Larry used BB tThe internet said that Bird's mother worked 2 jobs to care for Larry and his 5 siblings. Cathie. The couple has two adopted children named Conner Mariah.. Family. His Mom and Dad divorced while Bird was in HS, His dad shot and killed himself a year later. Bird was named the 1978-79 College Player of the Year and left Indiana State as the fifth-highest scorer in NCAA history. No-Trouble Returns upon All orders. Larry Bird - Wikipedia He definitely had a softball swing, Hayes recalled. The Celtics, however, fell to the Pistons in the conference finals. McHale just destroyed him. We present them here for purely educational purposes. I didn't say that Bird was the best college basketball player of all time. School: Indiana StatePosition: ForwardHeight: 6-9Weight: 220 poundsYears active: 1976-79NCAA tournament record: 4-1Career averages: 30.3 points per game, 13.3 rebounds per game, 4.6 assists per game, 53.3% shooting. A pioneering sixth man, Kevin McHale won three titles with the Celtics in the 1980s. 1988 Men's NCAA, 2019 Women's NCAA, 1940 Men's NCAA, 2006 Women's NCAA, 1981 Men's NCAA. 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Bobby said at this same time he (Knight) made a very huge mistake with having Bird room with an exceptional sophistcated player, with a very vibrant personalitythe complete opposite of Bird ..it was a very bad match-up..and Bird left school even before pre-season practice had started..He hitchiked home.and stayed! Larry Bird vs Magic Johnson Stats. Larry Bird. Bird was nicknamed Larry Legend and The Hick from French Lick, after his hometown in Indiana. As the 1992-93 NBA season approached, Bird decided he could not continue. 2022-23 Season Schedule; He was a two-time consensus first-team All-American in 1978-79, the College Player of the Year in 1979, a two-time MVC Player of the Year in 1978-79, and had his No. Bird won 3 MVP Awards, was selected to play in 12 All-Star Games, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998. On February 6, 1988, Larry Bird won his 3rd consecutive 3-point Contest while still wearing his warm-up jacket. For 13 seasons with the Boston Celtics, from 1979-80 through 1991-92, Bird personified hustle, consistency and excellence in all areas of play as a scorer, a passer, a rebounder, a defender, a team player, and, perhaps above all, as a clutch performer. A defensive maven who stifled some of the best stars, Dennis Johnson was an All-Star, a Finals MVP and won three NBA titles. Celtics Wire. OT: Larry Bird College Statistics. Bird helped rebuild a Celtics franchise that had been suffering from sub-standard play and poor attendance in the late 1970s. Coming out of Springs Valley, Bird chose IU over Indiana State and Purdue after being pursued by more than 50 schools, according to The Herald (Jasper, Ind.). Then one day, Warn called Bird a wuss for his seemingly endless postgame recovery and threw down the gauntlet when he picked up a baseball. He scored zero points while wearing cream and crimson, however. Bobby would have won another NC with Bird. Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.Growing up in French Lick, Indiana, he was a local basketball star. They both finished their college playing careers in the spring of 1979. Bird was so self-confident that he was known to waltz up to the opponents bench before tipoff and predict a 40-point performance for himself. Hodges said of Bird, "His only personal goal this year was to lead the nation in rebounds. The 1977 Hoosiers were led by senior center Benson (19.8 ppg, 10.5 rpg) and freshman guard Mike Woodson (18.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg), while just up the road, Bird was averaging 32.8 points on 54 percent shooting, along with 13.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.8 steals per night in his first season with Indiana State. The following season . Han slutade spela i NBA 1992. Bird nasceu em West Baden Springs e cresceu em French Lick, em Indiana, e iniciou a sua carreira no basquete ao fazer parte de seu time no colegial, sendo posteriormente selecionado pela Indiana University e por seu legendrio tcnico, o explosivo Bob Knight.Contudo, com um time repleto de estrelas e uma atmosfera no muito compatvel com seu estilo de . His NBA years : from 1980 to 1992 Larry Bird NBA Stats Summary : I think they may even have been on the floor together. