Larry Bird : Basketball
Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956), also known as “Larry Legend”, “The Hick from French Lick”, “Kodak”, “The Great White Hope”, is a retired professional basketball player who has left a mark during the 1980s as the renowned forward for the Boston Celtics. In college, he played for the Indiana State University and was picked 6th overall during the first round of the 1978 NBA Draft by the Celtics. Along with center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale, they formed one of the NBA’s most formidable front courts. When Bird retired, he became the head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000 and later became the president of basketball operations for the Pacers from 2003 until 2012, but later returned claiming the same position in 2013. As a coach, he became NBA Coach of the Year in 1998 and NBA All-Star Game Head Coach the same year and the NBA Executive of the Year as the President of the Pacers in 2012.
Greatest Sporting Achievements
As a Player, Larry Bird is three-time NBA champion (1981, 1984, 1986), two-time NBA Finals MVP (1984, 1986), three-time NBA MVP (198401986), twelve-time NBA All-Star Player (1980-1988, 1990-1992), NBA All-Star Game MVP (1982), nine-time All-NBA First Team (1980-1998) and many more.
Bird also became part of NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team, the National College Player of the Year in 1979, two-time for both Consensus first-team All-American and MVC Player of the Year.
He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.
Why Was He So Good?
Larry Bird transformed the Celtics into the basketball supreme. He is known to “always keep the ball alive, the middleman on the fast break, he boxes out and posts his man every chance he gets. He dives after loose balls and makes perfect outlet passes. Four or five times down the court, he makes one of those plays that take your breath away.”
What You May Not Know
- In 1992, he announced his retirement due to back injuries which promptly retired his number 33 jersey by the Boston Celtics.
- When Larry Bird dropped out of Indiana University, he hitch-hiked back to French Lick and worked for a year, later enrolled at Indiana State University.
- The logo for Twitter, the social website, Larry the Bird, is named after him.
- “A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills and uses these skills to accomplish his goals”, one of his personal quotes.
Related Pages
- More basketball players
- Athlete Database home
- About the sport of Basketball
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