Larry Bird Trivia
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60 free Larry Bird trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Larry Bird arrived in Boston in 1979 as the highest-paid rookie in sports and left in 1992 with three championships, three straight MVP awards and a rivalry with Magic Johnson that pulled the NBA out of its slump. This Larry Bird trivia quiz covers all of it: the month he lasted at Indiana University, the undefeated Indiana State season that ended against Michigan State, the 1984 brawl series, the 60-point night, the locker-room line before the first Three-Point Shootout, the steal against Detroit, and his second act as Pacers coach and executive. Easy questions cover his number, his nicknames and his teams; the hard end asks about his agent, his college baseball cameo, Bradley's "Bird Cage" defense and the retired number he looked at in the Boston Garden rafters. Whether you watched the Celtics-Lakers Finals live or found Bird through Winning Time and Dream Team documentaries, there is a stretch here that will test you. Every answer has been checked against a source and each question shows its citation and a short explanation once you answer. Play it, then challenge the friend who still insists nobody was better.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city did Larry Bird win Olympic gold with the 1992 Dream Team?
Barcelona
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.
Q 02Larry Bird's high school No. 33 had first belonged to whom?
His older brother
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.
Q 03Larry Bird grew up in which Indiana town, the one named in his best-known nickname?
French Lick
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.
Q 04In which Indiana town was Larry Bird actually born?
West Baden Springs
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.
Q 05Bird accepted a 1974 scholarship to play for which coach, then dropped out within a month?
Bob Knight
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.
Q 06Back home after quitting college in 1974, Larry Bird took a town job that put him on which vehicle?
A garbage truck
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.
Q 07Which school beat Bird's undefeated Sycamores in the 1979 NCAA championship game?
Michigan State
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.
Q 08Bird's 33–0 Indiana State was the last unbeaten team to reach the NCAA title game until which school in 2021?
Gonzaga
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.
Q 09What did Larry Bird keep on throughout his win in the 1988 Three-Point Contest?
His warm-up jacket
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.
Q 10As of 2017, what television distinction did Bird's 1979 NCAA final still hold?
Highest-rated basketball game ever
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.
Q 11The NBA's "Larry Bird exception" lets a team exceed which limit to re-sign its own players?
The salary cap
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.
Q 12Apart from basketball, Bird briefly suited up in 1979 for which Indiana State varsity team?
Baseball
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.
Q 13Bird graduated from Indiana State in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in which subject?
Physical education
Q 21Bird was Finals MVP in 1984 and 1986, but which teammate took the award in his first title run in 1981?
Cedric Maxwell
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.
Q 22Which individual award did Bird win in 1982, two years before his first league MVP?
All-Star Game 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.
Q 23To which player did Bird finish runner-up in MVP voting in both 1982 and 1983?
Moses Malone
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.
Q 14Why did Boston wait a season for Larry Bird after drafting him in 1978?
His senior year
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.
Q 15Which Celtics boss publicly refused to pay Bird more than anyone already on the roster?
Red Auerbach
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.
Q 16Boston had to sign Bird to a record 1979 deal or watch him do what?
Re-enter the draft
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.
Q 17How much was Bird's five-year rookie contract worth, then the richest for a rookie in team sports?
$3.25 million
$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.
Q 18Which team knocked Bird's 61-win rookie-year Celtics out of the 1980 playoffs?
Philadelphia 76ers
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.
Q 19Which two teammates joined Bird in 1980 to form a celebrated Celtics frontcourt?
Kevin McHale and Robert Parish
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.
Q 20Instead of the Lakers, which team did Bird's Celtics beat for his first title in 1981?
Houston Rockets
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.
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.
Q 24Which Laker took the hard foul that cleared the benches and turned Game 4 of the 1984 Finals?
Kurt Rambis
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.
Q 25As of 2020, which two players besides Bird had won three straight league MVP awards?
Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain
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.
Q 26Against which team did Bird score his career-high 60 points in March 1985?
Atlanta Hawks
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.
Q 27Which teammate had set the Celtics single-game scoring record of 56 points nine days before Bird broke it?
Kevin McHale
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.
Q 28How did Bird injure his back in the 1985 offseason?
Shoveling crushed rock for a driveway
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.
Q 29Which injury-prone center joined the Celtics in 1985 and promptly won Sixth Man of the Year?
Bill Walton
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.
Q 30Game 5 of the 1984 Finals at Boston Garden, where Bird scored 34, is remembered for what?
Sweltering heat
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.