Legend of the Ball
Larry Bird is one of the greatest to ever play the game.
Originally published in SLAM 118
by Alan Paul
The Legend of Larry Bird is so great that it’s easy to lose sight of the basketball player who helped revitalize the NBA while starring for the Celtics from 1979 to ’92. The NBA was at a low point, a distinctly minor major sport, when Bird and his doppelganger Magic Johnson came to the League after squaring off for the NCAA title in a hugely hyped and widely watched game. Bird and Magic immediately brightened the fortunes of professional hoops, revitalizing two of the NBA’s most storied franchises. In the years to come, Bird’s Celtics won three titles (’81, ’84, ’86) while Magic’s Lakers won five, in a gripping decade-long rivalry that captivated millions of old and new fans.
As a white man playing in the whitest of major American cities and starring in a game increasingly dominated by black men, Bird became a great white hope. Some thought he could do no wrong; others were sure that he could do no right. Many saw a symbol instead of a man and they viewed him on the court through this prism. And that is a shame, because it obscures the cold, hard facts of how great Bird was and how much fun it was to watch him play.
The remarkable numbers begin to tell the story: three consecutive MVPs, two-time Finals MVP, nine straight All-NBA first teams, career averages of 24.3 ppg, 10 rpg and 6.3 apg. But they are just the outline. Bird played with supreme confidence and his own kind of definitive, endless grace. He could control a game in every possible way—scoring, passing, rebounding or defending. Bird could score inside or out, break your will with a rebound in traffic, a thread-the-needle pass or an eyes-closed three pointer. And he played with a manic intensity and endless hustle. You couldn’t take your eyes off him.
Teamed in Boston with Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, Bird helped form one of the best frontlines ever. They peaked in ’85-86, going 67-15, including a 40-1 home record. They rampaged through the Playoffs that spring, going 15-3. Bird bagged a triple-double (29 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists) in the Game 6 clincher against the Houston Rockets to win his third NBA Championship.
Bird was just 30 but he had a lot of mileage. He never won a fourth ring, but he was far from done. He averaged a career-high 29.9 points in ’87-88, and became the first Celtic to record a 40-20 game, with a 42-point, 20-rebound performance. The next year he had surgery to remove bone spurs in both heels and only played six games. He returned for 1989-90, averaging 24.3 ppg, but then his back began giving him problems. He played just 60 games in ’90-91 and 40 the following season after an operation failed to stop the pain from a swollen disc.
As co-captain of the original Dream Team in ’92, Bird helped the US win gold in Barcelona. A few weeks later, he retired. Having coached the Indiana Pacers to the NBA Finals in 2000, the 51-year-old Bird is now the team president. But when we got him on the phone, the convo stuck to the glory days.
SLAM: When did it first strike you that you had an opportunity to be really good at basketball?
BIRD: Not until I got to the pros.
SLAM: That’s hard to believe.
BIRD: I really didn’t. I have always been confident in my skills and once the game got going I knew I was probably the best player on the floor most of the time whether it was junior high, high school or college. I knew I had control of the game. But I still didn’t know what it meant because I went to such a small high school and college.
SLAM: You started school at Indiana under Bob Knight and left in less than a month. Did you have a problem adjusting socially, academically or basketball-wise?
BIRD: It was all money. My parents couldn’t afford it. I had a free ride scholarship but I had no money for anything else, nothing to live on. My folks couldn’t give me any money at all, so I left after three or four weeks. It was tough. I went back to French Lick. I worked at a company that built motor homes and worked at a boys club and then for the town. I did that for a year and then went to Indiana State.
SLAM: You won three rings in the NBA—was any one of them more memorable than the others?
BIRD: They all were memorable. Our ’86 team was probably the best and we knew it could be that from training camp on. But I don’t really remember the wins. I remember the losses. That’s what I carry with me. I always expected to win. I can remember ’87, when we lost to the Lakers in six after McHale got hurt. If he stayed healthy, maybe we win. We got beat in ’85 by them when we lost a home game we should have won. Them games stick out more than any of the wins. They stick in the gut.
SLAM: You once called the late Dennis Johnson your greatest teammate. Why did you like playing with him so much?
