The term "Super Team" did not exist until LeBron James and Chris Bosh teamed with Dwyane Wade for the Miami Heat in 2010.
While stacked teams existed in the 1980s, the Boston Celtics almost took it to a new level in 1987. They nearly signed All-Star forward Bernard King. Before going into the story, King offered some insight on his relationship with Celtics great Larry Bird.
"Bird and I never said a word to each other on the court," King said on the Cedric Maxwell podcast. "Never in the entire 10-year period that we played against each other."
At the time, King was coming off a devastating injury with the New York Knicks. He averaged 22.6 points in six games during the 1986-87 season but the Knicks released him because they felt he was done. King averaged 26.3 and 32.9 points the previous two seasons before the injury.
"I established I could still play and I'm healthy," King said. "So now I'm a free agent and I hire [agent] Bob Woolf. In Boston, I got a call from Bob. And he said, `Bernard, the Celtics are interested in signing you. And so I get on the plane, I fly to Boston. I can't believe I'm flying to Boston, right? I meet with Red Auerbach, K.C. Jones and Alan Cohen. Red is sitting there smoking his cigar and says to me, `Bernard, why do you want to play for the Celtics. You know we have a pretty good small forward here.' I said, `I want to win a championship.' That was the end of the meeting."'
The Celtics quickly made an offer. The Washington Bullets then countered with double the money so King "had to take it."
"The first game of that season we played the Celtics," King said. "Remember, we never talked in 10 years. Bird walked by me and he said, `You cost me a championship."'
Bird never won a title the rest of his career.
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