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NBA.com takes a look back at the top moments that define the history of the NBA.

Few players ever have had an instinct for the game of basketball to match that of Larry Bird, and rarely was that instinct better reflected than in a play he made during the opening game of the 1981 Finals between the Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets.

The upstart Rockets, led by Moses Malone, led 57-51 at halftime and the game was still close in the fourth quarter when Bird sank what Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach called “the one best shot I’ve ever seen a player make.”

Bird lofted an 18-foot jumper from the right side, and as soon as it left his hands he knew it would miss. Anticipating it would bounce off the rim to the right, Bird raced into position to grab the rebound before the ball ever reached the basket, and was in just the right spot when the ball caromed toward the right baseline.

He grabbed the rebound in midair and, with his momentum about to take him behind the backboard and out of bounds, switched the ball into his left hand for a beautiful finger roll. Boston Garden erupted in cheers and the Celtics went on to win 98-95, and the championship in six games.

“That is the greatest play I’ve ever seen. Larry Bird is a player of destiny,” said Auerbach.