60 Fun Facts About Larry Bird

In which city did Larry Bird win Olympic gold with the 1992 Dream Team?

Barcelona. It was the first Olympics to which the United States sent NBA players, and it was Bird's farewell: his bad back forced him to retire later that month.

Larry Bird's high school No. 33 had first belonged to whom?

His older brother. One of the older Bird boys had worn 33 for the same school team, so Larry was given it too, and he never wore another number in college or the NBA.

Larry Bird grew up in which Indiana town, the one named in his best-known nickname?

French Lick. On signing the richest rookie contract team sports had seen, Bird said that however good he got, he was still just a hick from French Lick.

In which Indiana town was Larry Bird actually born?

West Baden Springs. After dropping out of his first university he briefly took classes there, at a small college housed in the town's grand old resort hotel.

Bird accepted a 1974 scholarship to play for which coach, then dropped out within a month?

Bob Knight. Bird said the coach had nothing to do with his leaving: the campus was simply too big for a homesick small-town kid who felt lost and broke.

Back home after quitting college in 1974, Larry Bird took a town job that put him on which vehicle?

A garbage truck. He was content collecting his hometown's rubbish, cutting grass and painting benches, and spent a year at it before giving college another try at Indiana State.

Which school beat Bird's undefeated Sycamores in the 1979 NCAA championship game?

Michigan State won 75–64, holding Bird to 7-of-21 shooting. It was his first meeting with the Spartans guard he would go on to face in three NBA Finals.

Bird's 33–0 Indiana State was the last unbeaten team to reach the NCAA title game until which school in 2021?

Gonzaga. Like Bird's team 42 years earlier, the Bulldogs then lost the one game that mattered most, beaten 86–70 by Baylor, so neither finished its season perfect.

What did Larry Bird keep on throughout his win in the 1988 Three-Point Contest?

His warm-up jacket. Two years earlier he had walked into the locker room before the very first contest and asked the other shooters which of them was going to finish second.

As of 2017, what television distinction did Bird's 1979 NCAA final still hold?

Highest-rated basketball game ever on American television, college or professional. The interest it stirred is credited with helping turn the NCAA tournament into a national event.

The NBA's "Larry Bird exception" lets a team exceed which limit to re-sign its own players?

The salary cap. The league's cap took effect for 1984–85, just as Bird was due to become a free agent, so the loophole for keeping your own stars is said to have been written with him in mind.

Apart from basketball, Bird briefly suited up in 1979 for which Indiana State varsity team?

Baseball. At a 1979 doubleheader he struck out, then singled home two runs, and one hit in two at-bats left him with a career batting average of .500.

Bird graduated from Indiana State in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in which subject?

Physical education. He played only three seasons, having sat out a year as a transfer, and still left Indiana State as the fifth-highest scorer in college history.

Why did Boston wait a season for Larry Bird after drafting him in 1978?

His senior year. Bird stayed in college for one more season, and Boston could draft him early only because the class he had first enrolled with, at another school, was due to graduate in 1978.

Which Celtics boss publicly refused to pay Bird more than anyone already on the roster?

Red Auerbach lost that argument: after long negotiations he set aside his own salary rule, and a rookie who had never played an NBA game became the highest-paid Celtic.

Boston had to sign Bird to a record 1979 deal or watch him do what?

Re-enter the draft. Boston's rights to him ran out when the 1979 draft came round, so his agent could turn down the club's first offer and hold out for more.

How much was Bird's five-year rookie contract worth, then the richest for a rookie in team sports?

$3.25 million. It ended months of public sparring between his agent and the Celtics' patriarch, and made a player yet to appear in an NBA game the best-paid man on the team.

Which team knocked Bird's 61-win rookie-year Celtics out of the 1980 playoffs?

Philadelphia 76ers, in five games. A year later the Celtics met them again, fell 3–1 behind, and won the next three on the way to Bird's first title.

Which two teammates joined Bird in 1980 to form a celebrated Celtics frontcourt?

Kevin McHale and Robert Parish both came out of one deal with Golden State, which sent Boston a veteran center and the draft pick used on a rookie forward; it is often called one of the NBA's most lopsided trades.

Instead of the Lakers, which team did Bird's Celtics beat for his first title in 1981?

Houston Rockets. They had finished 40–42 yet knocked out the defending champion Lakers in the first round, which is why Bird's first Finals came without his great rival.

Bird was Finals MVP in 1984 and 1986, but which teammate took the award in his first title run in 1981?

