{"id":724621,"date":"2026-05-03T13:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/724621\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T13:24:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:24:27","slug":"i-cant-get-it-there-anymore-larry-bird-once-admitted-father-time-caught-up-after-pacers-shootout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/724621\/","title":{"rendered":"“I can’t get it there anymore” – Larry Bird once admitted Father Time caught up after Pacers shootout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Larry Bird<\/a>\u00a0once famously asked, “Who’s coming in second?” before he won his third consecutive 3-point shooting contest title. Even years after he officially called it quits, Bird’s reputation for being an exceptional shooter remained intact, as well as his competitiveness.<\/p>\n

In fact, Larry Legend’s competitive fire flared up again during one team practice session with the\u00a0Indiana Pacers<\/a>. It happened in the early 2000s, when Bird was serving as the Pacers’ president of basketball operations. He was in his 40s at the time.<\/p>\n

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Bird challenged the Pacers players to a 3-point shootout. There was no cellphone footage of the event. No official cameras were rolling to capture the Hall of Famer trading buckets with his players.<\/p>\n

Known for being brutally honest, The Hick from French Lick came clean about the outcome of the contest. Bird admitted that he didn’t just lose to the younger players. He also got beaten by Father Time.<\/p>\n

“No [I couldn’t win a 3-point shooting contest now],”\u00a0Bird\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0GQ in 2004 when asked if he could still win a 3-point shooting contest.\u00a0“I tried it. I can’t get it there anymore.”<\/p>\n

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Bird never dared to play with the Pacers players<\/p>\n

Losing to the Pacers players in a friendly 3-point shooting contest led Bird to a profound realization. He understood that his muscle memory had finally begun to fade. The mental map was there, but the physical execution was gone.<\/p>\n

The message was clear to him: basketball is a young man’s game.<\/p>\n

With that in his mind, Larry Legend never dared to join the Pacers in a scrimmage. He was well aware that it was never a good idea for an old man like him.<\/p>\n

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“I would never go out there,”\u00a0Larry said.\u00a0“They would hurt me. It’s that tough a league.”<\/p>\n

Related: Steve Kerr reveals why Jordan gave Rodman special treatment on Bulls: “Michael had this sort of quiet respect for Dennis”<\/a><\/p>\n

Larry still has the Legend, though<\/p>\n

Once a baller, always a baller. That’s what Bird would forever be. Every now and then, he would walk into the Pacers training facility, grab a basketball and let it fly from deep.<\/p>\n

Some time in the 2010s, Pacers All-Star guard Paul George<\/a> would never forget the day\u00a0Larry Legend randomly decided to shoot 3-pointers<\/a>\u00a0and all of them were money. George had to emphasize that Bird was wearing front office attire when he knocked down those shots.<\/p>\n

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“One of my all-time favorite stories of Larry; it was after practice, right?”\u00a0PG once recounted.\u00a0“We’re shooting, and he’s like walking out of the gym, about to leave. I’ve never seen him play. I’ve never seen him shoot…”<\/p>\n

“So, he picks the ball up, and I’m sure he probably haven’t shot the ball in like, I don’t know, years at this point. Shoots that motherfu*ker, cash, and then just smooth walked out, bro,”\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n

Bird is currently back with the Pacers. He serves as a consultant and special advisor to Pacers president Kevn Pritchard.<\/p>\n

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At 69, “Larry Legend” may be getting older, but the competitive fire hasn’t faded one bit, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him jump back into a three-point shootout with today’s players. As they say, once a shooter, always a shooter.<\/p>\n

Related: Kevin Garnett\u00a0explains how he would try to defend\u00a0Victor Wembanyama: “I would be talking hella s\u2014”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on May 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Larry Bird\u00a0once famously asked, “Who’s coming in second?” before he won his third consecutive 3-point shooting contest title.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,113,126,3866,3497,3348,6,114,526],"class_list":["post-724621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-basketball","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-larry-bird","tag-larry-legend","tag-nba","tag-pacers","tag-paul-george"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116510868355106637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}