Another one of those " God - I feel old " reminders - 29 years ago today this happened:
I never saw Larry play, I was too young, I would've been 5 years old at the time. But I actually do remember that day because it was huge news. If I recall correctly we were at a campground and literally everyone was talking about it because of how big a deal it was.
I often wonder if the reason I don't have the same connection to the Celtics and the NBA that I do with the other 3 teams in town is because of the state of all the teams at the moment I started following sports. It was about 94-95 that I became aware of our sports teams. The Patriots were exciting and promising under Parcells and Bledsoe, the Bruins still had Oates/Neely/Bourque, the Sox won a division with Mo Vaughn and Roger Clemens that year, and the Celtics were bland and boring. Even in NBA Jam on my SNES all they had was Dee Brown and Eric Montross. Maybe that lack of excitement imprinted on me early so I don't have the care for them that I do for the Bruins, etc. If I were 3 years older and saw Bird/McHale as my intro to basketball maybe I'd think differently.