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Bird was so self-confident that he was known to waltz up to the opponents bench before tipoff and predict a 40-point performance for himself. Larry Bird, in full Larry Joe Bird, (born December 7, 1956, West Baden, Indiana, U.S.), American basketball player who led the Boston Celtics to three National Basketball Association (NBA) championships (1981, 1984, and 1986) and is considered one of the greatest pure shooters of all time. As the 1992-93 NBA season approached, Bird decided he could not continue. It was interesting to me a I never knew that Larry Bird had signed to play for Indiana, and the story of how he ended up at Indiana Stateinteresting stuff! Layed him out cold. Learn more and register, College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com Blog and Articles. A pioneering sixth man, Kevin McHale won three titles with the Celtics in the 1980s. The Cavaliers won in seven games; Boston lost three of the four games couldnt play because of his back. His last-second heroics, ranging from seemingly impossible reverse layups to miraculous 35-foot bombs over multiple defenders, never ceased to amaze those who followed his career. He averaged 24.3 points, 10.0 rebounds and 6.3 assists in 897 regular-season games. Bird once again led the team in points (21.2 ppg), rebounds (10.9 rpg), steals (161), and minutes (3,239). NBA.com is part of Warner Media, LLCs Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network, *Translations are limited to select pages, NBA Legends: Profiling the league's greats, Ex-NBA player Morrow facing assault charges, Durant passes 'Big O' for 13th in career points, NBA Fantasy: Under-the-radar additions for playoffs, Magic's Isaac (torn adductor) out for rest of season, Triple-double win streak shows Jokic dominance, NBA DFS Picks: Yahoo plays and strategy for March 3. What if Larry Bird hadnt transferred from IU. They teamed with Bird and veteran Cedric Maxwell in a frontcourt that carried the Celtics to the championship in 1981. Larry Bird was a co-star of one of the greatest college basketball national championship games ever Bird vs. Magic, when the undefeated Indiana State Sycamores took on the co-Big Ten champion Michigan State Spartans in the 1979 championship. Odds & lines subject to change. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Both Dinah and Larry studied at Indiana State University. It may have also hurt him in his transition to a big state school, where he lasted a matter of weeks after the start of the school year. FIBA Senior Team Events Stats. Larry used BB tThe internet said that Bird's mother worked 2 jobs to care for Larry and his 5 siblings. Bird helped rebuild a Celtics franchise that had been suffering from sub-standard play and poor attendance in the late 1970s. Thats what a coach has to do.. It looked almost like a straight uppercut. The massive strike zone should have given pitchers a field day, but they soon realized Bird wasnt there to goof around. Larry Bird has helped define the way a generation of basketball fans has come to view and appreciate the NBA, said Commissioner David J. Stern when Bird retired due to a painful back condition in 1992, after capturing a gold medal with the original Dream Team at the Olympics in Barcelona. Subscribe to Stathead Basketball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Basketball Reference Database. Terms at draftkings.com/sportsbook. Having grabbed 7,217 defensive rebounds and 1,757 offensive, Bird has accumulated 8,974 total rebounds during his NBA career. With Bird as the focal point of a well-rounded squad, the Celtics won three NBA titles and 10 Atlantic Division crowns. He averaged a career-high 29.9 points that year, falling just five points short of averaging 30 per contest. It would have been easy for the story to end here, with a healthy round of shit-talking and little else. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Nearly 30 years ago, then-college basketball star Jamal Mashburn saw Larry Bird in a hotel prior to a week of scrimmages between The Dream Team and some of the country's top college players. Bird returned home to become the head coach of the Indiana Pacers in 1997 and led them to the conference finals. But there were plenty more heroics yet to come. (If youre looking for a new throwback jersey to wear at darties whenever all this is over, get your hands on a Larry Bird Northwood jersey. Bird was one of the best scorers in the country, a big forward who led the way for the Sycamores from the Missouri Valley Conference to the biggest national stage. Bird poured in 20 points in the final period to outdo his counterpart and lead the Celtics to victory even though he had bronchial pneumonia. That was excellent. In his other eight seasons as a DI head coach, he won just 96 games and compiled a .384 winning percentage. "'You appear to be enjoying this,' one reporter commented. Following a sophomore season that was shortened by a broken ankle, Bird emerged as a star during his junior year. Their top eight scorers eventually played in the NBA and they were a 31-1 juggernaut that ran through the Big Ten gauntlet unscathed and suffered their only loss of the season against Kentucky, 92-90, in the regional final. Known as 'Chief', Parish played 21 seasons in the NBA and was one of the mainstays in Boston during the '80s, leading the Celtics to three titles. IU had three . Bird also won his third consecutive 3-point shootout title, a feat later matched by Chicago Bulls Craig Hodges from 1990-92. 