LEGEND: The Complete Story of Larry Bird | Documentary

LEGEND: The Complete Story of Larry Bird | Documentary

[Music] Indiana State Larry Bird. When I played, Larry Bird was the only one I feared. A lot of black guys always ask me, could Larry Bird really play that good? I said, man, Larry Bird was so good. It’s is frightening. Double team bird. Larry face away. And this is a bird. And it goes Larry used to come in the locker room. He’d be getting his ankles taped and he’d say, you know, “Hey, ball boy, run in and go find the scoring record in this building. Take that, Larry Bird, as they say.” Larry told all of us players and the media, too. I the last game of the trip, I’m going to play this one left-handed. Larry was the originator of getting in your face and talking traps. He backed up whatever he said. If he tell you gonna hit a shot in certain plays or if he gonna take you down to the post, turn around, hit a fadeaway Jay, he going to do just that. Ain’t nothing you can do about it. A magnificent play by Bird. I get a charge when I’m tell someone on the opponent team that I’m going to hit the last second shot and then do it. That’s what it’s all about. He said, “I’m going to get it right here. I’m going shoot it right in your face.” Five. And Bird has the basketball. Look out. Larry Bird just phenomenal the way that he came out went right about that ex exact spot and shot a shot right in my face and you know he was like I didn’t need to leave two seconds on the clock and Frank is coaching and Larry say hey Frank don’t you have anybody on that bench can guard me he goes nobody out here can’t Frank looked out the bench and goss his own shot my teammates knew at the end of the game if it was close I was going to take the Max looking looking loops it to bird a runner. It’s good. It’s good. And the win. It was a cold blooded killer in the last 24 seconds. He would demand the basketball. Got a job. And it’s a great field goal. He was a basketball genius. He’d be a step ahead. Uh a thought ahead. Uh play the game like a chess game. Bird along the baseline underneath to Maxwell. Like he’s a maestro. He’s conducting out there. He’s a puppeteer. I’d much rather guard Michael Jordan than Larry Bird because you have to play the game as a thinker when you play and you have to get inside his mind. Bird takes the shot and Larry Bird said that there will be another Larry Bird one day. and Larry. There will never ever be another Larry Bird. Larry Joe Bird was born in West Ben, Indiana, but everyone knows him as the hick from French Lake. Rural Indiana was simple. a quiet slice of America filled with hardworking people who did what they needed to to get by. But just like the humble work ethic that gets passed down from one generation to the next, there’s another natural gene that’s passed down in Indiana. Basketball. It’s what forms community in Indiana. It’s a culture of basketball. It’s rural. It’s doing nothing all day long but shooting jump shots so that they are great pure shooters. I remember Larry telling me how he had waxed the net because the net would last longer that way. Everybody in my my town had the same things. It seemed like uh nothing. So all we did was play sports. Larry’s mother did what she could to provide, working long hours in a local diner. and his father worked construction but was unable to keep a job for long due to a longstanding struggle with alcohol. He loved his father. His father had was a flawed man. His father was an alcoholic. His father was a laborer who had skills that were uh that he he could only bring to bear when he was sober enough to work. I didn’t know that people made millions of dollars. I didn’t know that everybody had a family car. I was in my own cocoon. I was in a small town with the people I knew and I thought I’d live there for the rest of my life. He grew up in one of the most simplistic ways imaginable. Uh his family didn’t have a phone till he was a teenager. The birds routinely moved to different rented house to different rented house, none of which were ever big enough to accommodate everybody. Really the essence of Larry to me is his mother who would get up at 3:30 in the morning and go work at a diner in the morning and then come back as the kids were getting ready for school, get them off to school and then trudge off to her next job because they didn’t have a car. I think it’s as you mature, you start to to respect all that. As growing up, you don’t realize that you don’t have anything because you never had it in the first place. But um you know making some money and looking back I remember all of it and I don’t want to be like that again. Bird’s saving grace would come on the cracked concrete courts behind the town’s high school gym. All he had was an old leather ball and rusty rims. But this is where Larry fell in love with the game of basketball. Away from the struggles at home, Bird chased perfection on the empty court, trading the struggle of life for the rhythm of a jump shot. We didn’t have a lot when we grew up and uh basketball when it came into my life, that’s all I did. By the time Larry enrolled at Springs Valley High School, Bird had followed the steps of his brothers, staying true to his Indiana roots by trying out for the basketball team. You know, at school, everybody tell me my my bigger brother was a great player and they can’t wait to grow up and and try to be like him. And you can see he was proud of of how he he played on a certain night and and I sort of won the same feeling. He was just an average basketball player at that time. Uh but there used to be a basketball court halfway up the hill and you would always I I can remember seeing him down there shooting at that basketball in the rain, you know, out there shooting a basketball in the rain and just practicing by himself. had a couple friends I played with a lot, but I was picking up on things that I I thought that that were um relative simple moves that they had a hard time with, and that’s when things started clicking a little bit for me. Although his freshman season would be spent on the bench, during his sophomore year, Bird would learn a life lesson that would inspire one of the greatest work ethics the game has ever seen. Following the ankle injury his sophomore year, Larry would be forced to miss a large portion of the season. However, one day, Bird recalls his father coming home from work and needing help taking off his work boot. Underneath was a black and blue ankle that looked severe. We don’t know if he broke it or he just heard it, but had lost swelling in his ankle and couldn’t get his boot on. We had to help him get his boot on, go to work. So, you know, to me it been very easy to just say heck with it. But he knew he had to go. So, he we helped him get it on there and he went to work. This lesson taught a young Larry what it meant to work through any circumstance. And immediately, Bird was out shooting in his driveway on his crutches. Well, my confidence came from me shooting basketball by myself for hours upon hours. I mean it’s not I didn’t pick up a ball on a Saturday and decide I was going to score 40 a game. I mean that that preparation came way before that. So I played a lot of basketball in my life and did a lot of shooting from every angle from every position. U then once I grew you know be 69 the game become a lot easier. It was just like I don’t know magic one and touched him or or miracle happened because uh we never seen him play like that. I was playing one time and they was growing up standing around and I was playing really well and they were really excited about it. And once I seen the impact I was making just with a few people standing there, I started playing more and more and started develop my skills and and really take my game to another level. Citing the hours of work he had put in his preparation, Larry would average over 30 points and nearly 20 rebounds his senior year with word quickly spreading about this kid from French Lake. Still, most colleges didn’t know what to make of Larry. He was tall but thin with slow feet. And being from the middle of nowhere, many schools had never even heard of him. Enter the legendary Bob Knight, head coach of the Indiana Hooers. It was every Indiana kid’s dream to wear the red and white, and Larry was no different, signing to play at Indiana in the fall of 1974. The next two years would be the most successful in the storied program’s history, as the Hooers would lose only one game and capture a national championship. Only one thing was missing. Larry Bird. Just 24 days after enrolling in Bloomington, Larry had already packed his bags and hitchhiked home to French Lake. Coming from a town that had around 2,000. And going somewhere where they had over 30,000, right away I sensed that I I was in the wrong environment. And you know, you can just see the two closets in this little dormatory room and one kid’s got this rack of fine nice clothes and Larry Bird’s got nothing but a couple of pairs of jeans. I think that the size of the school and not really having, you know, that many friends there and uh not having a lot or coming from a lot, I think he just got a little discouraged and a little depressed and bailed out without really consulting anyone. I don’t think he was really ready to go to school. and I wasn’t as attuned to what his needs uh were as a kid as I should have been. We passed Coach Knight going to a bookstore at IU and Larry acknowledged, you know, so I I said, “Hi, Coach Knight.” And he just kept walking and it really hurt Larry’s feelings. Plus, I didn’t have the funds and the clothing and and things I I thought I needed to to get me through. I made my mind up that I couldn’t survive there and it was time to go. Upon returning home, Larry would begin working for the city, collecting garbage, mowing lawns, and disappearing from the basketball radar. You know, some days we picked up trash once a week. The next days we might be um cleaning the streets. And the guys I was working with were great guys. I I I knew them all my life, and I’m I’m still grateful that they gave me the job. Just months later, an 18-year-old bird would experience rock bottom when his father tragically took his own life. His father cared very much for his family. Certainly, there was talk in town that he had trouble taking home that paycheck and he would often stop at the bar and not quite make it home. And he killed himself. Larry believes, and I think most of the family believes, so the family could have the insurance money. They had a lot of financial problems. And I think Larry’s dad at that point thought they were better off without him than with him. Larry’s hard to figure out cuz he doesn’t really show emotions. I’m sure he had a lot of pain. He just holds it inside. It definitely was