ESPN Special - Larry's Legend - November 1992

[Applause] [Music] good evening and welcome to this espn special presentation i'm dan patrick the nba season opens up this friday night with 11 games on the schedule including the celtics hosting the minnesota timberwolves this will be the first time in 13 seasons celtic fans will not be treated to the talents of larry bird but tonight you will be we pay tribute to larry not only with our words his words but also those who played with him and against him we hope you enjoy what we've called larry's legend i always felt that if i go out there and shoot a thousand extra shots a day that got down for the last 10 seconds of the game i should take that shot because i had all the extra practice where these other guys didn't have it it's gonna go to bird he's got a shot get it shot and it got us a three-point fail goal and that's that and fall over and i always thought that i carried myself in a way that people were sort of intimidated by me on the basketball court because i knew i could do certain things out there they couldn't do i might not have been the fast guy or might not be able to jump as high but i always got the most rebounds and always scored the most points to fully appreciate what larry bird accomplished in his career you have to first fully understand what he overcame in his life french lick indiana population 2087 cannot be touched by interstate only country backroads can bring you into the second poorest region in the state an area where the average income is just over nine thousand dollars i don't think any of the kids here realize they're poor as long as you've got a basketball in your hand and a pair of tennis shoes and you can perform on friday night and you know be a member of a team you're not poor if you can do that it was a point to anytime we left the house to go play ball you know we had to take him because mom would end up having to go to work she couldn't stay there and watch him he was too little so everywhere we went he had to go i mean we didn't like it because he was a little troublemaker back in a lot of times larry's quest for basketball perfection was developed at an early age almost out of necessity during his long practice hours he wondered why go home when there's nothing to come home to he grew from a scrawny 6-1 sophomore to a gangly 6-3 junior to a 6-7 star who would average 30 points and 17 rebounds his senior season when larry graduated from springs valley he did what any good hoosier basketball player wants to do play for bob knight at indiana but at age 17 larry bird had never been more than 50 miles away from home for longer than a weekend at a time his stay in bloomington lasted just 24 days saying he felt lost and out of place the local hero was headed back home i don't think that i was either quite quite smart enough or quite understanding enough of bird's situation when he was here he was from a small town down in southern indiana french lick and and uh had had had some tough things in his life growing up and came here and i kind of approached it uh when he left toward the end of september well you know i wouldn't have chased may or buckner or abernathy and i'm not going to chase larry bird either well probably at that point in his life uh larry needed somebody to chase him a little bit and to show a little bit more uh compassion for his situation than i did at that time i get back to campus and i see scott may and my brother lauren who happened to go to indiana university and i asked my brother i said well where's this kid named bird my brother says yesterday i saw him out on this roll and it's called 37 i saw him on 37 with his luggage i think he went home did you feel like a failure when you were hitchhiking home no i was glad to get out of there only thing i was worried about is when i got home how my family would react and i remember my mom was mad at me for three or four months after that the first month we didn't speak and i can understand that but i made the decision to leave and i was going to stick by and i had everybody talking to me trying to get me to go back but i couldn't i mean it wasn't for me and i had to get out there and i did i mean i was upset about it a little bit because i you know i thought well what are you going to do you know that was what the first question i asked i said what are you going to do i mean you know you can't just lay around here and do nothing still to come on the show larry's legend suffers an identity crisis at indiana state i had some friends who i kept in contact with while i was still back here at united states and because of the numbers that he would produce they they assumed that larry bird was a black player [Music] harry bird was born to be a chapter he was destined for glory in the game he loved call this toll-free number now and get bird watching at its best in this amazing video larry bird a basketball legend it's free with your paid subscription to sports illustrated the best way to capture all the drama of sports through rare footage you'll follow larry from the basketball courts of indiana to the howler halls of boston [Music] be there when the championships are won share the glory live the moments be there for the hard fought and emotional duels with larry's longtime friend and rival magic johnson call now to subscribe or renew get your free video and 54 issues of si including the swimsuit issue for only 1.29 an issue save over 55 off the cover price for quicker delivery use your credit card don't miss this heartwarming tale of a boy who lived his dreams it's the story of a legend the legend lives in sports illustrated call now when larry bird arrived at indiana state in 1975 he unpacked a suitcase full of unpleasant memories his father joe bird had committed suicide the previous year a teenage marriage was headed for divorce and in fact due to the strains of that relationship