10 attempts), Indiana State-record 83.3 free throw percentage in an NCAA tournament game (min. Knight could only shake his head at what he had lost. That came in spite of Bird playing with a fracture in his left thumb in the Final Four after getting hurt against Arkansas. Gender: Male. Surgery to remove bone spurs from both heels limited Bird to only six games in 1988-89. But Bird, ever the competitor, wanted to prove a point. Bird nearly doubled the Sycamores win total year-over-year from 13 to 25 after sitting out just one year in 1975-76, rather than two, after IU signed papers for Birds release. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Indiana State star Larry Bird makes his way through the crowd of players and fans getting congratulations after his team defeated Arkansas, 73-71, to win the NCAA Midwest Regional tourney crown in . Indiana State went 81-13 during the three seasons in which Larry Bird played for the Sycamores. Birth date: December 7, 1956. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. 1 in the country, and they are one win from the title. With five seconds remaining and the Celtics trailing 107-106, Bird stole an Isiah Thomas inbounds pass and fed Dennis Johnson, whose layup gave Boston the win. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Benson, of course, was a God in Indiana. Larry Bird's college career. Find out more. Bird did a fine job in his three seasons on the bench. As per reports, Bird made around $24 million over the course of his career. Indianapolis Star. With Larry Bird, the 77 Hoosiers are probably a 20-win team and closer to their preseason No. The hours he had spent working on his shot as a youngster paid big dividends in the NBA. > Archive 75: Larry Bird| 75 Stories: Larry Bird. Join our linker program. He scored zero points while wearing cream and crimson, however. Martin Fennelly Former Sports columnist. Larry Bird vs Magic Johnson Stats. His focus was on the court. Do you have a sports website? 1988 Men's NCAA, 2019 Women's NCAA, 1940 Men's NCAA, 2006 Women's NCAA, 1981 Men's NCAA. Bird found the transition to college life difficult. Bird finished with 49 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists and four steals. Hall of Fame Boston Celtics forward Larry Joe Bird is considered one of the greatest to play the game (never mind for the Celtics) because of how clutch a player he was. Experience: 13 years. six players on the first team and . Scott Horner. Born in 1956, in the state of Indiana, this player is known as the biggest reason behind why the Boston Celtics were led to the NBA championship in 1981, 1984, and 1986. Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.He is the only person in NBA history to be named Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Finals . Larry Bird's journey began in the small rural community of French Lick, Indiana. Larry Bird is recognized as one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Larry Bird's Wife Dinah Mattingly. ), We did a great deal of checking before he made his decision and the college allowed him to enroll, Northwoods academic dean Jim McElhiney told The Indianapolis News in September 1974. What if Sam Wyche didnt leave IU after only 1 season? I just think when a man is open, he should get the ball whether it's 30 feet out on the wing or underneath. He was a superstar in college basketball, in essence. All rights reserved. Note: at Spring Valley HS in his senior year., Bird averaged 31 ppg, 21rebounds per game and 4 assists). Now the Sycamores are 33-0, they are ranked No. Dinah likes to keep a low profile, making rare public appearances with her husband at basketball games. Larry Bird left IU in mid-September of his freshman year, citing too heavy of a course load and his desire to be closer to home. Having collected 7,217 defensive boards and 1,757 on the offensive end, Bird has accounted for 8,974 rebounds in total in his career. One basketball coach, however, apparently missed the memo. Hes very intense. RotoWire names five under-the-radar players who could add value to your rosters as we approach fantasy playoffs. Do you have a sports website? Net Worth, Salary & Earnings of Larry Bird in 2023. Larry used BB to escape from his family problems! Adding Bird to that IU team is almost an embarrassment of riches, giving the sports last undefeated champion a player who was named one of the top 15 players ever in the NCAA tournament during the 75 Years of March Madness Celebration