a tough year. There’s no question about that. But the one thing that I did was um make a decision where I was going to make my own decisions from that point on. And if it was good decisions, that’s great. If there’s bad decisions, I had to live with them. There’s nothing you do about something like that. I mean, he he chose the way he wanted to die and he he did it. And uh it’s just unfortunately that some people have problems like that, but you know, I I wish he was here, but he’s not. So, I had to go on with my life and try to make the most of my life. Once again, basketball served as an escape for Larry. He never stopped playing, even suiting up with Hancock Construction Company in local adult league tournaments in the area. Most days you could find him behind the French Lick Springs Resort shooting hoops with the kitchen staff until one day someone was watching. His mother ran me off the first time I knocked on the door. She didn’t said that Larry had seen all the coaches that he wanted to see and he wasn’t going back to school and she just wish people quit bothering him. Hidden in the bushes near the court was Bill Hodes, a college assistant coach from Armstrong State in Georgia. An Indiana native, Hodgees had driven across the country in a beat up Dodge Dart, desperate for a shot at a coaching breakthrough. He was down on his luck, out of big opportunities, and running out of time. In a lastditch effort to change his life, Hodes had reached out to then Indiana State coach Bob King with an idea. Signing Larry Bird. If Bill Hodes hadn’t been as persistent as he had been, Larry Bird might never have existed in any of our minds. I believe that with all my heart. I really do. I’ve already been through 50 or 60 recruiters and I’ve heard all the BS that they throw. So, uh, Coach Hodge was he was so persistent. You know, he always tried to get to the family and one member of the family tell him get lost. He go to the next member. But I told him, I said, “I’ll let you know when if I want to go to NC State, I’ll call you.” And uh I got tired of seeing the guy and and finally we sat down and talked about it and I just decided on Indian State. He had a friend named Kevin KS that uh Larry was telling me how Kevin would have been a great player if he’d had gone to college, you know, and he hadn’t gone and he was married and he was really good. And I said, “Well, if you don’t go to college, they’re going to be saying that about you someday that you would have been great gift.” One year after leaving Indiana University, Larry Bird would sign to play at Indiana State. This was Larry’s second chance. And this time, there was no turning back. When Larry Bird arrived in Teroot, the Indiana State Sycamores were an afterthought on the national stage. No NCAA tournament appearances, no all-ameans, just a struggling program in need of identity. Teroot is like a a small town. It’s not a small town. It’s got 100,000 people or so, but people treat you like it’s a small town. Everybody knows you. Uh, and I think Larry felt like it was kind of an extension of French Lick. Being forced to sit out a year due to NCAA rules, Larry wasn’t able to suit up his first year on campus. But it wouldn’t take him long to show the coaching staff that he was ready to change the program. He could practice and our first five couldn’t beat him. Coach King said, “Larry, I’ve got to do something to let the first five win once in a while. They can’t win as long as you’re in there.” And you know, Larry kind of smirked and he said, “Well, just let them take their beating like a man.” In his very first season on the floor, the team saw a dramatic shift. Bird would average 32.8 points per game in his first collegiate season, doing it with a brand of basketball few had ever seen. He is knocked out of his hands by King, picked up by Bird. Three-on-one Smith in the middle. Smith to Bird. He is there and he’s got it. Well, he he’s playing in a, you know, what’s not a power conference. IU is the big, you know, the big 10 where Larry’s conference kind of lesser and he carried that with him, you know, I think throughout his life, you know, people doubting him and and and not respecting where he was from or or what he grew up with and uh he had to earn that and he did. The key first shot up good Larry Bird with his 44th point and what a show he has put on here at Huff. Over time, the crowds in Teroot grew. Local papers gave the sycamores front page headlines, and before long, Larry Bird would be attracting attention from across the country. To me, it was something very special because I went in there and they had like a 1313 season. All of a sudden, uh, you go from having two and 3,000 people at your games till people can’t get tickets. Wherever hers gather, they no longer talk of weather. Indiana has a new state bird. Now his claim to fame is just the way he plays the game. Indiana has a new state. Can you tell us your name? Although I don’t think we need to ask. Brad Miley. Brad Miley. You’re not Brad Miley. Larry Bird. Larry Bird. It’s not the cardinal now. Hey Larry, take a bow. Indiana has a new state and you’re from French Lake, Indiana. You said it all when you said it. Yeah. From out of French Lake up to He came to play some basketball. What position do you play with the team? Um, well, you know, as you know, I had to do everything. So, I play all positions. Now, we don’t know a thing about what the future will bring, but for now, we’re going to spread the word. The fighting sick boys are racking up the scores. And Indiana has a new state. Indiana has Larry always says the turning point for him was when Sports Illustrated put him on the cover and they had two cheerleaders around him saying, “Sh, the best kept secret in college basketball.” Well, not anymore. Once that came out on the stands, from that point on, it seemed like to me the next year was just total chaos. We had reporters from all over the country and uh it seemed like every day somebody wanted me to do something for him. So, from that point on it was very tough. People were coming down from everywhere, other networks, CBS, NBC, uh uh ABC. Uh but he didn’t have a lot to say. Not that he couldn’t say it, it just that he was a little quiet, a little backward. All of a sudden, you went from this quiet guy with his friends to to people looking over his shoulders, reporters following you around everywhere you went, u people taking pictures and and it was something that I didn’t didn’t like and it was tough to deal with. As the legend of the kid from Indiana had grown, so his attention from the National Basketball Association. And in the 1978 draft, the historic Boston Celtics would select Larry Bird sixth overall. Still having a year left in his college eligibility, Larry would make a move that had never been done before or since, electing to remain in college for his final season while the Celtics held his draft rights. I can remember somebody telling me, “I was just drafted by the Boston Celtics.” And I was saying, “What are you talking about?” I had absolutely no clue that they even had a draft that day. I said to Red, I said, “Red, why would you draft this guy Bird and you know he’s not going to play for this season.” And he looked at me and he said, “Do you know how short a period of time a year is?” He wasn’t going to go with Boston. See, money at that time, uh, money was foreign to him. You know, he he made $6 an hour. That’s pretty darn good. It really wasn’t that tough because I wanted to get my education while I was there cuz I knew I would never go back. You know, the one thing about athletes is they always say, “Well, I’ll go back next year and do it.” But they never do. Led by the return of their star, the Sycamores opened the 1978-79 season 29 and0 with Larry becoming a national icon in the process. Whether it be his elite scoring or crafty court vision, Bird was in a league of his own. and he was leading Indiana State to one of the best seasons in college basketball history. Every offense we ran, the first thing we wanted to happen was Larry to touch the ball and that was our goal was to get it in his hands 75% of the time that we had it and boy you get the ball in his hands. He did a tremendous job with it out of the right corner. Let’s go. Number 33, 6’9 in forward Larry Bird. here. They simply call him the bird. And seeing him play is called bird watching. Ranked seventh among all-time leading college scorers, the bird averages 29 points a game. The bird to the left corner warm up and he ripped off the 20. The way we were beating teams were just on pure guts and determination. So we just got in our minds that we wouldn’t get beat. If we was number two and a number one team got beat, we should be number one. You know, if if they’re going to go ahead and rank us up to number two, they should go ahead and give us number one if we win. you know, by Larry practicing and playing 100%, you know, he he demanded that you play 100%. He demanded that you take a charge or you dive after that ball because he would do the same thing. Larry, a quiet kid now firmly in the national spotlight, would win multiple individual awards in the process, including being named the Naymith College Basketball Player of the Year in 1979. I mean, we’d watched them all year long coming along and we kind of thought, you know, well, as soon as they get to the tournament, then we’ll find out the real thing. And then somehow they just kept winning. Oh, it’s all over. There is Larry Bird being congratulated gets it to Heat. He’s the team undefeated. They’re the final four game. Larry, how good does it feel? They’re going to the final four. I have to say we’re here. We finally made it. Everything just fell into place. It was not only good for the the college, it was good for the community and it was good for the players. Everybody involved it. Just something that happens once in life. Indiana State has won it. The Sycamores are 33 and0. It’ll be that dream matchup. Irvin Johnson of Michigan State, Larry Bird of Indiana State on Monday night. Irvin Magic Johnson, a player unlike anyone Bird had ever faced. It’s a dream come true and uh like I said, it’s awful important game and just hope we play our part and win the game. Magic couldn’t wait to give you the best smile and say, “How are you? Make you feel good.” Larry Bird would rather say, “Don’t don’t even say hi to me. I’d rather not get involved with this.” I did not like Larry Bird. He didn’t like me. Not because, you know, something happened, but because we were both born after the same thing. They’ll always be linked, won’t they? And that’s that’s part of the beauty of sports from that 79 NCAA championship. It’s pretty hard to say Larry Bird without thinking of Magic Johnson. We were never going to see a situation like that