SportsCentury Greatest Athletes #30: Larry Bird

[Music] Larry Bird could have been the poster boy for the 1950s NBA he wasn't fast he wasn't sleek and he drank draft beer in neighborhood saloons but when he assembled all the little ordinary outdated pieces of himself and walked onto a basketball court he was a player for all ages styles and colors nobody's white hope Larry Bird operated above race reaching heights unheard of back where he came from in high school yeah he's gonna play in college who's he gonna be the Player of the Year no one thought that for him any senior but yeah he's the best player in college he's gonna play in the pros no great quick doesn't jump well but he had that one thing that people couldn't measure you can't measure the first part [Music] [Music] [Applause] Sunday morning French Lick Indiana while the town's folk attend their chosen houses of worship Springs Valley Gym silently awaits its faithful there's a way a lot the coffee shops or restaurants the barber shops everyone talks basketball on Friday nights the gym reverberates with the sound of teenagers adults and families basketball provides French Lick with its strongest cultural pulse it's what forms community in Indiana it's a cultured basketball it's rural it's white kids with on farms doing nothing all day long but shooting jump shot so that they are great pure shooters it's a kid alone with very simple basket again and again I remember Larry telling me how he waxed the net because the net would last longer that way everybody my my town had the same things it seemed like nothing so all we did was place four French Lick is among the poorest towns in Indiana and the birds among the poorest families despite a busy household that included four brothers and one sister young Larry suffered from a growing sense of isolation he was very quiet and shy he led by example rather than that word he felt awkward he felt poor he felt scorned he wasn't handsome there was the broken home a feeling of not having the essential elements of solidity in your family that allows you to feel as good as anyone else all these things you must have made it very painful I saw Laura taking a nap in an English class because he wouldn't speak in front of his own peers he loved his father his father had it was a flawed man his father was an alcoholic his father was a laborer who had skills that were that he could only bring to bear when he was sober enough to work the weekends weren't found a lot of times because you know you know you're young and your father comes in my mom always had to get up three or four in the morning or we had to get up you know to make sure you know he didn't hurt himself among hill birds private demons was a tour in Korea he couldn't forget joy was through hail in the war and he saw a lot of buddies kill them he was in foxholes and stuff you don't think like that can drain on the guy's mind and Georgie even said that he'd wake up at night screaming at Holland get down get down as Jo's alcoholism advanced the women ran the bird family Georgia worked two jobs while Larry's grandmother Lizzie watched over the children he thought she was God he'd be sick down here you know we thought he had pneumonia when he says that I can't practice tonight granny and she put these old-fashioned liniment on him he'd come out of it in about two or three hours and said I'm going down and they played the game that night and I think he scored more points that night he scored any time to go through all those lonely hours shooting hoops paid off after sitting out most of his sophomore season with an ankle injury Larry sprouted five inches over the next two years as college scouts began showing up in French Lick to see the six seven kid with the 31 point average going to those games was amazing you know we were like what can he do yet tonight you know what's he gonna do tonight he always wanted a rematch he'd have your sock that's the Badger you took beating he raised himself up and found the one true thing basketball that could let him out of what was this tiny island of his own little white ghetto Larry chose Indiana University but when he arrived in Bloomington the emotional poll of his hometown was just too strong coming from a town that had around 2000 been going somewhere where they had over 30,000 right away I sensed that I was in the wrong environment I don't think he was really ready to go to school I mean I wasn't as attune to what his needs were as a kid as I should have been we passed him going to a bookstore and I knew and didn't I think Larry acknowledged his you know thing I said hi coach Knight and he just kept walking and it really hurt Larry's feeling plus I didn't have the funds and the clothing and things I I thought I needed to to get me through I made my mind up that I couldn't survive there and after just 24 days byrd retreated to French Lick enrolled in junior college and took a job with the street department Larry was on the job five months when his father delivered on a recurrent threat Joburg killed himself at the age of 48 Larry card to figure out Kathy doesn't really show emotions I'm sure he had a lot of pain he just told it inside he deals with things he was crushed that he lost his father they were very close to their father even though he wasn't always there to see the children and to see mrs. Bird you know in that period of time was very difficult it definitely was a tough year there's no question about that but the one thing that I did was make a decision where I was gonna make my own decisions from that point on and if it was good decisions that's great if there's a bad decision that had to live with him do the things that I thought were right and live my life the way I wanted to live bird would make two major decisions in the next year his marriage to childhood sweetheart Janet Kandra dissolved in less than 12 months but enrolling at Indiana State would put him on a road to personal growth and basketball greatness for centuries fifty greatest athletes is presented by the company you count on wherever life takes you General Motors people in motion also brought to you by Burger King where you can have the delicious king of fries Burger King when you have it your way it just tastes better bike we eat the breakfast of champions and buy Lincoln Financial Group Lincoln Financial Group clear solutions in a complex world in 1975 Larry Bird arrived at Indiana State ready to play