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. when they were picking teams! Get to know Larry Bird: Stats, records and more - RSN There is the Larry Bird people know, the Boston Celtics legend, the hick from French Lick, the Indiana State University basketball king. The Cavaliers won in seven games; Boston lost three of the four games couldnt play because of his back. As freshman and junior varsity statistics do not count toward official NCAA records, three playersPete Maravich, Oscar Robertson and Elvin Hayesonly had three seasons to compile their totals. Surgery to remove bone spurs from both heels limited Bird to only six games in 1988-89. Hodges is credited with recruiting Larry Bird to Indiana State and coached Bird in the famous 1979 NCAA Final against Michigan State. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. My goal is to . Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? 19 Minnesota showed the teams potential. Larry Bird was originally in the recruiting class of 1974. The high school senior was drawing interest from top programs across the country, especially after he added six inches and 50 pounds in roughly two years, but he was focused on the in-state schools recruiting him. Larry Bird's college stats were as incredible as his mustache he averaged more than 30 points and 13 rebounds in his collegiate career. In reality, he spent most of the next five years in Florida, playing golf and taking it easy. Enter your information to receive emails about offers, promotions from NCAA.com and our partners. Larry Bird - BR Bullpen - Baseball-Reference.com 0:05. The Whole Bird thing reminds me of that old country song"I overlooked and orchid while searching for a rose"! The Sycamores went undefeated and reached No. Martin Fennelly Former Sports columnist. Larry Bird Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft Status and more I just think when a man is open, he should get the ball whether it's 30 feet out on the wing or underneath. View Comments. This guy is the epitome of everything Ive tried to do here, then-Pacers president Donnie Walsh said of Bird. Career information head-to-head including championships won, season and playoff stats, honors and awards and more. Larry Joe Bird (Larry Legend, The Hick from French Lick, Kodak, The Great White Hope) Position: Small Forward and Power Forward Shoots: Right 6-9, 220lb (206cm, 99kg) . Real men play with balls this size, Warn said, glaring at Bird. Larry Bird's wife, Dinah Mattingly, is his high school sweetheart who got engaged and married the former NBA legend in 1989. . Isiah Thomas was in the high school class of 1979. After working at municipal jobs for a year Bird enrolled at Indiana State and was accepted into their program. But even though one might expect that he, a superstar, would live a high life of splashing cash every day, that wasn't at all the case with Larry. Springs Valley went 19-2 and young Larry became a local celebrity. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. That came in spite of Bird playing with a fracture in his left thumb in the Final Four after getting hurt against Arkansas. How does Larry Bird compare with other great NBA players? Body Measurement Of Larry Bird. . Two months later, he signed his NBA contract with the Boston Celtics. Bird was named a special assistant in the Celtics front office, with limited duties that included some scouting and player evaluation. Spielplan College Basketball jhrliche Vorschau Menge 2 1977-78-1978-79 Cedric 'Cornbread' Maxwell speaks out on GOAT, today's NBA, Larry Bird Do you have a blog? He was particularly hard on freshmen players, such as a young Larry Bird. The former NBA player met his second wife, Dinah Mattingly, at Indiana State. Indiana State went 81-13 during the three seasons in which Larry Bird played for the Sycamores. Or write about sports? Larry Bird vs Michael Jordan Stats Comparison | Career All Time Stats "Larry Bird finishes things," said Dick Ballinger, the varsity head baseball coach at West Vigo High School in West Terre Haute, Indiana during the spring of 1979. He and owner Herb Simon had discussed his eventual departure for a few years. Larry Bird played in the NCAA tournament just once, in 1979, but he made the most of it. An obsessive perfectionist, Bird was idolized by Celtic fans and basketball purists of all allegiances. IU had three . Games. Like many great national championship teams, IU faced a rebuild or a reload or whatever you want to call it the next year. Larry Bird once played college