larry bird was once again ready to quit college he showed up at his brother mark's house a pickup truck full of everything he owned saying he had left indiana state mark urged larry to go back to school larry said he would only if mark would go back and live with him due to that agreement larry bird put indiana state on the from basketball of old french lake on up to isu he came to play some basketball harley arley and clyde will be the first to agree this who's your larry is tremendous at making people believe in themselves he does it in such a subtle manner you don't know he's doing it and i think he gave indiana state the the uh feeling that they could accomplish anything that they could go and do anything and as long as he was there we had that feeling larry one thing about him he always it's some something his mind always told him i'm gonna win i'm gonna win can nobody even beat me i'm the best i'm the greatest that's the attitude that he had but he wasn't arrogant with it the sycamores won 25 games in larry's first year in terre haute but the word about bird had yet to spread nationwide going to denver for two years i had some friends who i kept in contact with while i was still back here at united states and they never saw any estate or larry bird on tv so because of the numbers that he would produce they they assumed that he larry bird was a black player and i thought you know never thought of that but they just thought that you know a guy can do that kind of thing as far as score and rebound and dish out the assist you know must be a black athlete two years later basketball's secret weapon was no longer a secret to the rest of america the sycamores who were unranked in the pre-season polls larry's senior season breezed through the regular season unblemished isu tacked on a couple more wins during the ncaa tournament including a two-point victory over depaul in the semi-finals for indiana state number 33 at center six foot nine eight senior from frederick indiana larry bird the championship matchup would prove to be act one of a long-running two-man play that would eventually leave a lasting impression on the sport bird didn't know his team would make it to salt lake city that year but he had a premonition magic's team would i remember the first time i seen him play it was my senior year and they were playing against the russians and um you know they were dunking pass and he you could tell he had control of the game from beginning we played the russians that year too and we had a close game they beat him 15 points 20 points but you just tell he was a great basketball player and his first time singing play and i was telling the guys the right thing that that team is going to win that championship this year you didn't have a good feeling that night you played them did you i didn't have a good feeling now not at all wasn't scared of them or i thought that they would have to play a bad game for us to win indiana state's one for all couldn't beat michigan state's all for one bird in the sycamore's magical season couldn't make their final opponent disappear i wasn't disappointed that much in getting getting beat it was uh all of a sudden my career is over you know i'm almost i was almost through with college all i had to do was finish up my student teaching and it was over and that's what hit me more than anything losing basketball game you know you'll get over that because there's always another game but you know leaving college because i had such a great time there had a lot of friends that's what got me all american we lost we go to the finals he loses we lose to michigan state after the game he tells me i need to go to the boys club i need to work out and shoot i need to work on my game you know i mean hey we had a great year man what are you talking about i'm going home and i'm going to brag i'm not going to play any ball you know but that's just the difference you know he's a professionalist and he he worked at it you know he really did before heading back to french lick to hone his talents for the celtics bird set his sights on conquering another sport baseball he was a little nervous in doing it which you know the truth be known the reason i played in college because i knew i could hit that baseball we didn't start larry we kept him in the dugout and the people kept you know pounding the stands wanting to see him wanting to see him i haven't played baseball in god i don't know four or five years six years and i went to a lot of their games i watched him and i knew i could stand up at the plate and hit the ball and larry went up there to pinch hit we put him in the game as a pinch hitter and the crowd gave him a standing ovation as he walked up first time i got up there was like a i couldn't believe how hard he was throwing the ball he proceeded to use his slow slow pitch softball swing and strike out he looked terrible he didn't look much better on defense either i just got out there i was playing a double hitter that day and just got on the field and there's a pop-up between um first base and home plate and i took off and then the catcher dove at the same time and the shin guard caught me upside the head and it took me a while to come out of it and they both laid there on the ground for a minute and i thought oh no you know what have we done i mean i knew where i was at but i couldn't stand up i like the 100 mile an hour wind was blowing me off course i kept saying to myself larry get up get up get up the poor catcher probably wonders why i wasn't rooting for him you know it took me about three or four innings to shake it wouldn't a good experience still to come on the show larry's pro game plays before rave reviews and i used to always say that you know like to my friends he's like yo it's not really that good i used to say like yeah that's the baddest white boy i played against [Music] bird was a junior eligible