YouTube Gold: Kevin McHale

Larry Bird is Larry Legend but Kevin McHale isn’t far behind.

Larry Bird was such a dominant figure during his career that he overshadowed some of his teammates. That’s really an accomplishment since he played for most of his career beside Kevin McHale.

Today’s NBA doesn’t value post play like it did in the 1980’s and ‘90’s but there just aren’t many players in NBA history with McHale’s package of skills.

His footwork, his moves, paired with his unbelievably long arms and long frame made him impossible to stop inside.

In this video, various players talk about how difficult he was to deal with. Charles Barkley calls him the best player he ever had to guard and said he would lose sleep before playing the Boston Celtics.

What’s really amazing is how Red Auerbach put that team together: he drafted Bird when he was still in college (you can’t do that anymore) and then traded the #1 pick in the 1980 draft to Golden State for Robert Parish and the #3 pick, which they used to pick McHale.

The Warriors pick? Joe Barry Carroll, who was also known as Joe Barely Cares.

There was a reason why the league, collectively, couldn’t stand Auerbach: he ate their lunch for decades. The McHale/Parish move is right up there with getting Bill Russell for Easy Ed McCauley and Cliff Hagan.