He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame twice as a player-first in 1998 as an individual, and again in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team". Olympic basketball team, known as the "Dream Team". Bird was also a member of the gold medal-winning 1992 U.S. Bird was a 12-time NBA All-Star, won two NBA Finals MVP awards and received the NBA Most Valuable Player Award three consecutive times ( 1984– 1986), making him the only forward in league history to do so. He played most of his career with forward Kevin McHale and center Robert Parish, considered by some to be the greatest front court in NBA history. He played for the Celtics during his entire professional career (13 seasons), leading them to five NBA finals appearances and three NBA championships. The season finished with a national championship game match-up of Indiana State against Michigan State and featured a highly anticipated match-up of Bird against Michigan State great Magic Johnson, thus beginning a career-long rivalry that the two shared for over a decade.īird entered the NBA for the 1979–1980 season, where he made an immediate impact, starting at power forward and leading the Celtics to a 32-win improvement over the previous season before being eliminated from the playoffs in the Conference Finals. He then led his team to an undefeated regular season.
Drafted by the Boston Celtics with the sixth overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft after his second year at Indiana State, Bird elected to stay in college and returned for the 1978–1979 season.
The next year he attended the smaller Indiana State University, ultimately playing three years for the Sycamores. Highly recruited, he initially signed to play college basketball for coach Bob Knight of the Indiana Hoosiers, but Bird dropped out after one month and returned to French Lick to attend a local community college. Growing up in French Lick, Indiana, he was a local basketball star. He is the only person in NBA history to be named Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Finals MVP, All-Star MVP, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year. Nicknamed " the Hick from French Lick" and " Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Third-team All-American – NABC, UPI ( 1977).2× Consensus first-team All-American ( 1978, 1979).National college player of the year ( 1979).3× NBA Three-Point Contest champion ( 1986– 1988).3× NBA All-Defensive Second Team ( 1982– 1984).
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