Larry Bird

Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

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 MVP, All-Star MVP, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year.

Growing up in French Lick, Indiana, he was a local basketball star.

Highly recruited, he initially signed to play college basketball for coach Bob Knight of the Indiana Hoosiers, but Bird dropped out after one month and returned to French Lick and attended a local college.

The next year he attended Indiana State University, ultimately playing three years for the Sycamores.

Bird received a scholarship to play college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers under head coach Bob Knight in 1974.

After less than a month on the Indiana University campus he dropped out of school, finding the adjustment between his small hometown and the large student population of Bloomington to be overwhelming.

He returned to French Lick, enrolling at Northwood Institute (now Northwood University) in nearby West Baden, and working municipal jobs for a year before enrolling at Indiana State University in Terre Haute in 1975.

Drafted by the Boston Celtics with the sixth overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft after his second year at Indiana State, Bird elected to stay in college and returned for the 1978–79 season.

He then led his team to an undefeated regular season.

The season finished with a national championship game match-up of Indiana State against Michigan State and featured a highly anticipated match-up of Bird against Michigan State great Magic Johnson, thus beginning a career-long rivalry that the two shared for over a decade.

Michigan State won, ending the Sycamores' undefeated streak.

Bird entered the NBA for the 1979–80 season, where he made an immediate impact, starting at power forward and leading the Celtics to a 32-win improvement over the previous season before being eliminated from the playoffs in the conference finals.

He played for the Celtics during his entire professional career (13 seasons), leading them to five NBA finals appearances and three NBA championships.

He played most of his career with forward Kevin McHale and center Robert Parish, considered by some to be the greatest front court in NBA history.

He had a successful three-year career with the Sycamores, helping them reach the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history with a 33–0 record where they played the 1979 championship game against Michigan State.

Indiana State lost the game 75–64, with Bird scoring 19 points but making only 7 of 21 shots.

The game achieved the highest-ever television rating for a college basketball game, in large part because of the matchup between Bird and Spartans' point guard Earvin "Magic" Johnson, a rivalry that lasted throughout their professional careers.

Bird was a 12-time NBA All-Star, won two NBA Finals MVP awards and received the NBA Most Valuable Player Award three consecutive times (1984–1986), making him the only forward in league history to do so.

Bird was also a member of the gold medal-winning 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team, known as the "Dream Team".

He was voted onto the NBA's 50 Greatest Players in NBA History list in 1996, and subsequently the 75th Anniversary Team list in 2021.

A versatile player at both forward positions, he could play both inside and outside, being one of the first players in the league to take advantage of the newly adopted three-point line.

After retiring as a player, Bird served as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000.

He was named NBA Coach of the Year for the 1997–98 season and later led the Pacers to a berth in the 2000 NBA Finals.

He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame twice as a player—first in 1998 as an individual, and again in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team".

In 2003, Bird was named president of basketball operations for the Pacers, holding the position until retiring in 2012.

He was named NBA Executive of the Year for the 2012 season.

Bird returned to the Pacers as president of basketball operations in 2013, and remained in that role until 2017.

Bird continued with the Pacers as an advisor until July 2022, then after nearly a year's break returned to the organization in the role of consultant.

Bird was born in West Baden Springs, Indiana, to Georgia (née Kerns) and Claude Joseph "Joe" Bird, a veteran of the Korean War.

Bird's parents were of Irish, Scottish and some Native American descent.

He has four brothers and a sister.

He was raised in nearby French Lick, where his mother worked two jobs to support Larry and his five siblings.

Bird has said that being poor as a child still motivates him "to this day".

Georgia and Joe divorced when Larry was in high school, and Joe died by suicide about a year later.

Larry used basketball as an escape from his family troubles, starring for Springs Valley High School and averaging 31 points, 21 rebounds, and 4 assists as a senior on his way to becoming the school's all-time scoring leader.

According to Bird, he grew up as a huge fan of the Indiana Pacers in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the 6'9 center Mel Daniels, who represented his first exposure to professional basketball.

Bird's youngest brother, Eddie Bird, also played basketball at Indiana State University, where Daniels would coincidentally become an assistant coach to the young Larry once he played there.

Bird was rated the greatest NBA small forward of all time by Fox Sports in 2016.