Cedric Maxwell. Bird's shot deserted him for much of that series and he averaged barely 15 points, so the forward beside him carried Boston's scoring.

Which individual award did Bird win in 1982, two years before his first league MVP?

All-Star Game MVP. He scored 12 of the East's last 15 points to settle a 120–118 game, in a season when he also finished second in the vote for the league's top award.

To which player did Bird finish runner-up in MVP voting in both 1982 and 1983?

Moses Malone won it for two different teams in those two seasons. Bird, runner-up three years running, then took the award himself in each of the next three.

Which Laker took the hard foul that cleared the benches and turned Game 4 of the 1984 Finals?

Kurt Rambis was clotheslined on a breakaway with the Lakers close to a 3–1 series lead. Boston won that game in overtime instead, and the title in seven.

As of 2020, which two players besides Bird had won three straight league MVP awards?

Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, both centers, did it in the 1960s. Bird had finished second in the voting three years in a row before his own run of three began.

Against which team did Bird score his career-high 60 points in March 1985?

Atlanta Hawks. Bird scored 37 of the 60 after half-time, and did it just nine days after a teammate's 56 had set a new Celtics record.

Which teammate had set the Celtics single-game scoring record of 56 points nine days before Bird broke it?

Kevin McHale had the greatest scoring night of his career against Detroit, but the record was his for little more than a week before Bird answered with 60.

How did Bird injure his back in the 1985 offseason?

Shoveling crushed rock for a driveway at his mother's house. The pain never really left him, and the back trouble that began there eventually forced him to retire.

Which injury-prone center joined the Celtics in 1985 and promptly won Sixth Man of the Year?

Bill Walton had lost whole seasons to injury, yet for Boston he played 80 games, 13 more than in any year of his career, and won a second championship.

Game 5 of the 1984 Finals at Boston Garden, where Bird scored 34, is remembered for what?

Sweltering heat. The old arena had no air conditioning and it reached 97 degrees inside; the Lakers needed oxygen on the bench while Bird made 15 of his 20 shots.

Who coached Bird's Celtics to the 1984 and 1986 championships?

K. C. Jones was calm where his predecessor had been a drill sergeant; he rarely raised his voice, let his veterans shape the game and reached the Finals in each of his first four seasons.

Besides Bird, which shooter won three NBA Three-Point Contests before Damian Lillard?

Craig Hodges was one of the seven shooters Bird beat in the very first contest in 1986; he then matched Bird's three straight titles by winning in 1990, 1991 and 1992.

In Game 5 of the 1987 East finals, Bird stole the inbound and fed whom for the winning layup?

Dennis Johnson cut to the basket as Bird, falling out of bounds, turned and found him with about a second left. Boston had trailed by one, and the steal saved the series.

Which opposing star scored 47 points in a 1988 Game 7 shootout with Bird?

Dominique Wilkins scored 47 and still lost, 118–116: Bird made nine of his ten shots in the fourth quarter. Wilkins called it the greatest game he ever played in or saw.

For much of the 1980s, Larry Bird wore his blond hair in which style?

A mullet. The plain small-town look was half of a made-for-television contrast with the glamorous Lakers star he kept meeting, a rivalry credited with reviving interest in the NBA.

Bird's 1988–89 season ended after six games with surgery to remove what?

Bone spurs from both heels. He came back the next season to average 24 points and make 71 free throws in a row, only for his back to become the bigger problem.

Alongside his "Hick" nickname, Bird was widely known as "Larry" what?

Legend. At his farewell night in 1993 the patriarch who built the Celtics dynasties, and who had signed him, admitted to one regret: that he had never coached Bird himself.

Bird shared the 1992 Dream Team captaincy with which player after Michael Jordan declined?

Magic Johnson. The head coach had wanted Jordan as the public face of the team, but Jordan deferred to the two older rivals whose duels had carried the NBA through the 1980s.

Which sneaker brand's 'Weapon' ad showed Bird practicing alone before his great rival arrived in a limousine?

Converse. The ad cast the two stars as enemies, yet it was during the shoot that they finally became close friends.

In Bird's two 50–40–90 seasons, the 40 stands for which kind of shot?

Three-pointers. The 50 is for field goals and the 90 for free throws, so nobody could do it until the NBA adopted the three-point line in Bird's rookie season; seven years on, he was the first.

Which coach led the Lakers against Bird's Celtics in the 1984, 1985 and 1987 NBA Finals?

Pat Riley. After eight Finals defeats by Boston, the last of them his own in 1984, the Lakers finally beat the Celtics in 1985 and clinched the title on Boston's own floor.