BIRD: I called him one of my greatest teammates, and it was because DJ was just special, a two guard who could get the ball up the court, hit a shot or find an open man and defend anyone. But what really elevated him was the fact that in big games, he was always the guy who had the ball in his hand while also guarding their best player. During the regular season he always did well but in the Playoffs he stepped it up and the bigger the game, the more ready he was to go. I really respected that. Me and DJ had a bond. I sort of knew what he was thinking and I just loved playing with him from the moment he arrived in Boston [in ’83].
SLAM: One of the great examples of your chemistry was when you broke the hearts of every Pistons fan and Celtics hater in the world, stealing the ball from Isiah Thomas and passing to DJ for the winning layup in Game 5 of the ’87 Eastern Finals, just when you seemed about to pass the torch to Detroit.
BIRD: [Laughs] It was just a reaction play. Them things happen so fast that you don’t have time to think it out. I was getting ready to go foul Laimbeer because they had the ball and were up by one with five seconds left. When I took off over there, I was heading for Laimbeer and the ball was floating in the air and I just went for it and I knew DJ would be coming for it. I didn’t even look for him. I was always a reaction player. When I made passes to get out of the double team, it was gone before I thought about it. Tip passes off of rebounds, hitting the lane for a steal—things like that just happen. You don’t see it and think, “I need to do this.”
SLAM: You had tremendous rivalries with the Sixers, Lakers and Pistons, and each team had continuity from year to year, with the same core players. Do you gain a lot by keeping a core together for a long time?
BIRD: There’s no question about it. You build a commitment to each other and an understanding and new guys coming in to fill roles pick up on it and find their places more easily. Also, the more you win, the better you’re gonna get. It grows on itself. We played together really well and had great ball movement and that’s the kind of stuff that gets easier and easier with familiarity. I played with McHale and Parish for 11-12 years, DJ for 6-7. Our core group was very stable for a long time. We were pretty close in the sense of really knowing each other on the court and having close basketball relationships.
SLAM: Did that transfer off the court?
BIRD: As far as being professional, yeah, but going out to eat all the time, no. It wasn’t like that and it doesn’t have to be for a team to be close. That’s a misunderstanding. I remember one time Robert saying, “When my career’s over, I don’t want to see any of you guys ever again.” We spent a full nine months together pretty intensely every year.
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Cryptic looking. Look into his eyes…
Anyways, more and more I see and hear people. What they say about Joe Bird. They don’t know.
Yes, there are all kinds of videos, footage, etc.
One would have had to see Bird night in and night out to truly discern and understand the greatness that was Larry Bird.
THE VERY first of his kind. An original. A genius with the basketball. One of the most cerebral players to ever lace up some sneakers.
Underrated as an athlete. Just look at the picture. Do not take my word for it.
Anyways, it is a toss – up, for Larry Bird can be considered the greatest player who’s ever played in the NBA. I said that for Kareem on the legendary Schneezy’s video. But Bird…
Although I am biased towards Earvin for obvious reasons.
1. Magic
2. Bird
3. Kareem
My bad, SLAM.
Very few players in the History of the Game are better than Bird when it comes to help defense.
He was always in the right place at the perfect time.
Just ask Lord Thomas III…
@AllenP: Man, come on! when they played the Lakers, and LB took a shoot or anyone else and it clanked, the LA fastbreak rolled at it best. The 1st player back was always Mr. Bird. Also, he was the Man for the C’s, so no need to pick up dump fouls. And what about his rebounding!?
Yeah, Duncan’s passing is sizably better than Birds… Duncan is one of the best defensive fours in league history… but I think the gap between Bird & Duncan’s offense (both scoring wise and passing wise) is pretty sizable too.
In my opinion, when you look at everything, Bird is the better option over Duncan… but it is easier to build a team around a big man, especially a big who can play the four and five totally seemlessly (something that Duncan actually doesn’t get enough credit for). So I can understand people who would take Duncan over Bird, you’re taking the slightly worse player who you can build a team around slightly easier. It’s all about options. I honestly might take Duncan over Bird if I was a GM.