again because now we’re following kids from like fifth grade. But Larry and Magic, there was a buildup that a lot of people didn’t see. You know, Indiana State, a lot of people didn’t know the whole story. This whisperer starts growing into like a roar of, hey, this kid, look at look at what Indiana State is doing. And the anticipation builds in a way that you can’t get anymore. It was David Goliath. flashy versus kind of working like I think uh just the timing of it and the undefeated nature of Indiana State and how they gonna do against the big boys from the Big 10. You know, the TV ratings back then, people just had four or five channels to pick from. Now they got 400. But in my case, people really didn’t see me play on national TV. I was from a mid- major uh school. We were undefeated and we’re playing against a a Big 10 champion and u I think it just caught everybody’s attention. They called it the Super Bowl of College Hoops. On March 26th, 1979, more than 35 million people tuned in to watch Indiana State vers Michigan State, a number that is still an all-time record to this day. Magic Johnson controlled the pace early, running his signature fast breaks and orchestrating a relentless tempo for Michigan State. Larry Bird struggled to find his rhythm as double teams swarmed. He finished with 19 points, levels below his usual dominance and Michigan State would go on to win 75 to 64. I thought you did a great job on Larry Bird in the zone tonight in the ball. Yes. Uh coach uh gave us a good game plan to go against Larry Bird and all we had to do is go out and do it and if we did it, he said we win. That’s what we done. However, the real story wasn’t the final score. It was the arrival of a new chapter. The Knight would not only cement Magic and Bird as national stars, but would spark a rivalry that was about to carry basketball into a new golden era. And Richie Powers is pushing Ramsey away. And now Daryl Dawkins and Ma somebody. The late 1970s had seen the NBA enter what many consider the dark ages of the league. Long gone were the glory days of Russell and Chamberlain and the association was struggling to grow its product. The 70s are a lost decade in the NBA. Like you have these moments of like, oh yeah, we got Dr. Jay and you know you incorporated the ABA and but the Celtics and the league were coming from such a dark down time where it just felt like maybe professional basketball wasn’t going to survive. If you ask me then I would say the NBA would have folded by now because in the 70s you could have bought any team man any of those teams for less than 500,000. Few teams were making money. No major sponsors. didn’t have great TV exposure at the time. They were still playing the NBA Finals on tape delay. It wasn’t even live TV. Marc of Boston Garden. This Hallmark franchise in the NBA has a serious problem just making the playoffs. I’m done. We just didn’t feel like uh we had the old Celtics uh the old Celtic spirit, the old Celtic tradition. The wicks in a row came to symbolize this terrible time in Boston sports. You know, selfish ball players who wanted the rock, wanted touches, weren’t worried about winning. Uh I think one of them had the quote, “The W’s and L’s don’t show up in my paycheck.” It got bad for them in the late ‘7s. Bad teams, teams that would win 22, 25 games, no playoffs. It really bottomed out for them. The Celtics were searching desperately for a new identity after being stuck in mediocrity. They needed a spark, someone to reignite the franchise and bring championship hope back to the city of Boston. It was odd that they drafted a player that they couldn’t have right away. And it it was more frustration for the fans to have to wait a year. Red Arbback said, “I don’t care if he’s coming out. I’m drafting him now and we’re waiting until he’s available.” like they they took the chance ahead of time because the rules allowed it back then. Kind of knew that Larry was special. Only thing that really impressed me is that the Celtics took me and waited a year. I just couldn’t believe they would do that. I thought it was awful loyal for somebody to wait a year without trading me or taking a chance that I wouldn’t sign with them. I thought I was very loyal. White guy, Indiana State, can’t jump, can’t run. He was not fast. He was not quick. I was Larry Bird’s biggest skeptic. We were watching Indiana State games here in Boston. Local TV made sure that they got their games because the Celtics were so bad. And he began to embody and represent hope. He came to a game. Everybody start standing up clapping and I’m thinking like, what in the hell is going on here? This guy played a game. They don’t even know what he’s about, but they just think that, you know, he’s going to be the difference here. He came quote unquote the savior. So happened this guy’s white, East Boston, South Boston, people could relate to him. And you know, Larry Bird is great white hope. After being drafted almost two years ago by the Celtics and through two months of on and off again negotiations, at times quite bitter between two old adversaries, Red Arbach and attorney Bob Wolf, Larry Bird became a very rich young man. this morning. The 6ix9ine All-America from Indiana State signed a 5-year contract worth more than $3 million. And with that, he’s expected to help turn around the Celtic franchise. I guarantee you, I’ll give 100% every time I come out, and if I get a torn toenail or something, I won’t sit out. I’ll play hard as I can every night. And I hope I can bring excitement to the fans, and I’ll never give up. Larry, was it important to you to come in uh with a better contract than Magic Johnson? Well, you know, I don’t even know what Magic Johnson’s contract is. I never even seen it. Never heard of it. You looking forward to meeting up again with him uh with the against the Lakers and maybe getting a little revenge uh from Well, I wish I could play him today. I think when when Larry first arrived, everybody thought, well, here’s a kid now that I don’t know if he’s going to be able to play in this league. I mean, he doesn’t look all that good, you know, and uh there’s talk about how slow he was. He couldn’t jump. he couldn’t defend. Larry Bird felt there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do on a basketball floor. And you know, when you have that kind of competence, uh there’s nothing that you can’t do. They did test me. They do. Every rookie comes in here. Pad Roby, had Calins, Tiny Archer Ball, uh and some of the other vets, ML Carr, showed up at at rookie camp and they all wanted to test me and they did. I I had no problem with it. I’m thinking, “Oh, he’s slow. He can’t get off a shot. He’s not that strong. This is going to be a layup.” Bam. Knocks down a jump shot. Okay, maybe that was luck. Gets the ball again. Bam. Knocks down another jump shot. Now I’m thinking like, “Okay, hey, you know what? I’m going to D this guy up. I’m going to show him his light.” 20 ft away. Bam. 25 ft away. Bam. I my mind just goes this way guy can play. The other guy ML always matched up against me and at the time he led the league in in steals and and I knew he had quick hands but he was just too short. He couldn’t guard me too. Bird a runner. It’s good. Yes. Quite a bit at first. Larry Bird makes a beautiful steal from Bingo Smith. Boy, Bird is really playing a game here. And this bird shake loose to Larry Bird. Bird kill him pass. It’s just an uncanny sense and uh he’ll do things out there you just say and it just leaves you shaking your head and and smiling. 28 seconds. Bird slap pass to Archimon and headers in to Bird on the cut down having a tough time with Maxwell inside three-pointer bird heading a three-point three-point shot. Bird a rebound and a basket. Wow. Well, it’s one of the greatest experiences of my life. I grew up in Boston. I was very fortunate to go to a small school where I felt comfortable. I love the city of Tero, but once I left, I was nervous about uh getting out there, getting settled. But once I got settled in and and got to know my way around a little bit in Boston, I knew it was a perfect fit for me. In the hardworking Northeast, Larry’s gritfield play style and bluecollar work ethic were right at home. And it wouldn’t take long for a young bird to show the people of Boston that he embodied the city’s toughness. You I always played like everybody in the world was against me. Thought everybody was against me. Used to think up things to get me rattled before a game. He knew how to fight. I know that from off the floor. One night somebody was giving one of his buddies a hard time and Larry went over and you know said, “Hey, you know this is my friend and this guy was pretty goodized guy.” By golly, they go out back and the guy turns and says something to Larry and I mean Larry hit this guy and I caught him. Hit him so hard I go whoa. He was from the old school and that’s how he played. Larry Bird plays it to the hilt, baby. Played the game hard, played rough. Bird again and he’s got it all. I never dreamed that Larry Bird was that good a defensive player. I never dreamed that Larry Bird was that good a rebounder and I never dreamed that he was that good a passer. I also didn’t know that he would always play hurt. After watching him play, I said, “Somebody went into a cave in French, Indiana, found this cake of ice, started chipping away, and out popped this prehistoric oldtime basketball player. He played like the oldtimes play.” In his rookie season, Bird’s impact was immediate. He averaged nearly 21 points and 10 rebounds per game, instantly lifting a struggling team back into contention. Named the 1980 Rookie of the Year, his game was grounded in fundamentals. But it was his leadership and unshakable confidence that made him a natural floor general. People already are starting to compare you to some of the all-time great, you know, on the pro game. Do you think this is fair? No, not really. You know, I play a whole different game. I I try to just do the things that I have to do to win and and I know it takes just more in scoring. So, uh I try to I don’t care who they compare me with. I’m still Larry Bird. When I first came in, I I knew I had to work on my range because I figured that teams would be putting a smaller guy on me and trying to get me to receive the ball out a little bit further on the court. So, I started working on my my range a little bit. Then, if they backed off of me, I can fake like I was going to shoot and dribble around him. Then, then in NBA, once you dribble around, the center always comes to the ball and get in down low. And once he started coming at me, the passes were easy to make. Out to Bird. Larry passed a little bit they end up with this is not the way it should be done. There’s a great pass Larry Bird. Great effort. Look at that pass. Larry would make a bounce pass behind the back on the fast break and you say where’s this ball going? Collins going against Bird behind the back to Ty. You see all of these highlights, Larry over the head, you know, crazy no look. Just I know you’re supposed to be there. I’m going to throw it to this spot. It’s like watching a uh a cat play with a mouse. He’s so intelligent. He has eyes all around his head. He’s got the smarts. Bird. Very good ball. Oh, how about that? Country pumpkin. You know, Larry’s great at playing that. You know, come into my website. The spider that flies. And a standing ovation here from this Boston Garden crowd. The once fallen giants had found their way back. But while Bird was still learning how to fly in Boston, an old rival was making his own name on the game’s biggest stage. There it is. It’s over. And the most valuable player is Magic Johnson. 