Bird, Walton, the ’86 Championship and some Wild Turkey

In case you missed Dan Shaughnessy's interview with Larry Bird in Friday's Globe, here's a great story about Bill Walton:

After the Celtics won the 1986
championship, Walton sat alone in Bird’s kitchen drinking Wild Turkey
until after the sun came up.

I told Bird I didn’t believe the Walton story. Simply too good to be true.

“Yeah,
it happened,’’ Bird said. “After we won, me and Dinah went out to K.C.
Jones’s restaurant. He had a rib place. I had two beers. Remember how
we stopped drinking that year?’’ – the ’86 Celtics swore off alcohol
for their playoff run – “Well, I had two beers and they didn’t even
taste good. I was tired, anyway, so I went home an hour later.

“Bill
came over. It was late. Doorbell rang and Dinah answered and she was
like, ‘Hey, Bill. Larry’s in bed.’ I heard him, so I go out and I said,
‘Hey, man I ain’t doing this tonight. I can’t.’ He goes, ‘Don’t worry
about it. I don’t even need you. I’m just going to sit down here at the
table.’ He had a bottle of whiskey. And he said, ‘I’ll be here when you
wake up.’ And he was.

Not sure about you, but I love stories like this one.

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