60 Fun Facts About Larry Bird

Which NBA team did Larry Bird play for during his entire 13-season professional career?

Bird led Boston to five NBA Finals appearances and three titles, and the franchise retired his number as soon as he stepped away in 1992.

What jersey number did Bird wear from high school through his entire NBA career?

He took the number in high school because his older brother Mark had worn it, and never changed it.

Bird's most famous nickname calls him "the Hick from" which Indiana town?

He grew up there in a house where his mother worked two jobs, and later bought her a property in town where he built the outdoor court seen in his famous 1980s sneaker ad.

In which Indiana town was Larry Bird actually born, in December 1956?

He was born there to Georgia and Joe Bird, one of six children, and the family lived in the neighbouring resort town he is usually associated with.

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

He found the jump from his small hometown to the huge Bloomington campus overwhelming, went home and worked municipal jobs for a year.

After leaving Indiana University, Bird enrolled at which small college before transferring to Indiana State?

He combined classes there with municipal jobs for a year, before enrolling at Indiana State in 1975.

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

The Spartans won 75–64, with Bird scoring 19 points on 7-of-21 shooting in the most-watched college basketball game ever.

How many games had Indiana State won without a loss going into the 1979 national title game?

The Sycamores had not been ranked in either preseason poll and were not even picked to win their own conference.

Where was the 1979 NCAA final, Bird's last college game, played?

The venue was the University of Utah's Special Events Center, now the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

What television distinction does the 1979 Bird-versus-Magic final still hold?

Its Nielsen rating has never been matched by any college or NBA game since.

What was Dick Versace's triangle-and-two defense that held Indiana State's star to four points nicknamed?

Bird took only two shots that night, yet Indiana State still won the game and kept its unbeaten record intact.

Apart from basketball, Bird appeared in one game for which Indiana State varsity team?

He went 1-for-2 with two runs batted in, a perfectly respectable line for a one-game career.

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

His college numbers were 30.3 points and 13.3 rebounds a game across an 81–13 record in his three seasons.

In which year did the Celtics draft Bird, a full season before he actually joined them?

Boston took him sixth overall as a junior-eligible and then waited while he played his final college season.

Which Celtics executive publicly insisted he would not pay Bird more than anyone already on the roster?

He lost that argument: Bird's agent threatened to re-enter the 1979 draft, and Boston paid up.

Which agent negotiated Bird's rookie deal by warning Boston he would simply enter the 1979 draft instead?

Boston's rights would have expired the moment the June 25 draft began, and Bird was the likely No. 1 pick.

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

The deal, signed June 8, 1979, prompted the NBA to change its rules so teams could no longer draft players before they were ready to sign.

By how many wins did the Celtics improve in Bird's rookie season of 1979–80?

He averaged 21.3 points and 10.4 rebounds, made the All-Star team and was named Rookie of the Year.

Which two teammates joined Bird in 1980 to form what many call the greatest frontcourt in NBA history?

One arrived in the 1980 draft and the other in a trade with Golden State, and the trio played together for the rest of Bird's career.

Bird's first NBA championship in 1981 came in a six-game Finals win over which team?

Boston had first come back from 3–1 down against Philadelphia in the conference finals to get there.

In which three years did Bird win his NBA championships?

He was named Finals MVP in the last two, and Boston reached the Finals in five of his seasons.

Which award did Bird pick up in 1982 after scoring 19 points at the midseason showcase?

That same season he made his first All-Defensive Team and finished runner-up in the regular-season MVP vote.

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

Bird was MVP runner-up four times in all, in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1988, on top of his three wins.

Which Laker took the flagrant foul that sparked a brawl and turned Game 4 of the 1984 Finals?

Los Angeles was about to go up 3–1; instead the Lakers lost their composure and Boston won the series in seven.

As of 2020, which two players besides Bird had won three consecutive regular-season MVP awards?

Bird's run came in 1984, 1985 and 1986, making him the only forward ever to do it.

Against which team did Bird score his career-high 60 points on March 12, 1985?

It was also a Celtics franchise record, and it came only nine days after a teammate had set the previous mark of 56.

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

The record lasted barely a week; Bird's 60 came in a win at Atlanta and still stands as the franchise mark.

How did Bird injure his back in the 1985 offseason, starting problems that dogged his career?

He was building a driveway at his mother's house, and the back trouble eventually forced his retirement.

Which injury-prone center joined the Celtics before 1985–86 and won Sixth Man of the Year that season?

Boston gave up former Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell on nothing more than his word that he was healthy, and he played a career-high 80 games.

