Hodges said of Bird, "His only personal goal this year was to lead the nation in rebounds. Bird, now 30 years old and with worsening back condition and foot problems as well, would not win a fourth championship ring. College at Indiana State. Or write about sports? At one time I believe Knight had Bird, Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas in for recruiting. The story was news to me. In 1975, John Woodens last season, UCLA won its 10th national championship to cap off an NCAA tournament run in which it needed overtime to beat Michigan in the opening round and Louisville in the Final Four. Bird always held a chip on his shoulder over that, even decades later. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. The Hoosiers went 14-13 in 1977, later having their record adjusted to 16-11 after Minnesota was forced to forfeit two wins. Bird earned an assortment of accolades during his time at Indiana State. Larry Bird's wife, Dinah Mattingly, is his high school sweetheart who got engaged and married the former NBA legend in 1989. They got married in 1989 and adopted two children: Connor and Mariah Bird. Data Provided By ", The Evening Sun's Bill Tanton: "At the beginning of the season, Indiana State was picked third or fourth in its own conference. The hours he had spent working on his shot as a youngster paid big dividends in the NBA. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. Odds & lines subject to change. That story is largely lost to time and even better, he did it mostly because of a dare. McHale just destroyed him. He won the Rookie of the Year award, 3 MVP awards, 2 Finals MVP awards and 3 NBA championships. TV stations showed film clips of Bird instead of commercials. I could play baseball, Bird responded, taking the coach by surprise. Bird finished runner-up to Moses Malone for the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, as he would the following year. His Mom and Dad divorced while Bird was in HS, His dad shot and killed himself a year later. Net Worth, Salary & Earnings of Larry Bird in 2023. The small forward had just led Indiana State to a 33-1 season, with the teams sole loss coming to Magic Johnson and Michigan State. Bird, the Coach of the Year in 1997-98, resigned as Pacers coach after Indianas Finals appearance. He became only the third player (and the first non-center) to win three consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player Awards. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Do you have a sports website? According to The New York Times, Hodges once said his primary contribution during Indiana States national runner-up season was not messing up Larry Bird.. The internet said that Bird's mother worked 2 jobs to care for Larry and his 5 siblings. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. Birds 19 points in the 1982 NBA All-Star Game, including 12 of the Easts last 15, earned him the games MVP trophy. Few played tougher than Bird, who would leap into crowds and over press tables for loose balls. Do you have a blog? 1 in Birds senior year that is, until a Michigan State team featuring a 6-foot-9 guard named Earvin Magic Johnson knocked them off in the 1979 NCAA Championship Game, one of the most widely watched showdowns in basketball history. NAISMITH AWARDS: Player of the Year | Coach of the Year | Defensive Player of the Year, While Bird was most known for his scoring, he had a well-rounded game that included double-digit rebound totals and unselfish passing. So it is a moot point. Larry Bird Ball was the most popular sport in Terre Haute. As a senior, Bird became the schools all-time scoring champion and about 4,000 people attended his final home game. He's an impressive figure with incredible rivalries, but there are still tons of things that younger NBA fans should know about Larry Legend. 5 ranking than their final record that was just one game above .500, having not cracked the AP poll after December 20. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. He was also called Kodak by his first NBA coach, Bill Fitch, . Bird was too insecure for the atmosphere there and Magic hated how Knight yelled and screamed and bullied players so he went to Mich State. Kent Benson was the bigest name in Indiana basketball back then, but an A1 arrogant asshole as well, at least by most accounts of those who knew him. On the day after his uniform was retired in basketball, Larry Bird took the field for both games of a doubleheader in baseball for the Indiana State Sycamores. If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. Wore the number 33 on his basketball jersey in high school, college and with the Boston Celtics. Larry Bird's accomplishments and stats make him one of the greatest pure shooters of all time. We present them here for purely educational purposes. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Larry Bird was such a player. When Bird enrolled in Bloomington, he joined the reigning Big Ten champions, an IU team that had gone 23-5 and missed the NCAA tournament after a loss to Michigan but won the Collegiate Commissioners Association Tournament to close out its 1973-74 campaign. Here are some of the records and historical rankings that Larry Bird achieved at Indiana State: Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote after watching him in the Final Four: "I could not believe The Bird. Boston won, 152-148, in double overtime. Imagine Thomas, Bird and Magic on the same team. The Top 11 Ranked. 2 Notre Dame, No. He has tallied 1,556 steals, as well as 755 blocks and 5,695 dimes. 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. It was Bird's first experience with Knight in a gym setting. That was excellent. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Imagine what he wouldve done with a Hall-of-Fame head coach and future NBA players as teammates! Following a sophomore season that was shortened by a broken ankle, Bird emerged as a star during his junior year. Indiana State nearly became the most recent undefeated national champion, reaching the 1979 national title game with a 33-0 record. As the 1992-93 NBA season approached, Bird decided he could not continue. 