ball but he would have to sit out that season as a transfer he could practice in our first 550 coach Kane said Larry I've got to do something to let the first five win once in a while they can't win as long as you're in there and you know Larry kind of smirked and he said well just let them take their beating like a man [Music] the head of mine that was like the camera he had the best hand eye coordination maybe of anybody that ever played basketball in his junior season Byrd led Indiana State to a 23 and 9 record Celtics general manager read our by selected him with the sixth pick in the NBA Draft I said to brother said why would you drift this guy Burt and you know he's not gonna fight for this season and he looked at me and he said you have shorter period of time the Erie's Birds national recognition carried on the following year he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated while he carried the number one ranked 33 no sycamores into the NCAA finals against Michigan State and his future nemesis magic couldn't wait to give you the best smile and say how are you make you feel good Larry Bird with rather say don't do you don't even say hi to me I'd rather not get involved with I did not like labor he didn't like me not not because you know something happened but because we were both born after the same thing they'll always be length both Li and that's that's part of the beauty of sports from that 79 NCAA Championship that's pretty hard to say Larry Bird without thinking of Magic Johnson Junie 1979 bird lands in Boston and signs the NBA's richest rookie contract ever five years at three point two five million to Celtic fans he's a bargain at any price this was a white superstore in a world that was dominated by black super stories and so we know why a lot of people liked him athletically turned around when we draft a letter berth here he came for the quote to save him so happiness God's white then East Boston South Boston people could relate to it and you know Larry Bird is a great white hole the racial component of that was so powerful buried with the first great white ball player and a number of years you know playing for Boston to town which had a terrible reputation for race relations going back to the the busing crisis of the 70s here he was out there with a quart of black guys out there talking trash with him and the rest of fellas are sitting there going more bad what do you say you know and and I think what America saw in this guy was somebody who really didn't see where you get your kind of identity from you know your superstar Larry Larry was a beer-drinking lunch bucket type of player he was in a fight during the playoffs a bar and Boston and he was interviewed that later and he and people that were what does this mean Larry says it means to me ordinary people shouldn't think of me as a hero you couldn't never back down because once you do people look at your different we had to stand up for everything you believed in and then and even if it's on playing basketball somebody took the gloves off for one to go you had to go he did when there's Modi's plan Larry was the originator of getting in your face and talking trash but you knew how to aggravate you agitate you enough to get you out of your game Larry Bird is no hick believe me but you could stick a straw between his teeth and he could play the role and he could convince a lot of Mid America that he was their boy you have to kind of separate what he's saying sometimes because he he can take people where he wants them you know he he enjoys that the media begs off with Larry because they're very afraid of them they're afraid to somehow or another infuriate him they're afraid to ask the tough questions he somehow or another has that way of intimidating the media as he intimidated players we had a three-point contest to all-star break and Larry walks in and says I hope all you guys in here thinking about second place because I'm winning this excuse me and he started shooting and he just didn't miss I remember going Boston Garden for the first time it couldn't wait to see it walk on that floor I got there three three and a half hours before game time and the lights weren't even on on the court but I heard a ball bouncing as I was walking through the corridor and look who's here three and a half hours before the game begins an hour before anyone else would even be in the building other than the popcorn vendor but Larry Bird Larry Bird has always been afraid of failure what did that make him do it made him work harder than anybody else you know they talked about Larry Bird practicing in the rain Larry Bird practicing out by himself all the time before games after games and I think that's the ethic that he brought from that small town environment he knew the janitors and the equipment guys and those are his guys more than the high roller luxury box guys he doesn't like ponies sniffs them out right away [Music] much where the guard Michael Jordan life or at the cuffs you have to play the game as a thinker when you plant them you had to get inside his mind why was it quick could jump really high but there was just some sleepless nights berg the father these two guys generated huge television revenues and start the process of resuscitating the NBA from a league that was hemorrhaging money in many cities to a league that could start to garner big contracts from the television networks Larry Bird and Magic Johnson came in and gave basketball passion and energy and enthusiasm that the league was sorely missing these guys epitomize team play the both of them and that caught on like wildfire it just was a catalyst for capturing the interest of America magic had more white mythology solid home good middle-class jobs bird had a black pathology and broken home father committed suicide I was like Athens and Sparta you had the absolute glitz capital of the world and then an intellectual capital a blue-collar town it is the old world and when the two of them clashed and really felt like I missed out on world war two so here's the closest thing I'm gonna see when I play that bird was the only one I feel a lot of black guys always having good laugh over to play that girl listen man Larry Bird was so good as is frightening in the 1984 NBA Finals neither showed any fear when they squared off for the first time in the postseason with the celtics down two games to one Larry called his teammates issues they responded