42 points, 15 rebounds, and seven assists and leads the Los Angeles Lakers to a world championship without Kareem Abdul Jabar. What I need to do is learn how to win basketball games. before I got there. I think the Celtics won 20 or 29 games that previous year and my goal was to win as many as I possibly could. Uh help them get to where they haven’t been in a while. Moving into his second season in Boston, Larry and the Celtics were hungry for a return to success. 1981 would see Bird continuing his growth into one of the games top players and the Celtics would welcome two key pieces to complete its roster. Future Hall of Famers Robert Parish and Kevin McCale. Well, when you think about it, you have Larry Bird and two guys down low who demand attention. Kevin McCale is one of the greatest power forwards of all time. And here comes the rookie from the University of Minnesota, Kevin McCale. And you’re putting that next to Larry Bird. You know, so who do you double? Who do you help off of? Over his head to male. Tiny to Bird behind the back to Paris. You get so many E basket because uh he draws so many defensive attention and you find yourself all alone in the basketball tested layup. He understood how to get Kevin and Robert shots and Cedric Maxwell. And he also knew when any of these individuals were not getting enough shots in the game or were not involved in the offense and he’d make a concerted effort to get them involved. Oh, we got to see that one again. In the postseason, Larry and company would continue this same level of dominance as Bird averaged 22 points and 14 rebounds over the course of the postseason, including a historic 3-1 comeback to lead the Celtics to the NBA finals. And the Boston Celtics have won it and they go crazy at Boston Garden. Larry Bird is right in the middle. He’s the eye of the hurricane known as the Boston Celtics who spotted the Philadelphia 76ers. Three games to one. That was probably the best games I ever played in my life. The seven game series and every one of them was just full of excitement. After upsetting Magic and the Lakers in the first round, the Houston Rockets awaited the Celtics in the finals. Led by future Hall of Famer Moses Malone, the Rockets were a dominant force in the early8s and even held Bird to just 15 points per game. Still, Boston found a way to win the series, ending the Rockets run in six games. Now with seven minutes left, Larry Bird follows his own shot. Oh, what a point. Parish with five. Larry Bird with a rebound. Oh, is it physical again? That was a key play of the game right there. Larry Bird that fast little count and he’s fouled. You don’t expect him to miss very many. Backing up on Reed. Off balance shot, but he hit it in a second. 12 seconds on the shot clock. Larry Bird wants a three-pointer. A three-point shot by Larry Bird. He’s hit three of them down the stretch. Uh it can be very frustrating because uh you can do a good defensive job on Larry for uh maybe 75 80 90% of the game even and yet every time you make a mistake, every time you fail to concentrate and let up, Larry will find a way to hurt you. Maybe with rebounding, maybe with passing, maybe a steal, it may be a hoop, maybe a drive, maybe a dishoff, but he’ll find a way to hurt you. Ever since I’ve been in college or in pros, uh the ball has always came to me. They always want me to do the final shooting or try to hit the last second shot. They go to me 80 or 90% of the time. I want the ball because I’m supposed to produce in them situations. Uh sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t, but uh I want the ball in a crucial situation. In only his second season, Larry had done what he set out to do, lead the Celtics from the bottom back to an NBA championship. It’s all over. The Boston Celtics have won the world championship in 1981 and they have become the 14 flag winners for the Boston Gard. Once you win NBA championship, the whole city’s involved. All your Celtic fans around the country and the whole city. It just just something that’s unbelievable feeling because it seems like your team, the team that you’re on, brought this many people together in in a short period of time. It just it’s just amazing what a championship can do for you. We also would like to thank you as a team for supporting us throughout the year. It’s been a great honor to be out here. There’s only one place I’d rather be. French. Thank you. Even though Larry Bird had conquered the basketball world, there was no question that his heart had stayed back home in Indiana. He wanted to be the Wizard of Oz. He wanted to intimidate people and keep them at bay. The further we are away from each other, the more I like it. I had a nice little house. I had my little yard. I want to go from there to practice back. If we had a game coming up, I want to go there to the game and back home. It was all basketball. My whole life was basketball. He relates to a plumber or electrician or a cop, you know, because that’s what he came from. He knew the janitors and the equipment guys and those were his guys more than the high roller luxury box guys. He doesn’t like phonies. Stiffs them out right away. You could come out on Saturday and watch him mow his lawn. Huge crowds to the stop. Larry Bird is cutting grass in front of his house. He’s mowing his lawn in the springtime. Larry is about doing things himself and I think it’s one of the things that made him so beloved in Boston. Guys would be bitching about, you know, shoot around practice and having to go back to the hotel and he’d be like, “Yeah, we really got it tough here. We got paid to play basketball and now we got to go back to our five-star hotel and have this great free lunch and then come back and play basketball tonight and then get on a, you know, charter airplane and go to the next place and this is really a hard life.” He just would remind guys how good how good they have it. I get a phone call at home 2:00 in the morning it seemed like and you better get over to Burk’s Tavern because Larry Bird’s there and God knows what’s going to happen. And I thought thinking that’s not such a great neighborhood. I’d better get over there. I go over there and he is bellied up to the bar with about 50 people around him. He’s wearing a Mac truck cap and overalls. He’s just a good old boy. He’s having a hell of a time and everybody around him is relating to him. I’m fast. Larry Bird’s first four years in the NBA would be nothing short of amazing. He’d been rookie of the year, an all-star in every season, and had led his Celtics from the bottom of the NBA to a championship. He had defied every expectation placed upon him, except his own. The 82 and 83 seasons would end in disappointment for Boston, and Larry was determined to write the ship. We had a team there. When we won in 81, I thought we was going to win five or six in a row cuz we had that much talent. Just unfortunate for us after we won the championship, we just started going downhill a little bit and we knew we had the talent and then we had to start picking it up and we did. This man will not accept losing. He’s like um a guy uh who would pick a a locomotive up and and uh with ropes pull a locomotive. He he’ll endure anything to win. He was the most self-motivated player I ever saw. I played basketball for a long time. When I was out there shooting, I’d be like, “Okay, here’s my 300 shots and I’m done.” I got to 300. I put them up. I did my work and I’m done. Larry’s like, “No, 300. Magic’s doing four, so I got to do five.” when you get your quote superstar to to work at a high level in practice, everybody else falls in line because this is the the man and he will work. And Larry worked every day. It was very hard for us as as players to look over and see Larry doing drills by himself for an hour, an hour and a half after practice, 2 hours after practice for us not to pay the price. When the rest of everybody’s having a beer and that guy is out there on the floor, that’s what makes Larry Bird so damn great. 84 was Larry was just awesome. I mean, it was just unbelievable how he could improve his game. I you never thought that he could he could take it to a different level and he was able to do that. This first quarter here is Bird looking inside on the cut to beautiful pass by Bird. You know, I just remember the first time I was watching Celtics basketball as a kid and I just saw Larry and his teammates, but it was just like these guys never miss. Bird has got Chambers on him. This is where Look at that for the offense. Nice pass from Bird at Bird with it. Larry three-pointer. It’s good. Larry Bird with a three-point shot. A freshly motivated Larry Bird would prove to be the best player in the world in 1984. He elevated his game in every statistical category and played with the confidence that would go on to define his career. This was the season that the world saw the birth of Larry Legend. Larry got on the roll, started shooting the ball. Every shot was going in. Right. He runs by Frank Leighton who the funniest guy in in the league and Frank is coaching. And Larry says stuff, “Hey Frank, don’t you have anybody on that bench can guard me?” He goes, “Nobody out here can.” Frank looked out the bench. He goes, “No.” I even heard him tell the coach, “Look, coach, you better get somebody else out here to grab me because I’m killing this guy.” He’d say, “Danny, give me the ball or DJ, give me the ball. I got this guy in the torture chamber down here.” Why? The guy was standing right there listening to him say it. Little and how do you do for two isn’t going to get much sleep tonight. He’s going to be having very nightmares. He just knew what he had to do. He knew where he had to be. Supreme confidence in his work in himself. The confidence comes from the work. And no one worked harder than Larry. Magical will say he worked as hard, but no one worked harder. By the end of the regular season, Bird