baseball as a dare, and he was actually good, The Clippers Russell Westbrook experiment is off to a terrible start. They got married in 1989 and adopted two children: Connor and Mariah Bird. What if Larry Bird hadn't transferred from IU? On The Players Tribune's "Knuckleheads" podcast, former NBA All-Star Jamal Mashburn said Rogers had talked trash to Bird after a day of practice between the 1992 College Select Team and the 1992 Dream Team.. After a practice, as a group of players were standing around, Mashburn said . Knight said.." I first saw him play for Spring Valley HS, about 60 miles south of Bloomington physically he wasn't the Larry Bird everybody remembers..as a HS senior he was about 6-'6" and around 180lbs. What if Sam Wyche didnt leave IU after only 1 season? Bird, now 30 years old and with worsening back condition and foot problems as well, would not win a fourth championship ring. He started his college career in the fall of 1979. Larry Bird ranks as one of the all-time top players of the NBA. (Larry Legend, The Hick from French Lick, Kodak, The Great White Hope), Born: December 7, 1956 in West Baden, Indiana, High School: 1 pick in the 1977 NBA Draft, and Woodson. What if former IU football coach Clyde Smith hadnt resigned after an open and undercover campaign to oust him? The Celtics beat the Houston Rockets in '81 with Maxwell and Larry Bird leading the way and defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in 1984 when Maxwell confidently told his teammates "to get on my back, boys" in the decisive . Regarding per game stats, Bird is averaging 6.8 dimes and 9.6 rebounds. Bird was 20, 21 and 22 years old when he eventually played college ball for Indiana State. Bird averaged 21.3 points, 10.4 assists, and 4.5 steals in 82 games during his rookie season in 1979-80. IU peaked at No. He has compiled 1,556 steals, in addition to 755 blocks and 5,695 assists. 1 in Birds senior year that is, until a Michigan State team featuring a 6-foot-9 guard named Earvin Magic Johnson knocked them off in the 1979 NCAA Championship Game, one of the most widely watched showdowns in basketball history. You wont find much on Larry Birds short-lived baseball career, but those who were there wont soon forget. Data Provided By Larry Bird: The Greatest Basketball Player Of All Time Find out more. Mark Bird's college team, where he became one of the school's best all-time players. By. Larry Bird Dominated Rodney Rogers in Dream Team Game After - Insider Bird soon realized that it was actually HE who was the target of Knight's ridicule--because of the way he had come off of a screen in a pick up game. The Official Store of the Larry Bird Indiana State Jersey for College. Russell Westbrook is being left wide open on offense, and hes still hurting the Clippers. It may have also hurt him in his transition to a big state school, where he lasted a matter of weeks after the start of the school year. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Bird had actually nailed the jumper from the corner. Started collecting garbage upon his return to French Lick. Twelve of the top 14 picks in that years draft were seniors, with the other two non-seniors being juniors Kenny Carr and Bernard King, so staying all four years of college was still very much the norm then. (Larry Legend; The Hick from French Lick), Draft: Boston Celtics, 1st round (6th pick, 6th overall), 1978 NBA draft, Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 6:03AM. No shit! Boston survived a memorable Eastern Conference finals against Philadelphia in which the Celtics bounced back from a 3-1 deficit and posted come-from-behind victories in each of the last three games, then took the title over Moses Malone and the Houston Rockets in a six-game NBA Finals. Does the most recognized team in Hoosier history double or even, gasp, triple, its national championship haul with Bird in Bloomington in the mid-to-late 70s? Kent Benson returned for his senior year, as did forward Wayne Radford for his junior season, but gone were May, Abernethy, Quinn Buckner, Bobby Wilkerson and Jim Crews. Bird missed 22 games in 1990-91 because of a compressed nerve root in his back, a condition that eventually forced his retirement. Dinah likes to keep a low profile, making rare public appearances with her husband at basketball games. Playing in all 82 contests, Bird led the team in scoring (21.3 ppg), rebounding (10.4 rpg), steals (143), and minutes played (2,955) and