when the celtics selected him as the sixth pick in the 1978 draft i was on a golf course and a guy came in and said hey you just got drafted by the boston celtics and i didn't know that i was up for the draft i didn't know nothing about it i never followed professional basketball then i was at home when they had it on the news and i thought well i'd better start checking this out and see what this is all about bird joined the celtics a year later signing the largest rookie contract in sports history at the time but he came ready to punch the time clock not cash paychecks what dislike when you get your first paycheck you know it's funny i have never ever seen one of my paychecks from celtics they send it to the bank and i get a report on it every month but i've never actually seen a check you're not even curious i mean you know what you're making but i never broke it down bird was entering the nba at a time when 80 percent of its starters were black he was joining a last-place team with the me first attitude a team that had posted the most losses in franchise history the previous season he refused to be turned into a symbol a symbol representing the great white hope some blacks were skeptical of the knight in shining armor well you know the league needs great white players they made great black players you know great for marketing great for the league you know fans and everything and so i thought they were really just pushing somebody to to be a great white player i didn't think he was as good as everybody saying he was but once i came and started playing with him i i realized then that everything they said about it was true you know we sit back out and have a beer up in the in the in the locker room and we was talk you know we may be talking it's like you know white boys just lit you up and i used to always say that you know like to my friends it's like yo it's not really that good i used to say like yeah that's the baddest white boy i played against the celts won 61 games in byrd's rookie season a year later he would guide boston to the first of his three titles three years later he would earn the first of his three consecutive mvps he was cocky he was arrogant and he was driven by being the best player on the best team my high school coach told me one time we used to play and practice and and i know he's using now i know he's using his motivational tool but he said no matter how far you run or how fast you run or how many shots you take there's always somebody down the road a little bit bigger a little bit stronger a little bit better so we always thought that we put that extra 100 jump shots in i ran that extra mile we could stay up with that guy and it took me a long time to think that well you know that one guy he was talking about could have been magic johnson when we came in we were enemies and we were natural rivals um no we didn't like each other no we didn't speak hey i don't care for the man he don't care for me we're going at each other and going back and forth and finally after four or five years of battling each other to the end and uh we have a commercial together and i'll tell you that day was the most remarkable day because that brought magic johnson and larry bird together while his wars were with magic his battles were waged with the rest of the league it was a tie game they had the ball and dj was stalling the basketball you know larry was kind of standing i was fighting behind him like denying him the ball and uh they called the timeout and he turned around and looked at me and said i'ma score right here on you and uh i said i know you will i'll be ready ten seconds five and bird has the basketball look out two seconds on the clock and timeout used by the sonic he shot a turnaround jump shot i just looked back and the ball just went in hit all net and uh he said uh i told you something another time that was when we was playing him here like 42 kent was a freshman he told sean kemp that i'm the best f player that ever come from uh indiana and shot a three-pointer in his face all net we was like larry legends is at it again larry uses picks probably better than a player that would play at the game and uh larry was on the box and robert perry was coming down to set a pick on me the chief didn't shoot didn't throw a good pick so while larry's in the air he's got the ball right here and he's screaming at chief but not setting the pick and i'm like you scream hit a guy in the air but not setting the pick and he and he makes the jumper i couldn't believe that he put the fun into fundamentals he wasn't into degree of difficulty his career lasted 13 seasons the pain those 13 seasons delivered will last a lifetime his body started asking for timeouts in 1989. by 1992 his body would ask to quit we'll never know how much pain you were in unless you have back trouble it got scary after a while because i got to the point where i couldn't feel my leg my toes that's what scared me the most the announcement was not a shock but the timing was a surprise his farewell party came soon after a printed story suggested larry bird was considering playing part-time it just kept getting worse as the summer went on you know these start picking the games and home games they're going to do this and that and my back wasn't feeling that good anyway and when i made my decision it's time to do it get it over with and go on with life but there's no way that would ever happen i would never ever do that to the fans of the nba if you ask to sum up larry now and versus after retiring uh then you know now he's fun he's really uh i mean a hell of a person uh then he was pure basketball pure athlete pure star pure boston [Applause] this espn special presentation larry's legend is brought to you by budweiser the king of beers with that fresh pure natural taste nothing beats a butt when larry's legend returns it's storytelling time one opening