Under normal circumstances, Larry Bird would have been chilling at home, attending to his bad back in the summer of 1992. Instead, he positively answered a historic invitation and flew to Barcelona, a city over 5,000 miles away. Little did Larry Legend know he would make dreams come true along the way.
According to the Boston Celtics legend, something strange happened in the Tournament of the Americas, which is the equivalent of the FIBA Americas Championship today. Back in ‘92, Team USA had to fight for one of four slots in the tourney to qualify for the Barcelona Olympics.
It was the first time professional basketball athletes were allowed to play in the Olympics. With the U.S. tapping the services of everybody on the Dream Team, the competition was all but a formality. The coaching staff did not see the need for Bird to aggravate his messed-up back, so the three-time NBA champion just watched most of the games from the bench.
An unusual request
Fans often shout and implore coaches to send their favorite players in, but this time around, it wasn’t a paying patron with a strange request.