had silenced any critics that were left, winning the NBA’s MVP trophy for the first time in his career. However, anyone who knows Larry knows that the season’s goal was still incomplete. And after a dominant postseason, Bird would have the Celtics back in the finals where they belonged. And who would be waiting for the Celtics? none other than Magic Johnson and the Lakers. Gets it to Edwards on the road. Magic Green has got it and it’s Boston. Hill Celtic Laker thing went back to when the Lakers were in Minneapolis. I mean, you the Celtics beat them. I think the first six or eight times they played the NBA Finals and time has run out and the Boston Celtics have done it again. Another jewel. Everything just landed perfectly. You got the right guy in Larry Bird for what the Celtics needed and magic for who he was personalitywise with the Lakers and suddenly two historically great franchises are reborn. Playing against Magic. Yeah, that that was u something that I always dreamed about since he beat us in college. You know, you walk around and everybody everybody is talking about this this series. We had more writers and TV people and made it so big. I mean, everything was written with uh bird versus magic, magic versus bird, that whole thing. And it was so intense. So, it was huge. It was probably the biggest moment the NBA had up to that point. You had Boston and LA, East against West. It had all the elements of of a classic showdown. you know, we were the favorites and we made our way. They won the east, we won the wet. So, it’s like everybody just get ready, sit back and uh let’s enjoy it. [Music] The Lakers and the Celtics. So many memories, so many golden moments. Now, we are ready to start again. And we have two of the brightest stars to break in on the basketball scene in the last decade. For five years, Larry Bird had been waiting for this moment. another opportunity to beat Magic Johnson on the sport’s biggest stage. But as the 84 finals got underway, Larry was faced with an all too familiar feeling. Here come the Lakers. It’s a fouron two right now. And it’s Kurt Rambles inside the Magic who completes the fast break. Larry Bird against Cooper. Johnson doubles and a steal by James Worthy. It’s worthy all the way. The foul was on Ramis’s second. Here’s another break. And a foul and the Lakers get the running game going. Forget it. Johnson behind Harris going in. This has to be one of the most decisive routes in championship game history. The Lakers 137, the Celtics 104, and the Boston Celtics now trail the Lakers two games to one. I just feel that, you know, we got some great players on this team, but we don’t have the players with the heart sometimes that we need and until we get our hearts where they belong, um, we’re in trouble. Despite Larry’s efforts, the Celtics would find themselves down 2-1 in the series. And in game four, it seemed they were on the verge of a deadly 3-1 deficit. But a moment at the end of the game would flip the series on its head. Here’s Kareem outlet to Worthy Ram. And now let’s watch it. Cooper and the Celtics. And now the bench is empty. When Kurt Ramish got taken out, we started fighting instead of playing. Kareem swings the elbow and now is Gillian and Larry Bird. jaw to jaw and it made us realize we were not mentally tougher than the Celtics. The face bird takes the shot. It’s gone. Oh my goodness. And the Boston Celtics have even this NBA World Championship series at two games a piece. And those who are writing the obituary for the team that have won a record 14 NBA titles can just pause. So it’s 22. We come back to Boston. It was the freaking hottest day. There was no air conditioning in the garden. It was a million degrees. And Celtic fans now are entering the hottest place in this city. Literally. Kareem had oxygen on the on the bench over the other side. And Larry played like it was air conditioned, perfect climate. He he did nothing. He just had a mental state. Larry Bird. You ever see many players who can shoot off balance as a forward like Larry Bird did? Bird a three-pointer for Larry Bird for five as Kareem hit one. Larry Bird with a three-point play. A finds an open bird takes Ramis. 1 second. [Applause] [Music] Game five would see Boston win by 18 points at home, led by another 30point outburst by Larry. And despite dropping game six, the Celtics were determined to send their rivals home empty-handed in game seven. And get down to seventh game, you know, that’s what it’s all about. And one game for the title and it was on our home floor. If you could bottle all the emotion that is released at a basketball game, you’d have enough hatred to start a war and enough joy to prevent one. And here tonight in the ancient Boston Garden, we’ll run the entire gamut of emotions. And when we’re finally finished, the survivor will receive this trophy, the Larry O’Brien trophy for being the NBA world champion. Hi there once again, everybody. This is Johnny B. I’m off court side here at the Boston Garden. I’m check her and tonight the seventh game of the World Championship where the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers get ready for the World Championship of Basketball 1983 84 in game number seven. Bird Sutter goes up anyway. And here’s Kareem the other. And Kareem Abdul Jabar with an incredible play for Scott Worth and Wilts. And there was James Worthy. No one believed that we could beat the Lakers at you. Absolutely no one believed it. Uh but the fact of the matter is we believed in ourselves and that was life because believe Lakers had several chances. And here’s Larry Bird chucking down the bird. How’s he doing? We played hard. We got all the loose balls. We we did the things that was necessary for us to win. Final seconds to three. It’s over. The Boston Celtics are the NBA world champion. [Applause] And those Boston Laker finals who are like the Ali Frasier of the NBA really put them on the map. Bird, congratulations. You were the most valuable player. Does this get you even with magic for what happened between Michigan State, Indiana State all those years ago? Yeah, we’re professionals now, but uh I won this one for Terote. You won it for Terote. I’ll tell you that. I think for Larry it was a little measure of revenge because he sees magic as his direct competition. They are so intertwined. They push each other. Larry isn’t as good as he is without Magic. Magic never gets as good as he is without Larry. They push each other from opposite coast. They’re always thinking about the other guy. What’s he doing to get better? I have to be better than that. They were so similar in the way they competed. I mean, they were two halves of the same brain. Same craziness to Excel. I’ve seen that first couple days I was with him. Basketball IQ off the chart. Seen a game a little different. Most players playing the game the right way was everything. A lot of guys can just score. A lot of guys can just rebound. A lot of guys can just make plays. We can do it all. In the span of just five years, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson had combined for four NBA championships and produced a rivalry that would elevate the NBA to new heights. Both of those men brought an unselfishness and a winning attitude and equality to the league that began to become contagious. When I played, thy birth was the only one I feared. A lot of black guys always ask me, “Could Lird really play that good?” I said, “Man, Larry Bird was so good.” It’s is frightening. You got this slick Showtime African-American guy out west, and you got the lunch bucket floppy-haired white guy with the bruises all over his body. It’s central casting. It’s perfect. None of this happens without some bit of luck, right? Like, Magic and Larry had to play each other in college. You had to have that thing happen because Larry had to lose to come in and and be what he was. Magic had to become what Jerry Bus made him. He had to become Showtime Lakers. I mean, this was like made in heaven. In 1979, this idea of Magic at Bird was created. And so, that was sort of a no-brainer. We start getting tons and tons of coverage. You know, we went from playing uh late night on TV to playing prime time. These two guys generate huge television revenues and start the process of resuscitating the NBA from a league that was hemorrhaging money in many cities to a league that could start to garner big contracts from the television networks. We’d have a double header. It would be the Celtics playing first and the Lakers playing second. And that’s the way we did it. To have them basically go to opposite coasts for teams that are already in this incredible rivalry. It’s almost like Hollywood writers wrote these characters and they played them perfectly. Here’s the magnificent number 33. 1985 would bring more individual success for Larry as he had one of the best seasons of his career on the way to a second straight MVP award. There was a night in Utah, they were killing the Jazz and he had nine steals and the triple double in the other three categories easily at the end of three quarters and I got the box and we were sitting right near him. One more steal, he’s got a quadruple double, you know, and I ran down with the score sheet and, you know, tapped him on the shoulder. I said, “Get back in there. Look at this thing. All you got to do is he says, “Get out of here, Scoot. I don’t care about that.” That game, it seems like they were just throwing me the ball all the time. I always had it in my hands. Turns for it and throws it right in the hand of the bird. Put a lot of numbers up, but numbers don’t mean nothing. The win was more important. It’s always good to reflect back like today and say, “Yeah, that’s right. I did get nine steals and had a triple double, but getting a quadruple double meant nothing to me.” I mean, really, you go into a game and and uh when you’re up by 25, 30 points, just for a steal, no makes no sense to me. I done enough damage already. It was also during the 85 season that Bird would put on a performance that lives on in NBA lore. Having watched Kevin McCale score a then Celtics record 56 point just days prior. Bird had told Kevin that he should have gone for 60 and came back the following game with what many consider the best performance of his career. And we’re playing the Celtics and he tells me, “Hey, big fella, you’re in a little trouble tonight.” Well, I was coming from Italy. I had a pretty good season. So I’m like, who’s he think he talking to? I’m the big dog. Yeah, you don’t get this. So he made a few moves. I stole the ball from him. I went down, took off, dunked on his head. Oh, boom. Double and jam. And he has some talent. And I mean, he’s way up. Came down. Another one. Boom. Taken away by Antoine Carr. Carr can really handle it. Three on two. Carr all the way. He jams. Antoine Car. Yeah. Baby Hulk’s not behind you. We you in trouble. And I’m running my mouth, which I shouldn’t have done. I guess I got him fired up. Mary just decided, oh, that’s it. I’m going to light this whole team up. High is Parish. Off to Bird for the open 20footer. It’s good. In the third, Bird posted left. Takes the jumper and hits it again. Ray Williams down low for Bird who feels it and takes it and drills it again. He’s unbelievable. 