In NBA history, Larry Bird has a high status, and you can find this name in various records and rulebooks.
His 1979 NCAA Finals match against Magic Johnson remained the highest-rated college ball game;
The 1992 Barcelona Olympics, an important moment to internationalize basketball, he was one of the creators;
The "Bird Clause" that bears his name still dictates the fate of NBA teams and players to this day;
Even if you open the NBA's garbage history, the phrase "Are you here to compete for the second" is also a well-deserved presidential mountain.
And Larry Bird's evaluation is also very high, including the comment of Celtic star Bob Kusi: "Bird came into the world to develop new indicators for all basketball skills." Even the great Michael Jordan's performance in the '97 Finals did not receive similar reviews.
Relatively speaking, Bird did not have the physical qualities that matched his evaluation. He can't end up with a tomahawk dunk that detonates the whole field like Moses Malone did in a quick attack; he can't flash under the basket like Michael Jordan and use his super ability to hold the air to turn his opponents away; and he can't draw a perfect arc from behind the rebound with his long arm like Dr. J, and watch countless fans. Just looking at static and dynamic talent, you can't imagine that Bird, an unremarkable white man, can be among the list of NBA history masters like the first three.
Looking back at Larry Bird's basketball career, you will find that the reason why he can become the "embodiment of honor" in the mouth of Green Army fans and rank first among the white players in the history of the NBA is not how anti-natural his physical fitness is, but with a brain that constantly thinks, he supports his perfect basketball life.
Bird was not strong when he first joined the league. Before landing in the NBA, Bird's average per game in the NCAA had come to an exaggerated 30+10, and in his senior year, he led Indiana State university to 33 consecutive wins, but Bird understood that his physique was far from enough for the confrontational NBA in the 80s. So, the summer before he landed in the NBA, he began to train wildly to gain weight and make himself stronger.
In 1979, Bird's first game in the NBA was against the Houston Rockets. Facing Moses Malone, who was already averaging 25.8 points per game at the time, Bird contributed 14 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists on 6-of-10 shooting, comprehensively and showed a good ability to pass the ball, leading the Celtics to a 114-106 victory over the Rockets. The Cardinals patted their thighs excitedly after the game, and Bird's debut showed the potential to lead the Celtics to recovery.
The Celtics hadn't made the playoffs in a long time, and before Bird came, the Celtics had just 29 wins last season. How beautiful they were five years ago, how depressed they are now. The Cardinals put all the treasure on Bird – in '78 they contacted Bird to land on the NBA without success, so they postponed the reconstruction plan for a year. For a white player to be so reckless, this is a big gamble for the Green Army.
Bird, on the other hand, is clearly worth the Green Army's gamble. The Celtics' record of 32-50 in the 77-78 season is already the team's worst record since 1949, and the Celtics have set a new low of 29 wins and 53 losses due to The Delay of a year due to Bird's need to complete his studies. But with the arrival of Bird in 1979, it marked the beginning of one of the greatest turnarounds in NBA history.
In order to repay the Cardinals' unconditional trust and the Green Army's kindness, Bird played his rookie season. In 82 games, Green Army fans would appreciate Zero's admiration for a cardinal's wise decision every time they saw Bird's supernatural performance. In his first season in the NBA, Bird returned to the playoffs with a 21 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. Not only was he named an All-Star, but he also stole the best rookie from the season's champion, Magic Johnson.
After selecting Bird, the unworldly player, the Celtics, an experienced champion, finally began to operate in an orderly manner. Before the start of the 80-81 season, the Green Army magically assembled the most luxurious forward line-up ever. Boston fans could never have imagined that Bird, McHale, Robert Parrish and Cedric Maxwell would appear together on their home team and lead themselves towards the championship trophy.
And these four people did not live up to the hopes of the fans, after 5 years, they finally let the Green Army regain the O'Brien Cup, and the Philadelphia 76ers playoffs became an eternal classic - the Celtics first fell behind 1-3, and then won three consecutive sets on the edge of the cliff. And in the Finals, Bird, like his NBA debut, once again easily beat Malone and his Rockets 4-2.
