Larry Bird

Georgia Bird worked two jobs in French Lick to keep six children fed. Her husband Joe, back from the Second World War and Korea, divorced her while Larry was in high school and killed himself in February 1975. Larry averaged 31 points and 21 rebounds as a senior at Springs Valley, wearing 33 because his brother Mark had worn it first. The scholarship Bob Knight gave him at Indiana lasted under a month: Bloomington was too big and he went home, enrolled at Northwood Institute in West Baden, and worked municipal jobs for a year before Indiana State took him in 1975. He has said that having been poor as a child still moves him.

Indiana State went 33-0 into the 1979 final and lost to Michigan State 75-64, Bird scoring 19 on 7-of-21 shooting. The game still holds the highest television rating a college basketball game has ever drawn, because he and Magic Johnson were on opposite ends of it. Boston had already taken him sixth in the 1978 draft and waited a year for him to graduate. He improved the Celtics by 32 wins as a rookie and took Rookie of the Year. Then three championships in 1981, 1984 and 1986, two Finals MVPs, three straight league MVPs from 1984 through 1986 — no other forward has managed that — 12 All-Star selections, three consecutive three-point contests, and a career line of 24.3 points a game on 49.6 percent from the floor and 88.6 percent from the line.

The body gave out from the middle. Bone spurs ended the 1988-89 season after six games and were cut out of both heels. He led Boston to a 29-5 start in 1990-91 and then missed 22 games with a compressed nerve root in his back, had a disc removed that offseason, missed 37 more games the following year, and sat out four of the seven games against Cleveland in his last playoff series. Across those two seasons the Celtics went 71-28 with him on the floor and 30-29 without him. He announced his retirement on August 18, 1992, three weeks after taking an Olympic gold medal in Barcelona. He was 35.

He coached Indiana from 1997 to 2000, having said at the start he would give it three years. He went 58-24 in the first season and took Coach of the Year, reached the Finals in the third, and quit as promised. He ran the Pacers' basketball operations from 2003 to 2012 and again from 2013 to 2017. Executive of the Year in 2012 made him the only person to hold that award with an MVP and a Coach of the Year. Springfield inducted him in 1998 and again in 2010 with the Dream Team. Since 2022 the Eastern Conference finals trophy has carried his name and the Western Magic Johnson's. Terre Haute opened a museum for him in May 2024.

Larry Bird's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• Bird on Basketball book
  Written with John Bischoff at the height of the three MVP seasons 1986
• Drive: The Story of My Life book
  With Bob Ryan. It covers his father's alcoholism and suicide directly 1989
• The 1997-98 Indiana Pacers other
  A 58-24 team in his first year coaching, the best in franchise NBA history at the time 1998
• Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching the Game I Love book
  With Jackie MacMullan, written while he was coaching 1999
• When the Game Was Ours book
  Written jointly with Magic Johnson and Jackie MacMullan 2009

• 1974 aged ~18 Leaves Indiana University after less than a month He found the campus at Bloomington overwhelming and went back to French Lick.
• February 1975 aged 18 His father kills himself Joe Bird had divorced Larry's mother while Larry was in high school.
• March 26, 1979 aged 22 Indiana State loses the NCAA final to Michigan State and Magic Johnson Still the highest-rated college basketball game ever televised.
• 1980 aged ~24 Named Rookie of the Year after improving the Celtics by 32 wins
• 1986 aged ~30 Wins a third straight MVP and a third championship No other forward has taken three consecutive MVP awards.
• 1991 aged ~35 Has a disc removed from his back after missing 22 games The compressed nerve root eventually ended his career.
• August 18, 1992 aged 35 Announces his retirement at 35 Three weeks after the Dream Team took gold in Barcelona.
• 1998 aged ~42 Named NBA Coach of the Year in his first season on a bench He was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame that year.
• 2012 aged ~56 Named NBA Executive of the Year, completing the set

• Magic Johnson b. 1959
  Lakers legend whose Showtime era and HIV advocacy transformed basketball and public health conversations. rival
• Bill Russell 1934–2022
  Eleven-time NBA champion, pioneering Black coach, and civil-rights advocate whose team-first leadership defined a dynasty. the Celtics standard before him
• Wilt Chamberlain 1936–1999
  Dominant basketball center whose scoring, rebounding, and physical impact forced rule changes and expanded the NBA's appeal. earlier dominant forward
• John Wooden 1910–2010
  UCLA basketball coach whose ten NCAA titles in twelve seasons remain the sport's benchmark dynasty. college game he entered
• LeBron James b. 1984
  NBA superstar and philanthropist considered one of the greatest basketball players in history. successor at the position