205 remaining in the third. Bird for the bomb. Got it again. A three-pointer. You’re seeing the greatest in the game, Larry Bird. Larry, that game was unbelievable. Just absolutely unbelievable. Dominique guarded him. Cliff guarded him. Antoine Carr guarded him. I guarded him. Bird. They open the right side. Bird the fall away. He drills it again. That’s the best shooting I’ve ever seen in a game. Yes, indeed. Dennis Johnson. The lead for Bird. They want him to They want him to keep scoring, too. Bird takes the jump and hits it again. He makes a jump shot and the Atlantic players are high-fiving each other like, “Man, this guy’s so hot.” There’s Bird. Bird. 14 seconds. He got fouled. He hit the shot. I think it’s the greatest shooting exhibition I’ve ever seen. Larry Bird. Well, he made the shot so well that it’s like he almost dunked on me because the ball went down through the net and you can hear that pow. With three seconds, Bird will try another jumper and hit it at the buzzer. Bird has 60 points. It is the greatest shooting exhibition I’ve ever seen in my life. Larry Bird. Despite leading Boston to 63 wins and passing through the Eastern Conference playoffs with ease, Bird and the Celtics would find no gold at the end of the Rainbow, falling to the Lakers in the 85 Finals rematch. So Larry gets his revenge uh on Magic and reignites this rivalry. And now the Lakers are very willing participants and because of Magic now they’re they get to throw some counter punches. Short and here are the Lakers threeon two. Worthy goes in and that’s a Laker fast. Out is Buckner. Nice play. Buckner loses to Magic. Magic for a slam. Dump. Bumps to Boston and wins the world title. You go through the season, you play hard and get in the playoffs and and you try to do the best you possibly can. But I just say that this series I didn’t play up to my standards. Did they want this game more than you? No, I don’t think we won the win. They just played better. You need to lose to make the wins feel like that much better. I’m sure everybody in Boston would love if Larry won every championship and beat the Lakers every time, but story-wise, the loss has to happen for the next win to be sweet. In the summer of 1985, one moment would set off a chain reaction that haunted Bird for the rest of his career. While shoveling gravel to pave his mother’s driveway back home in Indiana, he would tweak a muscle in his back, an injury that lingered for years. He was a cheap son of a gun and and he’d be like putting in fences at his mom’s or putting up a a basketball hoop. Larry decides to do it himself. This is Larry Bird, the superstar, out there breaking his back, literally shoveling gravel. And that that was the beginning of a process. The pain was severe enough that Bird considered sitting out the 1986 season for surgery. But that summer, he got word that former league MVP and future Hall of Famer Bill Walton wanted to join the Celtics to end his career. Hearing this, Bird pressed on and the 86 Celtics would become one of the most dominant teams in NBA history. Well, I think the 1986 Celtics is the best NBA team ever. Five men on the floor for Casey. Great pass by Walton. Quickly to Male on the cut to the scorers table. Larry Bird to male. Oh my goodness. How did he do that? To the middle with his left hand. Bounce pass to Larry. Back to Danny for two. When we went to work, it was like punching in this punch in the clock. You know, for the help, I’m on the assembly line and my job is put the put the radio knob on the radio. I’m putting the radio knob on the radio and the other guy’s putting in the buttons and putting on the antennas. And you know, Larry was the antenna man and we were the button man. That’s been honest. Look at that. And a head to Larry Bird to the top. Beautiful. I played on some really good teams, but nothing quite like that one. We just felt that nobody could beat us. Uh not in a seven game series. Bird. Little fake on Barkley. Back door male. Bird gets the rebound. Larry down court to Robert Parish. Beautiful pass and stop by Robert. That’s why beautiful. I think what uh you know made that team so special was its ability to to play any kind of style. You know, we could play the setup game, we could play the fast break game. We had great defense, great rebounding, and then if nothing was working, hey, we could always just give it to Larry. He needs to step back and shoot a three. Bird’s three-pointer. Oh, he bangs and team the man with the ball. Bird three more. If Larry Bird continues to play the way he’s been playing, he’ll be on his way to a third consecutive MVP award. Bird one second on the clock. It’s a three-pointer. 16. Bird on Barkley. Yes. Like he’s a maestro. He’s conducting out there. He’s a puppeteer. This tempo Atlanta Dominique is going to have a big night. Johnson bird over EC Green. Okay, you want to play it this way? No problem. I can beat you here, force you to adjust to me, and then I will do something else to counter your adjustment. And then when you adjust to that, I’ve got a counter to that, too. A magnificent play by Burn. As he’s eroding your confidence on the inside, he’s chipping away at it with his mouth on the outside. I get a charge when I’m telling on the opponents in the team that I want to hit the last second shot and do it. That’s what I’m talking about. He said, “I’m going to get it right here. I’m going to shoot it right in your face. Five and Bird has the basketball. Look how Larry Bird just phenomenal the way that he came out with right about that ex exact spot and shot a shot right in my face and you know he was like I didn’t mean to leave 2 seconds on the clock. Larry used to come in the locker rooms. He’d be getting his ankles taped and he’d say, you know, hey ball boy, run in and go find the scoring record in this building. You know, he needed those kind of challenges. He had accomplished every goal. We hadn’t lost a game on the trip and Larry told all of us players and the media too. Tomorrow night’s the last game of the trip. I’m going to play this with left-handed at least at least through three quarters. Jerome Kersy’s guard Larry. I think his first eight or 10 points were left-handed. There’s Bird. Bird against Percy. And so we score. Larry scores his his sixth point on a left some kind of left-handed shot. And they got to go. They drew him. Wait till he started shooting right-handed. Some good defense though. Birds. Another three-point drive. Well, left-handed is one thing, but when the game got close, I had to go back to the right one. I think it went right down the wire and and we might have won by one point. Right there. You got to keep them under control. They don’t. We just didn’t think we were going to lose. And uh we lost some games throughout the year. I can remember one in particular where I was mad at Kevin and Bill before the game. and they were messing around in Dallas and I was very upset. So I went out and I told him I don’t need you guys. I’ll win it by myself. I score 50 and we lose. But I made my point. Two man game for Boston. Larry Bird only need one man game. There’s another time we played San Antonio where Larry was like 10 for 10 from the field, 10 for 10 from the line. Bird winds up three-pointer. Yes, Larry Bird. This tries another one. Of course, why not? Early in the fourth quarter, we’re and we’re we beat him by about 20. And he told Casey, he goes, “This isn’t any fun, coach. Take me out.” He go, “This isn’t He goes, you know, they’re not even a challenge tonight.” First turnound. What a show. He’d tell you where he’s going. He tell you when he catches it, there’s nothing you could do about it. And it was great trash talking because it wasn’t vulgar. I mean, he wasn’t pounding his chest. You can just be standing next to him, you know? I would jump out and try to block a shot on rotation and he say, “Scott, you’re not getting that.” you after the game and after years of thinking about you like man that dude why he’s one of the greatest players ever played. You now join Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in the 40-year history of the NBA to win the league’s MVP award three years in a row. The Celtics would continue their dominance in the postseason, losing only one game the entire playoffs on their way to a third straight NBA Finals appearance. Bang, Larry Bird. This time, Boston would be set for a rematch with the Houston Rockets, and it would be one of the best performances of Larry Bird’s career. On a turnover again, Bird is three-point territory working against McCrae and Larry Bird. Bird fall away. something bird the last resort three-pointer from the corner and a releasing the other way gets pulled the back bird in three-point range coming out spread out to defense beautiful fast play B [Applause] I think Larry was was the mystique I think Larry was the the confidence the parkquet floor and the championship banners didn’t mean anything if Larry Bird wasn’t on the court with How bad? Two seconds on the shot clock. Bird wants a three on it. He gets it. It is all over the Boston. The Celtics are the world champion. What a Saturday time. I’ve always felt that and and still feel that that’s the best team I’ve ever seen in this league. I’m sure Magic’s got a team he like throw up against him, but to me personally, I thought that’s the best team ever since I’ve been in the league. 