I don’t really understand Tim Duncan being ranked higher than Larry Bird.
If we’re looking at the players, Bird is better. Bird scored more on a more variety of shots, was certainly better than Duncan at passing… Duncan was a superior defender but the rebounding is the issue and I’m just not sure Duncan was the dominant rebounder. Better yes, but also simply had a role on the team closer to the basket. So, I’d cast my vote to Bird.
Expanding to their careers as ball players, Duncan has that one extra chip but Bird has the greater number of MVPs, greater number of Finals appearences, and far greater impact on the NBA. In their current careers, they’ve played just as long so longevity isn’t a factor… I don’t see how one can say Duncan had a better career.
But I love debates like this.
If Larry Bird had been on a lousy defensive team, no one would remember him for what he did defensively cause he would not have been able to do it.
Also you have to take into account the defensive abilities of the players around TD and Bird. Bird for the majority of his career played with two of the greatest defenders of all-time (McHale and DJ) while TD played with a past his prime DRob for a few years and a very good but not great defender in Bowen. TD had to be the anchor year after year for a spurs squad that depended on his supreme ability to defend the rim while at the same time being able to shutdown his man. Bird on the other hand could gamble and play the passing lanes a little bit more because he had guys like McHale/Parish back there and DJ on the perimeter to handle quicker cats.
Now that we have gotten that surge of aggression out of the way, who’s the better defender, Bird or Magic? I leaning towards bird but it’s closer than people think. Bird was a better help defender but not by much and both guys were average man to man defenders.
Bear in mind that I believe that Bird’s a slightly better player than Magic (based on skill set and ability to dominate a game 3 different ways (scoring, passing and rebounding).
Yeah, superstars will do anything to win.
I believe Bird would play the four if the current team makeup forced him too. I also believe Bird would be more than willing to voice his opinions to the higherups about the need to get more backcourt players so he could slide to the three. You do things to make your star players happy.
I think in this era he’d 100% be playing the three more than the four, and that’s because this era is chocked full of star fours… in other eras of basketball, you’d have a good argument.
I’d also say Magic’s teams were less injury prone then Bird’s, and Magic was less injury prone than Bird, which really helped the 5-3 scorecard.
And Larry was intelligent and versatile enough to be able to play all five positions on the floor. Effectively.
But we’re getting into the “if” games, in which I have been humbled in using that angle…
In any other generation that Larry Bird plays in other than the one he did play in, he is a big man.
Can Tim Duncan come out on the perimeter and distract someone with merit and prestige? Can he distract a perimeter player out there, period? Regardless of fame? Not saying that Joe is Derek Harper, but…
Bruce Bowen is among the premier defenders of his generation.
Back to Larry;
I frequently go back to this, but Larry’s day was the Golden Age of NBA basketball. There are only a handful of players today who can even make someone’s bench in those days.
Some people just don’t know, man.
Not every big has the same abilities and skills Hakeem possessed and that points to just how great and rare a player the Dream was. BTW, Hakeem’s better than TD and Bird.
As was alluded to earlier in this conversation, Magic can guard more positions more effectively than Larry.
Or even Michael, for that matter. (y’all know me…)
Earvin was the better pure athlete of the two, (Bird) so it allowed him to be able to do more things off the ball, and in conclusion create the shock and awe of the Fast Break that because of Magic, the entire Laker team of that decade were known for. “Show Time”.
In fact, Magic was so good that often times, whether off of a rebound, or a steal, Magic would execute the fast break with himself, and only three other guys, for Jabbar was old, and couldn’t always keep up with Earvin and the young guys.
My bad, I just pressed “reload”. lol
But Bird was able to guard more kinds of players than Duncan was able to guard. And they are both considered players who play primarily in the paint. Offensively or on the defensive end of the ball.
Regardless of Bird’s perimeter tendencies and habits.
He also called out his team, saying that the whole team was playing like “sissies” during a Playoff series.
Understood, but sometimes one can tell the truth while sounding like a malcontent.
nbk:
Understood, also.
To me, when it hits the wires for the world to see, it is different than it being kept in house. When we don’t hear about it, then the jury is out.
