"My heart was pounding so fast I thought I was having a heart attack" - Larry Bird on why Finals against Houston was the most intense series of his career
"My heart was pounding so fast I thought I was having a heart attack" - Larry Bird on why Finals against Houston was the most intense series of his career originally appeared on Basketball Network.
The Boston Celtics arrived at the 1986 NBA Finals like a freight train at full speed. It was their third consecutive appearance on basketball's biggest stage. And for a team that had made a habit of facing the familiar purple and gold of the Los Angeles Lakers, this time, the landscape looked different.
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Awaiting them were the towering Houston Rockets — younger, less decorated and arguably less predictable. And that unfamiliarity, as Larry Bird would later admit, made all the difference.
An intense series between the Rockets and the Lakers
Bird had already played Magic Johnson two times in the Finals by then but the 1986 matchup was something else entirely. Johnson was a known quantity, both a nemesis and a mirror. But Houston was anxiety-inducing and intense.
"I never quite had a feeling like that in my life," Bird said, looking back at the 1986 Finals. "I was so pumped up for that game that I think I hit my max right there because I never was fired up for a game like that. I get fired up for every game but I didn't play that well, but I know one thing, I came to play that day."
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"And I'll never forget that walking off that court. My heart was pounding so fast I thought I was having a heart attack."
Houston wasn't just another stop on Boston's road to dominance. It was the kind of wild card that threw off rhythms and made seasoned champions uncomfortable. Powered by their "twin towers" — the agile, 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson and the quietly menacing rookie Hakeem Olajuwon — the Rockets carried an unpredictable brand of basketball that lacked the polish of the Lakers but compensated with sheer raw energy.
They had shocked the reigning Western Conference champion Lakers in five games and right then, Bird and the Celtics knew they were in for a showdown in the finals series. Boston had racked up 67 regular-season wins and an undefeated home record in the playoffs, but Houston's frontcourt length had become a national talking point.
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In Game 1 at the Boston Garden, the Celtics overwhelmed the Rockets 112–100 and Bird posted a modest 21 points, eight assists and six rebounds. But even in victory, the unease lingered. Boston had seen nothing like this.
The Finals stretched to six games and it wasn't always comfortable. The Celtics won the first two games at home, but Houston's youth reared up in Game 3.
The Rockets pulled off a 106–104 win, and suddenly the narrative shifted — slightly. Boston would take Game 4 behind Bird's near triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists, but Game 5 brought the infamous ejection of Sampson after his fight with Jerry Sichting — a flashpoint that underscored the physicality of the series.
Related: "We only needed one more guy" - Patrick Beverley says the Clippers lost SGA because Kawhi thought he needed more help
Bird reaching max
By the time Game 6 returned to Boston, the Rockets looked rattled and the Celtics sensed blood. Bird delivered a commanding 29-point performance along with 11 rebounds and 12 assists — his second career Finals triple-double, helping the Celtics clinch a 114–97 victory — to give Boston its 16th NBA title.
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Still, for Bird, the win came with a strange sense of closure and a quiet inner challenge.
"I've never reached that milestone again, which I loved, but I never got there again," Bird said. "Which is why I kept wanting to win the next championship to see if I was going to reach that max."
He won the MVP award both for the Finals and for the regular season that year but the emotional summit, a state of competitive transcendence, was what he loved about that finals. That would be his last championship success.
In the seasons that followed, Bird's health began to deteriorate. The back issues, which would plague him into the early '90s, started becoming noticeable shortly after that championship run.
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He missed significant time in the 1988–89 season and played in chronic pain as his career wound down. Even then, his production remained impressive averaging over 19 points per game in his final season in 1991–92 but the edge had dulled. The feeling he described in 1986, that fire and that heartbeat skipping euphoria never returned.
Related: "Larry came up to Magic before the game and said, 'Sit back, I'm going to put on a show tonight'" - Magic Johnson's agent told a ruthless Larry Bird trash talk story
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 26, 2025, where it first appeared.
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