16 out of 40. The greatest winning tradition. You did it with hard work and teamwork. You’ve earned it. It’s yours. Enjoy it. [Applause] 1986 crowned Larry Bird not just as a champion, but as a basketball immortal. three championships in six years, three straight MVPs, a second finals MVP, and a team many still call the greatest in NBA history. That being said, at the summit, there’s only one direction left to go. And as the 87 season tipped off, the first cracks quietly began to form. In the physical 80s, your window of success is only so wide. And with injuries mounting and the league changing, the next chapter wouldn’t be about dominance. It would be about survival. Goes underneath. This is off now to a violent violent knockdown by Lambir. Oh my. He pulled her to the ground. He slammed him to the ground. In 1987, the Celtics were still fighting like champions. In the Eastern Conference Finals against the rising bad boy Pistons, they pulled off one last miracle, surviving a brutal sevengame war that delivered one of the most iconic moments in playoff history. There’s Bird with the ball against the hoop. It’s blocked and Seeing hit it off of a Detroit player. No, when I drove in there, everything closed down. And when I went up, the shot was blocked. I didn’t know who blocked it, you know, and uh went out of bounds. The referees got the ball and I’m on the floor and I seen Lambir going to the baseline, get the ball. And I thought a timeout was coming because I knew they had a timeout left. They could advance the ball. But Isaiah gets it and throws a lob pass. So the ball goes out of bounds and I’m and I’m thinking, okay, I’m going to get it to Lambir. He’s one of our best foul shooters. big guy. So, I’mma put it up in the air and and it was like in slow motion. It was like the the ball like goes up in the air. Now there’s a steal by bird underneath the DJ laid down right after one second. What a play by stole the imposing pass. Laid it up to DJ. DJ laid it up and in and Boston. I kick it off DJ and he lays it up and in and I think there’s 1 second left on the time and and uh we end the point of the game. Boston had reached the finals once again, giving Larry Bird one final collision course with Magic Johnson and the Lakers. Nobody gets you up more than Boston. As long as Larry’s on the other side and I’m on this side, it’s going to always be that. And after it’s over, when we play in these allstar games, these oldtimer games, we going to want to beat each other. And after that, when I see him on a park and recreation, I’m going to want to kill him then, too. He going to want to kill me. Anytime you play against the Lakers, you get this type of feeling where, you know, you feel like you got to win. You got to win. I don’t care if they win one game out four or five or seven, you still got to win. You got to beat them. What had started off as a fierce rivalry between the two had morphed into a mutual respect as high as any in the history of the sport. But this time around, the worn down Celtics battered from the postseason couldn’t keep up with the Showtime Lakers, falling in six games. In 87, we had I was the healthiest one on the on the roster. That’s not saying much. Uh I felt pretty good. I know Robert had ankle injuries and Kevin Kevin broke his foot and just to get to the finals made us feel good. You know, we didn’t win it, but we got there and if somehow a miracle happened way we could have pulled it off but uh it was a gratifying season though we didn’t win it. Uh usually when you lose you always said well you know it’s a bad year bad you know but not there. I mean we we fought scrapped did everything we could to get back there and try to win it and we did and just unfortunately we came up short. The following year, Bird would give everything he had to keep the Celtics in contention. The left hand, he averaged nearly 30 points per night. His second highest mark ever, showing the game that he was still capable of being the best player in the world. That time pulled the ball, got his foot, I think was making making it much more active. the basket for Larry Bird. I was teasing about his free throw. He had free throw streak going coming up on Calvin Murphy’s then record in the NBA was 88 or something like that. And he asked him, “What are you writing tonight before the game?” I told him, “I was writing about your free throw streak. Don’t miss it. It’s going to make me look bad in the early paper.” And sure enough, you back then we sat right next to the bench court and we were lined up. He was shooting free throws in the first half. He made the first, looked over and wked at before making the second one. And the Celtics bring it up court to Larry Bird from three. It is Larry Bird. A three-point shot with four seconds to go for the Celics lead. My teammates knew at the end of the game if it was close I was going to take the shot. You can’t double yet. Now you can quickly first jumper. Good. 3.6 seconds left. Larry Bird. I fear no one but Larry Bird because if you keep it close and he has a chance to win it, he’s going to win the big game. Max lookings it to Bird. A runner. It’s good. It’s good. And the Celtics win it. Was a coldblooded killer in the last 24 seconds. He would demand the basketball. Got a job. Get it. And he’s got it. three five fail guys. Larry Bird never quits and never says dying. He always feels that he has a chance to win the game. I didn’t really know if I wanted to be in the three-point contest until my team, a couple of my teammates told me I wouldn’t win it anyway. So then I had to go out and prove to them that I could win the thing. But I walked in the locker room and the guys were sitting there and you know they’re nervous now. You you got to understand a lot of these guys came off the bench. And then all of a sudden they’re going to go out there in front of 20,000 people with 46 eyes on them shooting the basketball. That’s got to be intimidating for me. I like that because I knew the pressure was on them more than me. And Larry walks in and says, “I hope all you guys in here are thinking about second place cuz I’m winning this.” Excuse me. It’s really a joke. Well, then I had to go out and win it. That’s eight. Make it nine and 10. 11 as we’re counting. 13. Huge rack up there for B. We still got to drop one here quickly. 14. This is a tie for the money. [Music] [Applause] In game seven of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Celtics and Hawks would battle in a legendary playoff game. one where Hawks forward Dominique Wilkins and Larry Bird would go bucket forbucket in one of the greatest scoring displays in NBA history. Bird was having a okay game up until the fourth quarter. Kevin Willis came over and said, “Nick, don’t let him score tonight.” And Bird stand next to him. I’m looking at Kevin, what are you doing? You know, his bird eyes got like this big. 88 with Bird Point ahead. 18 points for birding [Applause] to break free. Stays with the ball. When he made that shot, I said to myself, I said, I got to come down and offensively I got to carry the load and I got to keep us going. Changes. The Celtics once were up by seven. Dominique hits a three. That fourth quarter maybe the best fourth quarter as far as uh mono mono of all time. leads the bird off the impro versus this is a type of game of who’s going to blink first respond steps three comes up with the shots it’s like Robert Perish always said it was 40,000 eyes on Larry Bird because they knew he was going to get the ball [Applause] and it’s Bird Johnson gets it into Bird and Wilkins is there. Bird comes free. He has hit his last six field goals. And as far as Larry Bird is concerned, it’s Detroit. Here we come. In the conference finals, Bird and the Celtics once again met Isaiah Thomas and the Pistons. In a reality that had been foreshadowed the year before, the younger and more physical Detroit squad would send Boston home in six games. The Celtics battled to the very end, but for the first time in 5 years, Boston wouldn’t reach the NBA Finals. [Music] Following the Celtics last finals run, the late8s would see the fortunes of the Celtics take a drastic downturn. After only six games in 88, Larry would be forced to undergo season ending surgery on both Achilles, a procedure to remove bone spurs in each ankle. I can remember when I first came in that in the league, Art Gilmore told me one time, he played for Chicago, he said, “If you expect to play a long time in this league, you better quit mopping up the floor.” And I thought, well, he’s crazy. Because that’s what basketball’s all about. Going after loose balls. And we’re getting a little bit older now and and feeling the bangs and the bumps and bruises and all that. I can see where he’s coming from, but I can’t change my style of play. I got to play like that every night. Having never missed more than eight games in a single season prior to this, when Bird returned at the age of 33, something was obviously different. Larry’s body would continue to break down as the back injuries that had reared their head early in his career were now making the game nearly unplayable. Larry had two jobs his last seven years of playing. It was playing basketball and then it was him being committed to taking care of his back. [Music] It was a situation that he was seeing almost daily. He had lost the structural stability in his spine. So, it would slip into abnormal positions to try and lock itself to get artificial stability. That’s like getting your finger stuck into the door and somebody’s still pushing on the door. So, we had to do unlock his spine, realign it, do techniques that would hold that for 4 hours, 6 hours, that type of thing, and then he’d go play basketball. Every time I would play, I was wondering if I was going to be in a wheelchair. Was I ever going to be able to, you know, walk on the beach or hold my kids. I would see him on TV laying down and and then they told me that he had to lay down on planes, different things like that. I was like, “Wow.” He could manage the pain in a way that very few people can do. There’d be days he’d come in the office and he couldn’t stand up straight. Mentally, he got himself to places that no one else could get them. When other people were like, I can’t take that extra step, he found a way to do that. From 88 to 92, it was painful to watch. It was painful to cover. Very few people really knew what Larry was living with because this was Larry’s issue and there was no sharing of his pain. You know, I probably should have retired in ‘ 88, ‘ 89, but uh it’s that competition, maybe one more chance, me and Magic get together in the finals, but it never happened. Continuing to play the game he loved, Bird managed to play through chronic back pain for the remainder of his career. Still averaging over 20 points per game and leading Boston to the playoffs year after year. Person bumping Bird. Larry takes it, hits it over the top and gets a foul. Five-point game. Bird looking to work on Rice. [Music] Larry taking it strong. Scoop shots for two more. Shaw got it. Long pass for Bird. Back to Paris away by Kemp with the It didn’t It didn’t matter that he couldn’t run as fast and that wasn’t really very fast at all anyway. And he couldn’t jump as high and it was never very high anyway. It’s that in his brain, he still knew what he was capable of doing, how little room he actually needed to get a shot off. Three again. Bird counted. Bird wants it on Davis. Waits for the double team to go away. Spins on Davis. Got the bucket and the foul. When the shell of a player is still good enough to get you to the playoffs tells you how great the player was. Larry Bird did not play the final seven games of the season as he decided to sit out and see if he could get