. After all, he did coach Mark Blount.

Another sign that Boston fans are awesome (or crazy, or crazily awesome): When the Hawks landed in Boston for Game 7, after blowing a chance to end the series at home in Game 6, Rivers had to wait for his bags at the airport. While doing so, he said, a woman that he estimated at 80 years old looked at him and asked a question: "Hey Rivers, thought you wouldn’t be here, didn’t you?"

A couple strange things happened to the Hawks on the day of Game 7. First, said Rivers, none of the players received their room service after ordering at the hotel. Rivers said he ate some chips on the bus to the game. "We were all scrambling just to get something to eat," he said.

Next, said Rivers, Atlanta's locker room at the old Boston Garden was missing a chalk board. Apparently coach Mike Fratello wasn't pleased, screaming in the hallway about the injustice.

Of course, the Hawks blamed every odd occurrence on then-Celtics president Red Auerbach.

"Red Auerbach was the ultimate competitor," said Steve Holman, the Hawks radio play-by-play voice. "Sometimes the board was there in the locker room but the chalk wasn’t, or sometimes the chalk was there but not the board. Those were all little things. I remember us getting a ticket on the bus one time. They pulled us over on Storrow Drive. That was always said to be one of the things they’d do to delay teams from getting to the arena. Sometimes the bus driver would pretend to get lost, take the wrong turn going around the North End to get to the Garden."

Wilkins remembers the moment when Bird decided to get hot. Normal people can't suddenly choose when to make a slew of shots bunched tightly together, but Wilkins seems to believe Bird could -- and that he was motivated by a specific interaction between two Hawks.

Remember, Bird only scored 14 points in the first three quarters. Though the Celtics entered the fourth quarter ahead 84-82, he had been relatively quiet. Even so, when Wilkins heard teammate Kevin Willis say not to "let that son of a gun score anymore, man," he immediately feared an impending outburst.

"I’m like what are you doing?" Wilkins said. "Bird’s eyes got like this big. I knew it was going to be on then. It just woke him up. That’s where the great shootout began."

Bird's understated description of his 20-point fourth-quarter didn't mention Willis.

The Celtics legend said, "In the fourth quarter I got hot, made some plays, made some shots."

Enough plays and shots for people to still remember it in great detail 25 years later, he declined to mention.

Yes, in case you were wondering. Yes, Danny Ainge, who played for that Celtics team, has reminded Rivers of the game. During one of the recent playoff series between the Celtics and Hawks, said Rivers, Ainge actually brought out the box score. That wasn't entirely bad for Rivers, who actually notched 16 points and 18 assists in the loss (but said he actually remembered playing poorly, focusing on the mistakes instead of his many contributions).

Still, Ainge probably wasn't just showing Rivers the box score to remind him of his terrific stat line.

"It’s always fun when you can look back and you win," Ainge said. "The best part of winning is you have the bragging rights."

Fine. You got me. I know I mentioned Bird's understated description of his performance earlier. And that was true. But he also added another line laced in bravado.

"I know I felt one thing, after that game: It was the best one I ever played," Bird said. "I said, whoa I can play."