Dan Shaughnessy on what it was like to cover Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics in the eighties

In today’s NBA, there are countless media outlets to follow each team, and the number of full-time beat writers has never been greater. Oddly, the level of access for such reporters, while broader than ever, is also much less in-depth than it once was.

The level of access available to team reporters has been compared to the last era of dominance of the Boston Celtics prior to their last title is comparatively shallow, with most of us forced to rely on the access we can get. But during that era, the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy covered the team in the 1980s featuring Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish, he would fly with the team — and drink with them after games.

You can imagine how these kinds of experiences flavor the reporter’s workday in a very different manner than they do today, with the press — and Shaughnessy — having plenty of Bird’s-eye views (pun intended) to the peak of Larry Legend’s powers.

Watch the video embedded above to hear NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg talk turkey with Shaughnessy on what it was like to cover Boston in those days (and which such tales made into print in his book detailing that moment in Celtics sports history).

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