his back ready for the playoffs in this first half. Bird had a couple by the recovery. Burn is hurt. Burn is down and he’s hurt. the lengths that this man went through. He dies on the floor for a loose ball, bangs his head, has a concussion. He’s sitting in the locker room with the team physician, Arie Sheller, and Arie said, “You know, Larry, you’ve done all you could. It’s been a great run. You know, you’re not going back out there.” And Larry said, “No, you’re right, Arie. I’m done.” And then he looked at Arie and waited till Arie’s attention was gone for a moment. And he got up. He went back out and of course they won the game. And here comes Larry B. Anderson at 66 giving away 3 in to Fur and had something to say afterwards. Ahead of the field, the Boston Celtics in a terrific series have defeated the Indiana Pacers 124 12. In his final two seasons, the Celtics were 71 and 28 when Bird played, but barely above 500 without him as he had to miss over half the season with various injuries in 1992. This was a guy who played, went home from practice, was put in a full body brace for the rest of the day, would get up the next morning, take it off, go to practice, come back, and put that brace back on. That’s what he had to do to finish that final season. In one final moment of greatness for his NBA career, Larry Bird would be selected by the 1992 Dream Team, a collection of the United States greatest basketball players who competed at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. So, we get to La Hoya San Diego and we check into the Marriott. We go up to our floor and we’re walking in the corridor and we see this tall white guy coming down the hall and I’m like, damn, that look like Larry Bird. And Larry Bird, you don’t realize how big Larry Bird is. Larry Bird legit 610. He walked by us and he says, “Y’all those college guys?” And we was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We the college guys.” And he looked at us and he said, “Get someing rest. It’s going to be a long week.” And walked off. Then they bust us to another location where the dream team is practicing. Like, “Okay, we playing.” They like, “Yeah, yeah, we going to play next.” So we get out the gates like the first 15 minutes we kicking they ass. They stop the game and turn off the score. So we like all right is this halftime or some They like nah the press coming in. And we get back to the hotel. It’s a group of them. It’s Larry Bird, Magic Johnson. Everybody shooting this And Rodney Rogers said, “Hey Larry, you ain’t hit a jumper since 84.” Magic heard that The next day we came in and I never seen this and this when I was like this a different breed. Magic Johnson fed Larry Bird the ball probably about eight times in a row down court. Larry Bird got the ball on Rodney Rogers and every time he was about to make a move, he told him what he was going to do. One dribble pull up going left off glass. One dribble going right, spin, shot, bucket. He scored nine times or eight times in a row. Left the court to go lay down because he couldn’t sit on a bench and said, “Young fella look like 84, huh?” So many times America has watched us battle each other. And so you get divided. You have to cheer for one or the other. and now they won’t have to do that anymore. Hey, we’re putting for our boys. It’s a great opportunity for both of us. You know, he’s retired and and my retirement’s coming soon. So, uh you know, I don’t know how much longer I’m going to play. So, get an opportunity to play with him for one last time is a great great honor. Although Larry’s back issues had worsened to the point he could barely compete, together alongside his friend Magic Johnson and the new face of the game, Michael Jordan, Bird would help the US bring home Olympic gold. And the team itself would inspire generations of hoopers across the world. [Music] Well, it’s a little tough today, but um we’ll try to get through it as best we can. Uh on August 18th, 1992, Larry Bird announced his retirement from the NBA at the age of 35. And he had a clause in his contract that said that if he did not retire by August 15th that he would have an automatic renewal of his contract for $4.5 million a year. On August 12th, he came into Dave Gavit, the president of the Celtics, and said, “Dave, I can’t do it. My back’s too bad. I’m going to retire.” Gavot said to him, “Larry, why don’t you think about it for a week?” Bird narrowed his eyes and looked at him and said, “Look, I know what day this is, and if I’m not going to play, I’m not going to take the money.” 13 years ago, when I loaded up the car and headed to Boston, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew when I got here after the first few games that you demanded this team of ours and this organization to start winning championships. I dedicated my life to basketball and I dedicated my life to the Boston Celtics. I dedicated my life to the fans of Boston. I try to play through pain that I thought that I would never be able to get out of bed. I don’t want no sympathy. I just want to know what you meant to me as a player. But tonight, I leave you and I say thank you. I’ll be around. But tonight, my basketball career is officially over. And I had a blast in the quiet town of French Lake, Indiana. Basketball was more than a game for Larry Bird. It was an escape. From a young age, it offered a sanctuary from the hardships of life. The court became his refuge. And in those early hours and late night shooting alone, Larry wasn’t just practicing, he was finding ways to survive. I think Larry always looked at himself as a poor person, and this was his claim to fame. and this was his opportunity to really show people, you know, that that he’s as good as anyone else. Over time, something extraordinary happened. The very game that saved Larry Bird was then saved by him. Larry was the guy in Boston that saved the Celtics from their late ‘7s swoon, that saved the NBA from its late ‘7s swoon, who found a rival in Magic that David Stern could sell and market brilliantly. And that is what took the NBA from, “Oh my god, is this league viable?” to, “Oh my god, this is the greatest thing in sports.” Alongside Magic Johnson, he helped rescue a league on life support, reviving the NBA with a rivalry that was defined by competition and excellence. Their battles didn’t just captivate audiences in the 80s. Together they changed the trajectory of the sport forever. And I have been very blessed having coached some of the greatest that ever played the game. But if I had to start a team today, the greatest player and the one guy I would take would be Larry Bird. I always say guys like Larry are in the Hall of Fame’s Hall of Fame. The people who know ball know that Larry is in that top top top tier. He always will be no matter what. People time time will you know erase a lot and people like me will go away and the the people who saw him it’ll just be videos and whatever and no one will have that firsthand knowledge anymore. But it’s it’s undeniable. Without Larry, the league is never the same. Basketball is always going to be there. And 10 years from now, there’s going to be somebody better than me, bigger than me, stronger than me. But while I’m playing the game, I want to be considered one of the best because, you know, I like to play against Dominic Magic, and I want to play on the same level as them guys. And uh that’s what it’s all about, competing every night against the best players. And that’s why I hope when I get out people say, “Well, he competed every night and I’m doing pretty good.” I had the ability to play every night. I brought it every night. I had a good understanding that Celtics paid me to win basketball and it was my job to win basketball. And the one thing I can say of everything I’d done was I gave them all. You know, I paid the price with a lot of injuries I had. I laid on the line every night, practice, playing and it made me better. And plus, I was playing against the world’s best. That’s what it’s all about. Larry Bird said that there will be another Larry Bird one day. And Larry, there will never ever be another Larry Bird. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]

“LEGEND: The Complete Story of Larry Bird” is an original documentary surrounding the life and career of NBA legend Larry Bird. From his early life in rural French Like, Indiana, to his historic career that saw him capture the heart of the city of Boston…and the world. Whether it be the legendary trash talk stories, historic games, or iconic rivalries, this project unpacks every aspect of Bird’s journey. We believe it is one of, if not THE most complete telling of Larry’s story available anywhere. We hope you enjoy!

0:02:47 “The Hick From French Lick”, A quiet kid from rural Indiana falls in love with the game of basketball…and his life changes forever.
0:14:19 “Indiana Has a New State Bird”, Away from home for the first time in his life, Larry Bird is out to prove himself in the NCAA, but becomes a national icon in the process.
0:25:32 “Who Can Save the NBA?” The late 1970s saw the NBA struggling for relevancy, and the league was desperate for some “hope”.
0:29:02 “A Bird Lands in Boston”, Larry Bird arrives with the historic Boston Celtics…and while his then teammates were skeptical, he would soon win over the entire city of Boston.
0:43:08 “Taking Flight”, New front-court mates Kevin McHale and Robert Parish help lay the foundation of a dynasty in New England.
0:49:33 “The Biggest Stage of Them All”, Hungry for a rematch against his rival Magic Johnson, Larry Bird is out to prove he’s the new face of basketball.
0:55:12 “Magic & Bird”, Within 4 years of arriving in the NBA, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird have taken over the game of basketball…and saved the NBA in the process.
0:58:20 “Bird is the Word”, From game winners to legendary trash talk, Larry Bird elevates his game to new heights in the mid-1980s.
1:04:21 “The ’86 Celtics”, Larry Bird leads the 1986 Boston Celtics into the history books.
1:11:45 “Fight for Survival”, Larry Bird’s physical play begins to catch up to him, as the three-time MVP looks to keep Boston afloat.
1:27:17 “The Dream Team”, In a hunt for Olympic Gold, Larry Bird shares the floor with now rival turned friend Magic Johnson.
1:30:18 “Larry Legend”, A look back at the life and legacy of one of basketball’s greatest ever.

Thumbnail and poster created by Piotr Jasiolek, one of the best graphic designers and content creators in the world of hoops. You can check out more of his work here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/piotrekzproductions

All rights to their respective owners. This project is not associated withLarry Bird, the Boston Celtics, or the NBA.

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God bless.