A look back at Larry Bird’s playing career with the Celtics, his coaching stint with the Pacers, and his administrative tenure

In a franchise full of all-time legends, Larry Bird stands out.

The Boston pantheon of sports activities almost really would have Bird as one of the top athletes to ever play in the capital of Massachusetts and the coronary heart of New England. He was once the face of one dynastic duration of the Celtics and might sit in the back of solely Bill Russell amongst all-time splendid Celtics.

But there’s another franchise for which Bird is properly connected: the Indiana Pacers. There have only been two coaches who have taken Indiana to the championship rounds: Slick Leonard and Bird. Leonard coached the Pacers to three ABA titles before the franchise merged with the NBA, meaning Bird is the only instruct to take Indiana to an NBA Finals.

Beyond that, Bird’s three years as Pacers’ head teach all ended with at least an Eastern Conference Finals look — the most profitable three-year stretch for the Pacers in view that Indiana joined the NBA. He then spent thirteen years as an executive for the Pacers, reaching president of basketball operations and steering the crew to countless postseason appearances and a triumphing universal document all through his tenure.

Bird’s two franchises will come to a head in the Eastern Conference Finals in only the seventh-ever meeting between the two teams in the playoffs. It will additionally be the first time the two have not met in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Here’s a seem to be lower back at Bird’s career with both franchises as his two groups put together to face off.

Larry Bird career timeline

Celtics

Bird may have in the beginning joined powerhouse Indiana underneath Bob Knight, but he wound up finally spending three of his collegiate years at Indiana State. There, he was once a star for the Sycamores, averaging 30.3 factors throughout his career.

The Celtics opted to take the Indiana native sixth normal in the 1978 NBA Draft, but Bird determined to remain in university for another season, during which he took the software to the national championship recreation in 1979. Indiana State misplaced to a Michigan State squad led with the aid of Magic Johnson, however the “Larry Legend” story was once born. That year, Bird also earned the Naismith College Player of the Year and Wooden Award honors. As a end result of his more yr in college while signed to an NBA deal, the NBA instituted a rule to prevent groups from drafting gamers that weren’t going to without delay join the NBA. The rule is now referred to as the Bird Collegiate Rule.

Bird spent his complete profession in Boston and was once a superstar throughout his tenure. He finished no lower than fourth in MVP voting over his first nine years, and he won the honors in three straight years from 1983-84 via 1985-86. He was also named All-NBA First Team and an All-Star in each of those seasons.

The Celtics have been a dynamic dynasty in the course of the majority of his career. From 1979-80 through 1991-92, only the Lakers had a higher prevailing percentage (.708) than the Celtics (.705), according to Stathead. Boston reached the postseason each year, misplaced in the first round solely twice, won three Finals (1981, ’84, ’86), and misplaced in the Finals in two different instances (’85, ’87). It did all that while going through four specific coaches.

Beyond his play, Bird stood out for his contention with Johnson and his trash-talking. Many credit the contention between the two stars as supporting spark popularity in the NBA, and his trash speak was once the stuff of legend.

Bird gained the NBA’s 3-Point contest three straight years from 1986-88, and his 3-point taking pictures was once revered for the era. He retired fourth in 3-point makes with 649, according to Stathead.

Bird never led the league in scoring or 3-point shooting, but he was once a consistent scoring threat, averaging 24.3 points for his career and solely dipping below 20 points per sport in his injury-shortened 1988-89 season and the 1990-91 campaign, his penultimate season in the NBA. At the time of his retirement, he used to be eleventh in factors in NBA records with 21,791, per Stathead.

He ended his playing profession after the 1991-92 season, but his days with the Celtics weren’t over. Boston employed him to a the front office function right now upon his retirement

The awards persisted to come for Bird after his career. He was once inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1998 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. Bird used to be also inducted a second time into the Basketball Hall of Fame for his time in the Olympics on the “Dream Team,” the 1992 gold medal-winning group that gained each and every Tournament of the Americas sport via no much less than 38 points and each and every Olympic game by means of no fewer than 32 points. The Eastern Conference Finals MVP award is named after Bird.

Pacers

Indiana had reached the Eastern Conference Finals in back-to-back years in 1993-94 and 1994-95 but misplaced early in the 1995-96 postseason. The Pacers then went 39-43 in 1996-97, and after the campaign, Larry Brown announced he would step down as coach.

One Larry out, any other in. Indiana introduced on May eight that it had hired Bird to be the team’s next head coach. The scenario used to be in contrast to Magic Johnson, who coached the Lakers for 16 video games in 1993-94 earlier than retiring from coaching. He later again to play a season in 1995-96.

”One element about Magic then,” Bird said, per the New York Times, ”was that he nevertheless wanted to play, and I think that that was phase of his frustration. He came in with the attitude that he may want to do it himself. He was once nevertheless committed in the way that he and I had been, however the players weren’t, and he was once impatient with that. I have certainly no pastime in enjoying anymore. That part of my existence is over, and I see this new job as a real challenge, something I’m honestly searching ahead to. I sense I recognize basketball and agree with I can work properly with players, specially a veteran team like the Pacers.”

Bird immediately lived up to the hype. The Pacers went 58-24 in his debut season, Indiana’s most wins considering arriving in the NBA from the ABA. It has due to the fact that solely been topped once. The Pacers reached the Eastern Conference Finals, where they fell in seven video games to the Bulls. Bird used to be named NBA Coach of the Year, turning into the first — and to date, only — character to win NBA MVP and NBA Coach of the Year.

Indiana endured on its tear in the course of his teaching tenure, going 33-17 in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, once more attaining the Eastern Conference Finals. The Pacers reached their height in 1999-2000, enjoying in the NBA Finals and dropping in six to the Lakers.

Bird maintained when he was employed that he would teach solely for three years, and he did exactly that, telling journalists after the NBA Finals loss it would be his remaining sport on the sidelines, saying, “I’m no longer cut out to be a coach.”

The Pacers employed Bird again to be president in 2003-04, and he held that role for 9 seasons, in the course of which time he was once named NBA Executive of the Year in 2011-12 and guided Indiana thru a four-year rebuild to postseason contention. He quickly retired as the president of basketball operations however lower back in 2013-14 and operated in that publish via the 2016-17 campaign when he announced he would be resigning for a second time.

He stayed on as an consultant in the the front workplace till July 2022, resigned for a year, then again again for the 2023-24 season.

Larry Bird stats

Author(s)

Edward Sutelan

Edward Sutelan is a content material producer at The Sporting News.