in 2013. (Larry Legend, The Hick from French Lick, Kodak, The Great White Hope), Born: December 7, 1956 in West Baden, Indiana, High School: At the time, Bird was a junior at Indiana State University and decided he wanted to play his senior year . Knight said(to the effect).."I didn't handle that well, I just let him goI had a lot of good players(at the time) who were happy to be where they wereto me, we had a great team shaping up and I didn; envision Bird playing much for us until he was a junior, anyway. His NBA years : from 1980 to 1992 Larry Bird NBA Stats Summary : Three Things: Indiana womens basketball defeats Michigan State 94-85. Magic Johnson was in the class of 1977. Birds 19 points in the 1982 NBA All-Star Game, including 12 of the Easts last 15, earned him the games MVP trophy. When talking about per game stats, Bird sports an average of 6.8 assists as well as 9.6 boards. Neither Birds hometown of French Lick nor West Baden had a daily newspaper at the time, nor was either home to a radio or TV station. If the answer was yes, then theres a chance there would be national championship banners from 1975 and 1976 hanging inside Assembly Hall right now. No other player in his era was as good or as consistent a shooter as Bird. Loved to watch him play. I could do that. Larry Bird's book is incredible. Talking trash to Larry Bird rarely ever ended well, as former NBA player Rodney Rogers found out the hard way. In a nationally televised game against Portland in March, Bird pulled off one final miracle performance he scored 16 points in the fourth quarter, including the Celtics last nine points and a game-tying 3-pointer with two seconds left. For reference, the 2019 national championship game drew a 22 percent share. The Whole Bird thing reminds me of that old country song"I overlooked and orchid while searching for a rose"! Thanks Jimmie. However, he was eligible to be drafted without applying for "hardship" because his original college class at Indiana University had graduated. It was Bird's first experience with Knight in a gym setting. Here are some of the awards Larry Bird won in college: However, Bird was all business in spite of the awards he won and the fanfare he received. He wasnt named to the Associated Press six-player All-State first team or nine-player second team, despite averaging 30 points and 20 rebounds, once putting up 55 points in a game for Springs Valley High School and 34 rebounds in another. January 19, 2023 3:00 am ET. Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is a former American professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was named the NL's Freshman of the Year after playing in his first All-Star game. The Hick from French Lick. The three-time NBA champion played 94 games with the Sycamores. On The Players Tribune's "Knuckleheads" podcast, former NBA All-Star Jamal Mashburn said Rogers had talked trash to Bird after a day of practice between the 1992 College Select Team and the 1992 Dream Team.. After a practice, as a group of players were standing around, Mashburn said . Once every generation or so, a player comes along who can truly be called a superstar. 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He once saw to it that McHale went for 40+ against Benson, ordering the guys to just feed the ball into Mchale every time down the floor. When the Celtics named Rick Pitino as the franchises new president and coach, Bird knew any role for him in Boston would be a limited one. Finally, with the Celtics in a decline that hit bottom in 1996-97, Bird decided to take the plunge. Larry Bledsoe, the schools basketball coach, remarked how he was extremely pleased to get a player of Birds caliber, according to the Mitchell Tribune. Three-time NBA champion with Boston Celtics - 1981 . Springs Valley went 19-2 and young Larry became a local celebrity. Data Provided By But even though one might expect that he, a superstar, would live a high life of splashing cash every day, that wasn't at all the case with Larry. He missed 37 games because of the continuing back problems. At one point, Kentucky was the first school to do the heavy recruiting, according to The Heralds Jerry Birge. Attended Indiana University for only 24 days. They thought scoring was more important, but passing is important.". Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Larry Bird played 13 seasons for the Celtics. Bird was named a special assistant in the Celtics front office, with limited duties that included some scouting and player evaluation. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Twelve of the top 14 picks in that years draft were seniors, with the other two non-seniors being juniors Kenny Carr and Bernard King, so staying all four years of college was still very much the norm then. French Lick had a population of 2,059, most of whom came out to watch Springs Valley High Schools home games in a state that takes its schoolboy basketball very seriously. Larry Bird - net worth, private life. Larry Bird. Extremely high basketball IQ, pure heart and hustle. Home; Tickets; Schedule. He has tallied 1,556 steals, as well as 755 blocks and 5,695 dimes. Isiah Thomas was in the high school class of 1979. games played = 41.4 ppg This is going off of their college career . He initially enrolled at Indiana University in 1974 but dropped out before the season began. During his career he shot .496 from the floor and .886 from the free-throw line, retiring as the fifth all-time free-throw shooter behind Mark Price, Rick Barry, Calvin Murphy and Scott Skiles. By that time Birds scoring average had reached the mid-20s, and he was averaging upwards of seven assists. Finally, Bird enrolled at Indiana State, which had posted 12-14 records in each of the two previous years and where the pressure was not quite the same as at Indiana a perennial Big Ten power and national title contender. Hodges is credited with recruiting Larry Bird to Indiana State and coached Bird in the famous 1979 NCAA Final against Michigan State. While he wouldve competed for playing time with 6-7 forwards Steve Green (16.6 ppg), May (16.3 ppg) and Tom Abernethy to start the year, Bird grew taller than May at 6-9, 220 pounds, making him a viable replacement once May went down with his injury. All rights reserved. Coming out of Springs Valley, Bird chose IU over Indiana State and Purdue after being pursued by more than 50 schools, according to The Herald (Jasper, Ind.). The former NBA player met his second wife, Dinah Mattingly, at Indiana State. "He's 6-9, was the nation's second leading scorer and that's not all," wrote The Evening Sun's Bill Tanton. Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.Growing up in French Lick, Indiana, he was a local basketball star. "Larry Bird finishes things," said Dick Ballinger, the varsity head baseball coach at West Vigo High School in West Terre Haute, Indiana during the spring of 1979. Larry Bird was a co-star of one of the greatest college basketball national championship games ever - Bird vs. Magic, when the undefeated Indiana State Sycamores took on the co-Big Ten champion . Bird took just two shots that night and made both, according to the Philadelphia Daily News, while he helped teammates Carl Nicks and Steve Reed score 50 combined. Bird didnt let the team down. Drafted into the NBA by the Boston Celtics with the sixth overall pick in . It was the only time the Hoosiers had a record that was less than five games over .500 under Knights watch. Bird returned to his role with the Pacers in 2013 before stepping down in 2017 to assume an advisory role for the franchise. ; School Indiana State University; Born December 7, 1956 in West Baden, IN USA; Biographical Information []. "He's a great passer and an excellent rebounder. Let me be clear, college basketball would look and feel the same if Bird never transferred from IU to ISU, but the 1979 national championship game Bird vs. Magic is still the highest-rated college basketball game of all-time, with a 24.1 rating for a game in which 38 percent of all TVs in the country that were turned on at the time were tuned into Indiana State vs. Michigan State on NBC. The Hoosiers beat Furman by one in the first round of the NCAA tournament, before losing by one to Villanova. All rights reserved. Or does he simply become the most famous figure from the 1976 squad, adding another Indiana-to-NBA success story and making, I dont know, hand-me-down Larry Bird Sacramento Kings jerseys the most popular commodity at Goodwills in Monroe County in the 1990s and early 2000s? Gambling problem? He's an impressive figure with incredible rivalries, but there are still tons of things that younger NBA fans should know about Larry Legend. IU had three one-possession losses in the 1976-77 season and three defeats by two possessions. RELATED: The complete results from the best #MarchMadnessMoments bracket. Bobby would have won another NC with Bird. Or write about sports? He and owner Herb Simon had discussed his eventual departure for a few years. Bird and Johnson were already playing their first year in the NBA by then. Though Larry Bird never won a scoring or rebounding title, he produced stats comparable to those of the NBA's best and brightest through his well-rounded play, dizzying . Bird chose IU because he likes coach Bobby Knight, the players, the fans and the way they have things set up there, according to The Noblesville Ledger. His career averages were 24.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 6.3 assists in 897 regular season games. Bird nearly doubled the Sycamores' win total year-over-year from 13 to 25 after sitting out just one year in 1975-76, rather than two, after IU signed papers for Bird's release. UCLA beat Montana by just three points in its second tournament game, proving the Bruins were a resilient, but mortal, champion. Editors note: This is part of a series of stories revisiting the biggest what-ifs in IU history. Bird, the Coach of the Year in 1997-98, resigned as Pacers coach after Indianas Finals appearance.