https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBrc11rTjsQ
Actually, Dennis Rodman started the whole thing by saying that “Larry Bird was overrated because he was white. Then Isiah Thomas jumped on Rodman’s behalf with his famous line “Bird would be just another good guy” if he were black.”
In this video with Bird and Thomas, Isiah more or less walks it back, and says he was just joking.