by taking the series in seven [Music] over their careers magic held a 22 to 15 edge in their Lakers Celtic encounters but it would be at a taping for a 1984 converse commercial but they would let their guards down Congress made a parachute for last years MVP yep they made a pair of magnitude but this get MVP okay magic tell me what you thought man I got a go to French Lick okay Larry Bird I was gonna have a lot of people see magic and I see this big Showtime and all this stuff but I didn't see any of that I've seen the real magic in between the takes would be a chance to top and that log is going gritty because this is a really the first time we got a chance to talk to each other we're just sitting there talking about everything in the world instead of basketball they couldn't even get us back out on the court to shoot the commercial actually that day I see him as urban Johnson I'm sure that magic particularly being the Black Knight had no idea that the white guy was poured and eveness Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and become friendly rivals we're in Los Angeles when I got a pool hamstring so I'm not playing tonight he walks down [Music] and I'm sorry is not playing but I think you said I'm gonna tell you what since you here I'm gonna put a show on for you so you just sit back and watch okay don't let make it up my face man want to hear that you know that self is in the Lakers every time he hit one you look at me the greatest basketball player ever but more important of friends whether they're walking and a hand into history together he wanted a whoop the Lakers worse than anything and magic in particular and it's no accident that when Magic announced that he had the AIDS virus the bird broke down and cried teared up couldn't talk when we return Larry Bird faces retirement and unresolved piece of the past and a future back on the boards sport centuries 50 greatest athletes is presented by the company you count on wherever life takes you General Motors people in motion also brought to you by Nike by Budweiser now is the perfect time to enjoy a brewery fresh beechwood aged Budweiser and buy MCI and 5 cent Sundays 5 cents a minute every Sunday Larry was that was the mystique I think Larry was the the confidence will to win you never gave up and that's what I mind most about Larry [Music] the parquet floor and the championship banners didn't mean anything Larry Bird wasn't on the court with us all the time Barcelona you could tell yet there was nothing left and he was a shell of himself there they had a clause in his contract that said that if he did not retire by August 15 that he would have an automatic renewal of this contract for four point five million dollars a year on August 12th he came in today we have it the president of the Celtics and said Dave I can't do it my back's too bad I'm gonna retire gavotte said to him Larry why don't you think about it for a week you've heard narrow his eyes and looked at him and said look I know what data says if I'm not gonna play I'm not gonna take the money I asked him one time so what what would have been like if he would stay on the sanitation it'd be culturally I have would have been boss by then and I say thank you I'll be around tonight my basketball career is officially over and I had a blast he was the kind of guy who probably should have never made the settings for chastise in some ways for drafting Larry Bird the Pacers were chastised does everybody thought it was kind of publicity stunt for hiring him as a coach Larry Bird always throws people wrong as bird strives to enrich his basketball heritage there is at least one unresolved issue in his life off the court from that ill-fated marriage to Janet Kandra he has a daughter about whom he rarely speaks that is the mystery in Larry's life why in the world would you basically disown your your daughter every time I see him he tells me he loves me and then as soon as I leave you know I don't hear from them for maybe a year in my letters I'm every single time I write my Thunderbird address you know call me you know just call him say hi leave a message anything he has two adopted children apparently is a great father to them but when you looked at the induction ceremony for Larry going in the Hall of Fame and you see the two adopted children there and you didn't see his natural-born daughter there's something wrong I don't completely agree with his sides of the way that you see things in the way that he does things but I understand there's no sense of me being bitter about it now I mean that's just make my life worse it's probably hard for him to show how he feels if flurry would contact for today she'd be so happy I mean she would forget any bad feelings that she has had in the past she's just loving that much it's harder for him just because he doesn't know where to start they'll hopefully you know sometimes off you know come around and understand that you know I'm gonna be here for a while so that would give me a lot of hope you know and then we can build from that so many questions so few answers all tied to a childhood in a town called French Lick I think sometimes of people who have no family and I think it's because I know right now if I needed something that I could call him they would be there Larry will always be the same you'll always be the same all of us are driven by things that when we were young made us insecure that we want to put back in the closet the game sets you apart and lifts you up and gives you your place in the community gives you away a legitimacy a decency and importance that otherwise was denying you with seconds to go in the game coach bird designs apply then watches from portside as one of his players takes the last shot in or out win or lose no change registers on his face no emotion in his eyes then we remember him with the ball in hand wearing that same blank expression nailing the game-winner at that point we realized the stoic face is the lasting memory of the 30th greatest athlete of the century we will see you next week when the 50 greatest athletes of the 20th century continues its countdown with number 29 this has been a presentation of ESPN the worldwide leader in sports for more log on to espn.com a part of the go Network go comm [Music]

Channel: Max Carey

Views: 206,774

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Id: kTHXSNV0DEA

Length: 23min 41sec (1421 seconds)

Published: Thu May 10 2018