Why Larry Bird Shot Better With Goggles He Hated | The 1988 Tapes 📼

Another entry from the CLNS archive vault — March 15, 1988, Market Square Arena, and Larry Bird is playing with a fractured orbital bone and a pair of goggles he couldn't stand.

Nine days earlier, a Dell Curry elbow broke the bone under Bird's left eye. He finished that game seeing two rims. Three nights later he showed up in goggles and scored 36 on the Spurs. This is the fourth and final goggles game — 34 points, 12-of-22, zero fouls, against a Pacers team with a 22-year-old rookie named Reggie Miller who set a franchise rookie 3-point record that night.

Bird played four games in the goggles and shot 55% from the floor. In his first game without them, he went 8-for-19 while Michael Jordan scored 50.

The full WLVI TV-56 broadcast — Bob Cousy on the call, the rim-simulation graphic, the Ainge and Miller record nights, and the first Celtics season sweep of Indiana.

Sources: Basketball-Reference box scores; Bob Ryan, "Larry Bird and the Goggles."

🍀 Jordan vs. Bird: 1988 Duel No One Remembers | The 1988 Tapes 📼 — https://youtu.be/Q8KhpBoPPFY

🍀 Every Larry Bird & Michael Jordan Shot From THIS Forgotten Duel | 1988 Tapes — https://youtu.be/vq-uvYVKxWU

CHAPTERS

0:00 Cold Open: Goggle Graphic

0:18 The 1988 Goggle Game

1:32 The Dell Curry Elbow

3:23 36 Points vs Spurs