How many regular-season games did the 1985–86 Celtics win, the best record in the league that year?

That team is often ranked the greatest in NBA history, and it lost only one game through the first three rounds of the playoffs.

Who was head coach of the 1985–86 Celtics, generally considered the best team of Bird's career?

His backcourt paired a defensive stopper who had been the 1979 Finals MVP with former Toronto Blue Jays infielder Danny Ainge.

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

Bird famously walked into the locker room before the inaugural 1986 shootout and asked who was going to finish second.

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

Boston trailed 107–106 with five seconds left; the play saved the series, though the Celtics then lost the Finals to the Lakers.

Which Atlanta star scored 47 points in the 1988 Game 7 shootout with Bird?

Bird went 9-of-10 in that final quarter; his opponent later called it the greatest game he ever played in or saw.

Larry Bird's 1987–88 season came after a new haircut ended years of sporting what?

He averaged nearly 30 points on 53 per cent shooting as Boston topped the East with 57 wins.

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

He came back the next year, but a compressed nerve root in his back soon became the bigger problem.

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

The Celtics patriarch who signed him, never short of great players to choose from, called Bird the greatest basketball player of all time.

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

Head coach Chuck Daly had suggested Jordan front the team, but he deferred to the two older stars.

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

The court was one Bird had built on the property he bought for his mother, and filming the ad is where the two rivals became friends.

How many times did Larry Bird post a 50-40-90 shooting season?

He hit the marks in 1986–87 and 1987–88, and reportedly practised three-pointers with his eyes closed.

Which coach said he'd pick Jordan for a shot to save a game, but Bird for a shot to save his life?

He had coached against Bird's Celtics in three NBA Finals, so the compliment was hard-earned.

How many points did Jordan score against Boston in 1986 to be called 'God disguised as Michael Jordan'?

It is still an NBA playoff record, and it came in a double-overtime game the Celtics won 135–131.

Which rookie teammate did Michael Jordan warn, "Not one word. No one talk to Larry Bird"?

Jordan knew Bird used trash talk to raise his own game and later called him the greatest mind-game player of all time.

Which team did Bird coach from 1997 to 2000, having promised to stay no more than three years?

With no coaching experience he won 58 games in his first season and Coach of the Year, then quit exactly when he said he would.

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

Indiana finished 58–24, then the franchise's best NBA record, and Bird was named Coach of the Year.

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

Three years later Bird returned as team president and one of his first moves was to replace him.

As Pacers president in 2003, Bird replaced the incumbent head coach with whom?

Bird cited the team's underachievement; the new man later won a title in Dallas and returned to Indiana for a second stint in 2021.

In 2012 Bird completed a unique treble: MVP, Coach of the Year and which front-office award?

His Pacers had just secured the No. 3 seed in the East with the fifth-best record in the league.

In which year was Bird inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as an individual?

He was inducted a second time in 2010 as a member of the Dream Team.

Since 2022 the Larry Bird Trophy has been awarded to the MVP of which round?

The Western Conference equivalent is named after his old rival, so the pair are still paired every June.

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

He also appeared as himself in Space Jam and Celtic Pride, both released in 1996.

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

The blue bird logo carried the name for years before the rebrand to X.

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

A 1988 sequel pitted him against Michael Jordan instead, and he later shared the NBA 2K12 cover with Jordan and Johnson.

What was the title of Bird's 1989 autobiography, co-written with Bob Ryan?

Bird Watching was his later 1999 book with Jackie MacMullan, and he wrote When the Game Was Ours with his old Lakers rival in 2009.

Whose retired number did Bird look up at before Boston Garden games, rather than Celtics banners?

The Bruins defenceman's number hung in the same rafters, and Bird found it more inspiring than his own franchise's legends.

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

A bronze statue of Bird in his Sycamores jersey has stood outside the Hulman Center in the same city since 2013.

Which ABA Pacers center was Bird's boyhood hero and later his assistant coach at Indiana State?

Bird has said watching him with the ABA Pacers was his first exposure to professional basketball.

Who plays Larry Bird in the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty?

The show tells the Showtime Lakers story, so Bird appears as the villain from Boston.

In the 1991 McDonald's Super Bowl ad, Bird and Jordan competed at what, with the loser watching the winner eat?

The ad was revived at Super Bowl XLIV with Dwight Howard and LeBron James, and Bird appeared at the end to thank them for lunch.

How many points per game did Bird average as a senior at Springs Valley High School?

He also pulled down 21 rebounds a game and left as the school's all-time leading scorer.