Second-year rookie Bird played steadily, averaging 21.2 points and 10.9 rebounds per game, as well as 161 steals and 3,239 minutes of playing time that season, all four of which ranked first on the team. It is worth mentioning that after two years of close contact with Bird, the Cardinal gave his own evaluation of Bird: "Data is the least indicative of Bird's value." ”
Yes, if you watch Bird's game you'll take cardinals' comments for granted. What Bird does on the pitch is keep thinking, he's not used to relying on his body, he prefers to open things up on his own brain.
There is no Moses Malone outbreak, but keeping thinking will make him more flexible on the court; without Jordan's ability to stay in the air, the reward of watching is to link up with his teammates to play a smoother attack; without Dr. J's arm span, he will use his mind to card under the basket, and use his ingenuity to pick up nearly 11 rebounds per game on the head of a taller man than him; the brain is fast enough to make up for his slow lateral movement, relying on defense and defense to get three best defensive second team.
When people evaluate Bird's style of play, they rarely use the word impact, but the fluency, freehand and calmness brought by the top ball dealers. One of the most common moves of Bird on the court during the three-pm period is to turn around and walk the bottom line back, Bird's physical fitness does not allow him to eat raw and hard, but those players with top physical fitness, such as Moses Malone, such as Rodman, have been humiliated by him more than once with this clever move.
Bird's leadership qualities are also much talked about. There is naturally no need to repeat the garbage talk with the opponent on the field, if you want to hit the morale of the Green Army members on the scene, you can only ask for it. He's keen to make his teammates better, and as a star, he has no paranoia about ball possession at all, and averaging 5 assists per game is a good example. If the NBA at that time introduced the statistics of the second assist, Bird's willingness to pass the ball would be praised by more people.
Bird off the field is a notorious training maniac. From the first offseason, Bird developed the habit of running 3 miles a day (1 mile is about 1609 meters) to warm up, then cycling 12.5 miles, as well as sprinting and other training, such training intensity even caused concern among seniors.
At the All-Star Game in New Jersey, Artis Gilmore warned Bird: "Larry, you're a very good player now, you're going to grow into a great star, but if you play the way you play the way you do now, your career won't last long." I replied, "I can't change the way I do it, that's my style." "The best players in the team never slacken off, and Bird's self-discipline and hard work spur every Green Army player.
In this way, Bird succeeded in spreading green terror in the NBA in the 80s with his superior ball quotient and leadership skills. It's worth mentioning that basketball was a very rude sport in that era, and some targeted fouls by players and small actions that no one could notice except for high-speed cameras were not severely blown at the time, unless you were beaten unconscious. In this environment, even Jordan was depressed by Detroit's "Jordan Rules", while Bird won three MVP trophies, three championship trophies, and two FMVP trophies.
The mind is the greatest asset in Bird's basketball life, and as cardinals have said, fans can only see Bird's data for the first time, but they can't see how amazing the ideas in his head are. Bird has a typical strong mindset – tough at heart, confident, high iq, this kind of person will succeed in everything he does, which was confirmed after he retired from the army.
Although Bird was unable to stir up trouble in the NBA as a player after retiring, he not only did not fade out of the fan's vision like other NBA celebrities, but he had a full sense of existence.
In 1997, Bird joined his hometown team, the Indiana Pacers, as a coach. His coaching debut season was as stunning as his player debut season — with Reggie Miller, a junior who had sprayed trash at him, to 54 wins, voted the best coach of the season, and met Jordan again in the playoffs, losing seven games with the Bulls.
In 2007, Bird officially assumed the position of Pacers president. Under his rule, the Pacers, who had been in disarray for two years, began to draw up a whole set of reconstruction plans and implement them. Three years later, the Pacers, with Granger, Hibbert and Hansbreu as the core, re-entered the playoffs.
In 2012, Bird, as the president of the Indiana Pacers, made up for the team's strong game, allowing the Pacers to play the 3rd best in the Eastern Conference, and was selected as the league's executive of the year, becoming the first person in the history of the NBA to win the MVP, the best coach, and the best administrator of the year. In May 2017, Bird officially resigned as the team's operations president, ending his perfect basketball life.
Bird came into contact with basketball during an afternoon stroll as a child, when he threw his first and second balls, got praise from his friends, and then became acquainted with basketball. If both goals were lost, would Bird still succeed? The answer to this question can only be obtained by traveling to that parallel world. However, the author is more inclined to the previous paragraph, as mentioned above, people like Bird are destined to succeed, just as he does not absolutely rely on his body to play basketball, and his perfect life is not completely dependent on basketball.