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. Bird had actually nailed the jumper from the corner. The Celtics, however, fell to the Pistons in the conference finals. And in the 2000 NBA Finals, the Pacers succumbed in a six-game series to the Lakers, led by Shaquille ONeal and Kobe Bryant, for the Lakers first of three consecutive titles. We had guys last year who didn't care about passing. As a senior at Springs Valley High School, Bird averaged nearly 31 points and 21 rebounds per game. Everyone remembers Michael Jordans decision to leave the Bulls and pursue a career in baseball, but it was Larry Bird who tried his hand at the game on April 28, 1979, and became a one-day legend in the process. Larry Bird ranks as one of the all-time top players of the NBA. 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 . 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. The Orlando forward played only 11 games this season after missing two years with a torn ACL. 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 . But there were plenty more heroics yet to come. * 21+ (19+ CA-ONT) (18+ NH/WY). He thought he had been playing pretty damn good that day. Larry Bird's college career. Attended Indiana University for only 24 days. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Even though he had never coached a game in his life, the Pacers had no qualms about turning over the reins to Bird. He started out as an Indiana Hoosier but later left the school and team coached by the legendary Bobby Knight. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. 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! Birth Country: United States. 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 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. But none of those things kept him in Bloomington, as he was gone before homecoming his freshman year. When I started here, I wanted to see the high school, college and professional basketball worlds come together, and Bird symbolizes that. He starred in college at Indiana State, taking them to the NCAA final game in 1979, virtually as a one-man team. May 16, 2022. 0:05. Larry Bird, AKA "Larry Legend," was selected by the Boston Celtics with the sixth overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft. It's because of Bird. Navigation Toggle NBA. Forward Larry Bird played 13 seasons for the Celtics. Indianapolis Star. This was easy to see when you noticed Bird's basketball stats. Career NBA statistics; Points: Rebounds: Assists: Stats at Basketball-Reference.com: . His career averages were 24.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 6.3 assists in 897 regular season games. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. Bird was raised in French Lick, Indiana, and attended Indiana State University, where he helped revive . Do you have a sports website? "He was named an Indiana All-Star.". Former professional NBA player, coach, and NBA executive Larry Bird is well known globally. The following season . He scored 136 points in five NCAA tournament games, leading the Sycamores to the national championship game, where they fell to the Michigan State Spartans. The players looked up to see Coach Knight, just recently returned from an out of state trip, having an absolute cow and cussing up a storm, throwing shit and marching across the floor from the open doorway he had been peeking through. Join us for a March Madness Webinar on Tuesday, March 7 at 8pm ET. Stephen Curry has racked up 29,674 minutes and has played in 864 . This blog is forever grateful for the meme template that sweet, sweet banner gave us. Larry Bird was born on as Larry Joe Bird to parents: Georgia and Claude Joseph "Joe" Bird, a veteran of the Korean War.He attended Springs Valley High School. College: Indiana State. It began as gentle ribbing, poking fun at Birds propensity to spend a majority of his free time getting ice and massages in the ISU training room. Then he left the local junior college, Northwood Institute. Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP. Sucker punch in OVC tournament leads to 3 ejections. A crafty defensive player, Birds most famous steal came in Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit. Celtics Wire. Complete NBA coaching record for Larry Bird, including regular season and postseason games. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. In 1981-82, Bird made the first of his three consecutive appearances on the NBA All-Defensive Second Team even though he was relatively slow and not the greatest one-on-one defender, his anticipation and court sense made him peerless as a team defender. I ran across this short narrative while reading Bobby Knight's book- "Knight-My Story", and thought it might be interesting to share to the board. Ballinger had proof. Mark Bird's college team, where he became one of the school's best all-time players. * 21+ (19+ CA-ONT) (18+ NH/WY). Surgery to remove bone spurs from both heels limited Bird to only six games in 1988-89. The small forward had just led Indiana State to a 33-1 season, with the team's sole loss coming to Magic Johnson . Bird has four siblings' all brothers named Mike . 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 recalls in his Book "Drive"--which he wrote late in his playing career-- how he never missed an opportunity to take it to Benson during their NBA days. Taking a look at the numbers behind Nikola Jokic's historic season for the Nuggets. "At 9 o'clock yesterday [Bill] Hodges went to wake up Bird for a brunch at which he was to receive the Player of the Year Award. In addition to his three championship rings, Bird piled up an awesome collection of personal achievements. . All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. No shit! Durant, a four-time scoring champion, now sets his sights on Hakeem Olajuwon in 12th place. The .500 batting average still exists in Indiana State history books as one of the highest ever recorded by a player for the team. Larry Joe Bird (Larry Legend, The Hick from French Lick) Bats Left, Throws Left; Height 6' 9", Weight 220 lb.