was second in assists (4.5 apg) and 3-pointers (58). IU would have definitely won 1 or 2 more titles had Bird stuck around and become the player he eventually did. His coaching career was shot out of a Larry Bird-sized cannon with the Sycamores going 33-1 and posting a .971 winning percentage in his rookie campaign. By that time Birds scoring average had reached the mid-20s, and he was averaging upwards of seven assists. Larry Bird was a co-star of one of the greatest college basketball national championship games ever Bird vs. Magic, when the undefeated Indiana State Sycamores took on the co-Big Ten champion Michigan State Spartans in the 1979 championship. Take an inside look at Larry Birds iconic steal from Isiah Thomas during Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference finals. Join our linker program. Students skipped class to line up for tickets eight hours before tipoff. Andy Wittry has written for Stadium, SI.com, Sporting News, the Indianapolis Star, Louisville Courier-Journal and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Its also fair to speculate that the south wall of Assembly Hall might be a little more crowded if Larry Bird had never transferred from IU. Carr was his best teammate. College: Indiana State (1976-1979) NBA draft: 1978 / Round: 1 / Pick: 6th overall: . He was unflappable and virtually unstoppable. . The players looked up to see Coach Knight, just recently returned from an out of state trip, having an absolute cow and cussing up a storm, throwing shit and marching across the floor from the open doorway he had been peeking through. Learn more and register, College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com Blog and Articles. Larry Bird's Wife Dinah Mattingly. Neither Birds hometown of French Lick nor West Baden had a daily newspaper at the time, nor was either home to a radio or TV station. The following year Bird posted the third-longest free-throw streak in NBA history, hitting 71 consecutive attempts. (If youre looking for a new throwback jersey to wear at darties whenever all this is over, get your hands on a Larry Bird Northwood jersey. Career Stats Game Log Splits. French Lick had a population of 2,059, most of whom came out to watch Springs Valley High Schools home games in a state that takes its schoolboy basketball very seriously. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Navigation Toggle NBA. Larry Bird's Wife Keeps a Low Profile - FanBuzz Couldn't have happened. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Birth State: Indiana. It was merely an escalated version of Warns usual brand of teasing, but Bird had enough and was ready to prove a point. Springs Valley in French Lick, Indiana, Hall of Fame: Inducted as Player in 1998 (Full List), As Player: 897 G, 24.3 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 6.3 APG (Full Record), As Executive: IND franchise, 2003-2017 (Full Record). In Game 7 of the 1988 Eastern Conference semifinals against Atlanta, Bird engaged in a memorable fourth-quarter shootout with the Hawks Dominique Wilkins. But even those legendary players didnt fill Boston Garden, wowing fans and dominating games as Bird did. Knight said that when Bird came to campus in the Fall of 1974, and the team would organize pick up games, that Bird would commonly get left out and would not be picked Mike Hayes, a Kentucky Wesleyan player, recounted the game, vividly remembering Birds bizarre, ungainly swing. Larry Bird | Bio-married, divorce, affair, children - Playerswiki Talking trash to Larry Bird rarely ever ended well, as former NBA player Rodney Rogers found out the hard way. Find out more. Knight went on"at 6-'6" and 180 lbs, I could not envision Bird being what he became, but I could see where he could become a "darned" good player for us". Knight signed Bird up to play at Indiana in the spring of his senior year.! He was out to embarrass him from the beginning buzzer to the end buzzer of every meeting. He also hit nearly 90 percent of his free-throw attempts. ), We did a great deal of checking before he made his decision and the college allowed him to enroll, Northwoods academic dean Jim McElhiney told The Indianapolis News in September 1974. Few played tougher than Bird, who would leap into crowds and over press tables for loose balls. Larry Bird was 1 of the NBA's most clutch players ever, amassing 3 MVPs while leading the Celtics to 5 Finals and 3 titles in the 1980s. Maybe Bird wouldve