Warriors coach Steve Kerr and KNBR’s Tom Tolbert broke into their Larry Bird stories during Kerr’s weekly appearance on the Tolbert and Lund show Friday afternoon.
Kerr said he first encountered Bird in his second year in the league with the Cleveland Cavaliers. And Kerr remembered he got a rare start against Boston and Larry Legend.
Bird casually looked at Kerr and said, “Hey Steve.”
Kerr said he was floored that Bird knew who he was and he couldn’t contain it.
“You know my name,” Kerr gushed. “Hey guys, Larry Bird knows my name! (at the 21:57 mark of the interview)”
Of course, Tolbert, who had an NBA career as a backup couldn’t resist his own Bird story.
On a night when the Warriors played Boston, during a jump ball Bird looked at Tolbert and then looked away, then looked back at Tolbert. Finally Bird said to Chris Mullen, “Are you guys going to guard me with a white guy?”
Tolbert, always with a quick wit, said, “I told Larry, ‘Hey easy, I’m trying to make a living here, OK? (21:42).”
The discussion did turn to basketball, and the Warriors lost to Eastern Conference-leading Boston Wednesday at the Garden. Kerr said with the Celtics, a team has to be poised and concentrate on the small details like boxing out. Lund also asked about the Warriors squandering a 17-point lead, which is the third time this season they’ve blown a big lead to lose.
In doing that against the Nuggets earlier this year, Denver coach Mike Malone was quoted as saying that the Warriors “will let you back in.”
“It’s a lack of focus and execution and some of that is the mental fatigue of going through this the last few years, and maybe we’re not quite as hungry as we need to be,” Kerr said. “The biggest thing is not letting that snow ball and not let that become your identity. It does say something that coaches around the league are saying something like that (8:30).”
The Warriors are back on the court Saturday night in Philadelphia.