The Boston Celtics 2021-22 NBA preseason officially got started with the team’s 98 – 97 win over the Orlando Magic on Monday, but it was a week not unlike this one that a certain Hick From French Lick (as Celtics legend Larry Bird is sometimes called) got in his first preseason game with Boston as well.
Larry Legend of course went on to have quite the career, but on a brisk September day in 1979, the Indiana State product got on the hardwood with the team he would forge a Hall of Fame career with, and while it isn’t much in the way of footage, a snippet of that game remains for our viewing enjoyment.
The clip, dragged out of the vault of CLNS Media’s “NBA History & Legends on CLNS” YouTube channel, is a portion of the newsreel covering that event, pitting Bird against Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Watch the clip embedded above to see those very first (and brief and grainy) images of one of the all-time greats making his debut in the NBA.
This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!