night we're playing in new jersey and you know everyone's all jacked up for opening night and getting ready for the game and casey has given us our motivational speech to go out on the court and get ready to start the season off on the right foot larry's underneath the tape the trainer's tape table tying casey shoestrings together casey's giving us the speech everyone's laughing inside can't even concentrate on the game you know he was just he was a fun guy to play with obviously more larry stories coming up larry's storybook career spanned 13 seasons here are some of those stories he leaves behind we're on the road larry said i like to have a little bit of fun out like we all did we were all young we got a few beers after the game and stuff and so larry decided this road trip that he wasn't gonna what are we gonna drink wasn't in guelph was going to bed early was going to take care of himself and have a great road trip he went out he was about three or four days into this we play our game we play in golden state he goes oh freight first time i ever saw him go freight he walked in the locker room and we're all just going like you know we've never seen larry go for eight like that and uh and uh larry goes that's it he goes this is yeah i can't hang out with chris ford going to bed is not good for you so we stayed up very late that night and the next night he had about 38 in portland one time we didn't have we didn't have uh we're all getting on the plane and i didn't know larry wasn't gonna play and so uh i'm sitting there and i'm waiting for larry to come in onto the plane and uh you know dave walks by and i go dave where's larry and he goes oh he's not coming i go well i'm getting off he goes what do you mean i said well this plane is going down for sure and he goes and i still think the sad thing about is tomorrow's headlines are going to read bird lives i can remember the night he and i and doug we went out to rush street and as you said we had a couple beers maybe a few too many because the chicago cheerleading uh staff was in happened to be in the bar that we were at and they kept sending us a few berries a few bears and before we knew it it was late at night we had a few too many we got in a cab and they got us back to the hotel and about uh six hours later we had to be up because we're playing a 12 o'clock game that afternoon and we get to the arena and you know we're still a little tired and uh happened matter of fact larry fell asleep on the taping table to get a little nap before the game so we go out and larry takes his first shot he misses everything and i'm going oh lordy bill fitch is gonna be all over me because he knew he was with me and robert parish picks up three quick fouls so that means i gotta go into the game and play a bunch of minutes that night we ended up winning the game and winning the series against chicago bird had like you said around 40 points and as we're walking off the floor i can remember this larry looked over at those cheerleaders said thanks a lot for those bears last night the doors are probably just open to the arena and these two guys walk around the corner our locker room wasn't well marked so they probably thought they were just going into a restroom or probably just walking around seeing what they could find they happened to walk into our locker room and i could tell when they first walked around the corner that they were just like shocked that they were in the celtic locker room all of a sudden and larry as soon as he sees him and he knows they're not supposed to be there he says oh hi guys come on in and he invites them in the locker room invites them to have some popcorn the ball boys that had already got some popcorn in there and these guys are just like shell shocked you know that they've walked into the place and now bird's making them stay in there and they're like scared to death and so he makes him sit down by his locker and he gets them some popcorn if you guys need anything to drink we got some beer back here for after the game or coke or pop whatever you need and then after every player would come in larry would introduce these guys to the player and these guys after a while you know they just started eating this stuff up casey jones walks in the locker room k.c come over and meet my friends my long-lost buddies and it was it was just hilarious i just always wondered after that night what happened to those guys how many people they told that story to and how many people believed it was in philadelphia and around christmas time and you know people dressed up like santa claus they had like four or five of them sitting in one row the game's going on they take me out of the game we're sitting here i look over there and there's these four santa claus getting in a fight and these guys are pounding these santa clauses and i'm sitting there going holy cow i said what does all these kids think about this you know sitting in the stands they look down their four-year-old kids hey mama there's santa claus and all of a sudden you see him in a fist fight with some guy behind him that was probably the most startling thing i've ever seen in my entire career [Music] while bird was still active he never wanted to look back on the highlights of his career he feared this was an admission that he was no longer still improving the nba will discover more stars boston will attach itself to another hero but both will be a little emptier without larry bird you even like that larry legend stuff [Music] i don't know my friends like it because that's what they call me legend but i don't know it's flattering it's it's very flattering but it's also very embarrassing [Applause] uh

Channel: Tim Theriault

Views: 66,053

Rating: 4.8810196 out of 5

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Id: YiFjyX4n5sY

Length: 24min 52sec (1492 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021