spent the summer of 1975 celebrating the first of back-to-back national titles at IU, rather than playing for Hancock Construction, a state-champion AAU team sponsored by the mayor of Mitchell, Indiana, which was the only team capable of knocking off the mighty Indiana All-Stars in an exhibition. Hes very intense. After 897 games Bird retired with 21,791 points (24.3 ppg), 8,974 rebounds (10.0 rpg) and 5,695 assists (6.3 apg). Durant, a four-time scoring champion, now sets his sights on Hakeem Olajuwon in 12th place. In 1977-78 the Celtics had compiled a 32-50 record, their worst since 1949-50. Larry Bird - Wikipdia, a enciclopdia livre Here are some of Larry Bird's notable career achievements and statistics: Three-time NBA champion (1981, 1984, 1986) Two-time NBA Finals MVP (1984, 1986) . Layed him out cold. Is there room for eight banners on the south wall of Assembly Hall? Larry Bird: Coaching Record, Awards | Basketball-Reference.com We talked Hoosiers with our buddy at Hoopla. Indiana State nearly became the most recent undefeated national champion, reaching the 1979 national title game with a 33-0 record. The following year was Birds last. Their top eight scorers eventually played in the NBA and they were a 31-1 juggernaut that ran through the Big Ten gauntlet unscathed and suffered their only loss of the season against Kentucky, 92-90, in the regional final. According to a warrant for Morrow's arrest, he's facing charges of assault by strangulation, second-degree kidnapping and communicating threats. Do you have a sports website? Larry Bird Fast Facts | CNN Nicknamed "The Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.He was inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.. He averaged better than 30 points and 10 rebounds for the Sycamores during his first campaign. Although Johnson also turned in an impressive first season for the NBA-champion Los Angeles Lakers, Bird was named Rookie of the Year and made the first of his 12 trips to the All-Star Game. What if IU hired Jerry Tarkanian instead of Bob Knight, What if IU had solved Syracuses zone in 2013. Larry Bird is an Indiana basketball legend, starting at Springs Valley High School and running through his playing days at Indiana State . They both finished their college playing careers in the spring of 1979. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. Indiana State star Larry Bird makes his way through the crowd of players and fans getting congratulations after his team defeated Arkansas, 73-71, to win the NCAA Midwest Regional tourney crown in . Larry Bird College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com On the day after his uniform was retired in basketball, Larry Bird took the field for both games of a doubleheader in baseball for the Indiana State Sycamores. Larry Bird Turned a Painful High School Basketball Snub Into Lasting But Bird finally came to Boston for the 1979-80 campaign and sparked one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in NBA history. The only thing that wouldve been more painful for some IU fans than briefly landing Bird, only to see him become a folk hero up the road, would have been losing him to Kentucky. When Bird maximized his potential at Indiana State in the 1978-79 season, he took a Sycamores team that had a first-year head coach and was picked to finish third or fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference in 1979 and carried it all the way to the national championship game with an undefeated record and the countrys No. Larry Bird left IU in mid-September of his freshman year, citing too heavy of a course load and his desire to be closer to home. AZ, CO, CT, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, (select parishes), MD, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY, CA-ONT only.Eligibility restrictions apply. It was his first season ever as a college head coach. Larry Bird Comparisons: ( players sorted by last name ) - A-Larry Bird vs Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It began as gentle ribbing, poking fun at Birds propensity to spend a majority of his free time getting ice and massages in the ISU training room. Larry Bird drafted by Red Auerbach | RetroSeasons In 1981-82, Bird made the first of his three consecutive appearances on the NBA All-Defensive Second Team even though he was relatively slow and not the greatest one-on-one defender, his anticipation and court sense made him peerless as a team defender.