One’s cup of tea, I contemplate…
If that makes sense.
I understand that other greats won more rings, more MVPs and scored more points but no one comes close to matching Hakeem’s all-around greatness.
At the end of Bird’s tenure with Boston, there was some animosity between him and Auerbach that had nothing to do with the positions that players played.
I’ve heard people refer to McHale was a subpar defender and I don’t know where that came from. He was actually an incredibly versatile and sharp defender, he just occassionally stopped playing defense cause he didn’t care to hustle 100% of the time.
1. Jordan
2. Russell
3. Chamberlain
4.-6. (alphabetical order): Abdul-Jabbar, Bird, Johnson.
7. Robertson
8. O’Neal
9. Duncan
10. Bryant
11. Olajuwon
12. West
13. Irving
14. Havlicek
15. Malone (Karl) Pettit, Baylor, Stockton, Thomas, Barry, Gervin, Mikan, English, Sam Jones, Moses, Barkley… Yeah, well…
I’m mad that I missed a good debate. Kudos to The Philosopher and Jukai. BostonBaller has that knowledge too. This site ain’t bad.
Come on man. When Duncan came into the league, power forward might have been the deepest position in the game.
Webber
Kemp (albiet fat Kemp)
Vin Baker
Garnett
Dirk
Coleman
Tyrone Hill
Elden Campbell
Gugs
Gasol
And don’t forget he used to go to war against a prime Shaq too. I’m sure I forgot some other quality four men, but let’s be clear, Duncan was dominant defensively when the league was stacked at his position. Kind of like being a great defensive point guard right now.
Why are you naming guys out of position for Larry Bird but not for Duncan?
Look, I love Larry, but lets get some facts straight: Dr J dominated Bird very early in Bird’s career. They knocked the Celtics out of the playoffs three out of the four years when Larry first came into the league (and each time, the Celtics had homecourt advantage). Now those Phili teams were great, but a big issue was that Bird simply could not contain Dr. J.
When McHale became a main force for the Celtics, KC would literally make McHale defend the three against guys like Wilkins and Worthy because a) he wanted Bird roaming but also and more predominantly b) Bird would get lit up if these guys tried to iso Bird.
Bird was a fantastic team defender because of his incredibly high basketball IQ, quick hands, and hustle. But he wasn’t lockdown, and he wasn’t anywhere near the level that Duncan was on defensively.
Basically, from watching them play, I feel Duncan was an elite defender. Bird was average. Maybe saying “toddler” was too strong, but I wanted to make the point that if Bird has the edge offensively, which he does, then Duncan has the clear edge defensively. So it basically comes down to your feelings on the way they impacted the League and stacked up to their peers. And it’s really not ridiculous that SLAM had Duncan higher than Bird on its list.
And, at least Bird’s defensive acumen and abilities were finally properly addressed. In my opinion.
Tim Duncan’s, as well. For he cannot guard anyone on the perimeter.
Garnett and Bird can. Garnett in his prime… never mind. We already know.
Guard who? Quick 3s? Um, no he can’t. Duncan guarded Garnett. He guarded Webber. No, he couldn’t guard small forwards and shooting guards regularly, but he would show on screens and make them work for their buckets on switches.
Garnett is one of the top five greatest defensive players of all-time and might be the best big man of all-time. Expecting everybody to do what he did is ridiculous.
Duncan was much, MUCH better than Bird as a defender. I’m not sure why this is arguable.
Of course Bird can’t GUARD a guard…
But he can distract him. Make him think a little.
Duncan shows up on the perimeter, a guy like Rick Brunson takes him off the dribble.
And Duncan slowed down Shaq better than anyone. That includes Hakeem.
Duncan had Parker, Manu and Robinson, but none of his teams were EVER as stacked as the Celtics. So yes, he faced inferior comp, but he had an inferior team as well.
I think Duncan is clearly underrated on offense by many people. His post game is so incredibly subtle that most people don’t appreciate the brilliance of it. Dude was a beast offensively and defensively. That’s why I give him the edge.
MVPs are nice, but y’all know I have serious issues with how they are handed out. Duncan was All-Defense for like 12 straight years! that’s incredible.
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