Bird, Larry

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.

Bird was raised in French Lick, Indiana, and attended Indiana State University, where he helped revive the basketball program and led the team to a 33–1 record in his senior season. That season ended with a loss to Michigan State University in the NCAA championship game (1979), which was the first meeting of Bird and Magic Johnson, a rivalry that would become the centrepiece of the NBA’s popularization during the 1980s. Bird was drafted by the Celtics after his junior year at Indiana State (1978) but did not play professionally until the 1979–80 season, when he won the Rookie of the Year award after contributing to one of the largest single-season turnarounds in NBA history (a 32-win improvement).

Over the course of his 13 seasons with the Celtics, the self-described “hick from French Lick” cemented his legacy as one of the greatest players in NBA history. A 6-foot 9-inch (2.06-metre) forward, he was known for his unflappable confidence and clutch shooting ability, which together created an intimidating presence on the court. The Celtics won their first NBA title with Bird (and 14th overall) in 1981; they repeated with title wins in 1984 and 1986. Bird was a 12-time All Star and won three consecutive league Most Valuable Player awards (1984–86), the first noncentre to do so. He averaged 24.3 points, 10 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game over the course of his career, and his 21,791 total points scored was the 11th highest in NBA history at the time of his retirement. At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Bird was a member of the NBA-superstar-laden “Dream Team,” which won a gold medal in basketball. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.

Bird retired in 1992 and moved to a front-office position with the Celtics. He became the head coach of the Indiana Pacers (despite having no previous coaching experience) in 1997 and was named Coach of the Year after his first season. Bird resigned in 2000 after guiding the Pacers to an appearance in the NBA finals during the previous season, and he became the Pacers’ president of basketball operations in 2003. In June 2012 he resigned from the Pacers’ front office, just weeks after winning the previous season’s Executive of the Year award. After a year away from the sport, he returned to his position as the Pacers’ president of basketball operations in June 2013. Bird again stepped down in May 2017, having constructed teams that qualified for the play-offs in 8 of his 13 seasons in that position, and then took a role in the Pacers organization as a scout and consultant.