After Jordan scored 63 against Boston in the 1986 playoffs, Bird said he had seen whom "disguised as Michael Jordan"?

God. Jordan's 63 set a playoff scoring record, yet Boston won that game 135–131 in double overtime and swept the series on its way to the title.

Which young Pistons defender did Bird taunt in the 1987 playoffs by shouting that nobody was guarding him?

Dennis Rodman. Bird would yell for the ball "before they realize no one's guarding me", and at one point asked Detroit's coach to send in somebody who was up to the job.

Which sharpshooter was the star of the Indiana team Bird coached to the 2000 NBA Finals?

Reggie Miller. With him as the main weapon, a coach who had never run a team won 58 games and Coach of the Year at the first attempt, then quit after three seasons, exactly as he had promised.

Bird's 1997–98 Pacers pushed which eventual champion to seven games in the playoffs?

Chicago Bulls. It was the last title run of the Jordan era, and Bird's team, in his first year as a coach, was the only opponent to take it to a seventh game.

Who succeeded Bird as Pacers head coach when he stepped down after the 2000 Finals?

Isiah Thomas, the old Detroit rival whose inbound pass Bird had famously stolen in 1987. Three years later Bird returned as team president and promptly replaced him.

As Pacers president in 2003, Bird hired which former Celtics teammate as his head coach?

Rick Carlisle had been a reserve on Bird's 1986 champions. He went on to win a title of his own coaching Dallas in 2011, then came back to Indiana for a second spell in 2021.

In 2012 Bird became the only person to win MVP, Coach of the Year and which other NBA award?

Executive of the Year. He won it for the Indiana team he had rebuilt into the East's third seed, then resigned within weeks, citing his health.

What honoured Bird's playing career in 1998?

Hall of Fame induction. He was enshrined a second time in 2010 with the rest of the 1992 Olympic squad, which the Hall calls the greatest collection of basketball talent on the planet.

Since 2022 the Larry Bird Trophy has gone to the MVP of what?

Eastern Conference Finals. The Western trophy carries the name of his great Lakers rival, so the league hands out the pair every spring, one for each side of their old divide.

Bird played himself in which 1994 film starring Nick Nolte as a college coach?

Blue Chips. The film cast real players such as Shaquille O'Neal as its recruits and filled the story with familiar basketball faces, Bird among them.

Until July 2023, which company's logo was named "Larry" in Bird's honour?

Twitter. Co-founder Biz Stone revealed in 2011 that the blue bird was called Larry as a tribute to the Celtics great, and the name went when the site rebranded as X.

In the classic 1980s video game One on One, which player was Bird's opponent?

Julius Erving, billed as Dr. J in the 1983 game's full title. For the 1988 sequel its makers swapped him for Michael Jordan and kept Bird as the one constant.

Which famous college coach did the Celtics hire as president and coach in 1997, the year Bird left for Indiana?

Rick Pitino took both jobs that spring, and Bird, after five quiet years as a special assistant in Boston's front office, left to coach his home-state team instead.

Bird's pre-game ritual at Boston Garden was to stare up at the retired number of which Bruins star?

Bobby Orr. Bird looked up at the hockey great's No. 4 during every home anthem, ignoring the Celtics banners, and in 1993 his own 33 went up into the same rafters with Orr in the building.

In which Indiana city did the Larry Bird Museum open in May 2024?

Terre Haute. It is the home of Indiana State, his college, where the museum sits in the downtown convention center and a bronze Bird has been shooting outside the arena since 2013.

In which 1996 film does Bird appear as himself on a golf course with Bill Murray?

Space Jam. Bird is in the middle of a round with Michael Jordan and Bill Murray when the Looney Tunes pull Jordan into their cartoon world to play basketball for them.

Actor Sean Patrick Small plays Larry Bird in which HBO drama?

Winning Time. Adapted from Jeff Pearlman's book on the Showtime Lakers, it tells the decade from the Los Angeles side, so Bird arrives as the great rival from Boston.

In McDonald's "Showdown" Super Bowl ad, Bird and Jordan played for a Big Mac by trading what?

Trick shots, each called in advance, with dunking banned. When LeBron James and Dwight Howard remade the ad with dunks in 2010, Bird turned up at the end and ate the prize himself.

Louisville coach Denny Crum tried to land the teenage Bird as a recruit by challenging him to which game?

H-O-R-S-E. Bird, a high school senior averaging 31 points a game, won the shooting contest against one of the most successful coaches in the college game, and Louisville never got him.