The NBA Finals date back to 1947 (when they were known as the Basketball Association of America Finals) and the very 1st NCAA tourney was held in 1939. Olympic basketball competition is even older: it debuted as a demonstration event in 1904 and the men’s version became a medal sport in 1936, with the women finally getting their chance to go for the gold in 1976. The United States has dominated Olympic basketball competition from the start: the men have won 16 gold medals in the 19 tournaments they have participated in during the past 87 years, while the women have won 9 gold medals in the 11 tournaments in which they have competed during the past 47 years. With the 2024 Olympics in Paris just over 1 month away, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will fill the void by interviewing as many prior Olympic players/coaches as possible. We continue our coverage by chatting with Boston Globe sports columnist/associate editor Dan Shaughnessy about Larry Bird’s career, which included winning 3 NBA titles with the Celtics in the 1980s and a gold medal with the Dream Team in 1992.
Bird was raised in French Lick, IN, with a mother who worked 2 jobs to support 6 kids and a father who got divorced before committing suicide: what impact did such a childhood have on him either on or off the court? It was a hard childhood since he grew up poor. The hunger that he had always showed in his game: nothing was handed to him and he had to work hard for everything. He was “farmboy strong” and had a chip on his shoulder towards people who had it easier or played in elite conferences like the ACC.
After Boston selected him 6th overall in the 1978 NBA draft, he decided to return to Indiana State and led his team to 33 straight wins as national POY: how close did he come to going pro that summer, and why did he choose to go back to college? He told everyone in advance that he was going back to college so it was “buyer beware”. He was committed to playing his senior year so that was a risk for GM Red Auerbach. It went down to the wire: Red tried to get him to the NBA right after Larry’s junior season finished in the spring of 1978…but Larry was not interested.
He scored 19 PTS in a loss to Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team in the 1979 NCAA title game (which remains the highest rated college basketball game in TV history), then faced Magic’s Lakers team in the NBA Finals 3 times during a 4-year stretch from 1984-1987: what made their rivalry so special, and how much credit do they deserve for revitalizing the NBA during the 1980s? That is not an understatement: the Bird-Magic rivalry really revived the NBA, and those Celtics-Lakers series became like the Ali-Frazier fights of the 1970s. It was just perfect: you had players of different races, from vastly different college conferences, who played on different coasts after arriving in the NBA, etc. For Larry I think the 1984 Finals were the highlight of his life after losing to Magic in 1979: it was huge for him.
During the 1985 offseason he injured his back while shoveling crushed rock to create a driveway at his mother’s house, and in 1988 he was limited to 6 games after surgery to remove bone spurs from both heels: do you think that a healthy Bird might have put up some stats/records that would still be standing today? I would not go that far. He had a pretty long career: it could have been a little longer but a lot of guys break down, so it was not like he was really short-changed.
In 1986 the Celtics won 67 games and an NBA title: what made that team so special considering they had the same nucleus (Bird/Danny Ainge/Dennis Johnson/Kevin McHale/Roger Parish) for most of that decade? I covered that team on a daily basis and it was the best NBA team that I have ever seen. I think it holds up over the past few decades due to their size and outside shooting. Their frontcourt (with Bill Walton coming off the bench) is as good as any assembled in the history of the sport, and their bench players (including guys like Jerry Sichting/Scott Wedman) were also critical.
He teamed up with Magic and several other legends on the 1992 Dream Team to win an Olympic gold medal: do you think that we will ever see a greater collection of basketball talent? It was quite an assemblage. Larry was near the end of his career because his back was barking but Michael Jordan was at his height, and they had enough other guys close to their prime (Karl Malone/Charles Barkley/Patrick Ewing) that it remains the standard. I was in Barcelona with that team: they were global superstars and their opponents would take photos with them before games.
He was 1 of the most notorious trash-talkers of his era: was it more about being psychological or cocky or competitive or other? It is all those things: he was legitimately confident and was never intimidated by players with more athletic gifts. He was able to enforce that on the court and won MVP 3 years in a row. Other teams were in awe of him because he was so far ahead in the mental component of the game.
He is 1 of 3 players (along with Kevin Durant/Steve Nash) to have multiple 50–40–90 seasons: where does he rank among the greatest shooters in the history of the sport? Those things are hard to quantify, and Steph Curry has kind of redefined that for smaller guards. Bird is probably in everyone’s top-10…but Curry has taken it to another level.
He is the only person to ever be named Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player AND Finals MVP AND All-Star MVP AND Coach of the Year AND Executive of the Year: how was 1 guy able to succeed in so many different roles over the course of several decades both on and off the court? That is a pretty good stat. Translating your success as a player into a role as coach/executive does not always work out so well for everybody. It was no small thing and is a cool stat.
When people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? I am in Boston and he basically got in and out of here unscathed. He was never controversial (a la Bobby Orr) but it is rare to retire here with impeccable love/admiration from the entire fanbase. He was also smart enough to not stick around here as a coach/executive and possibly get booed if his teams did not play well. It was pretty perfect, which is tough to do.