Rumors

Andrew Gaze: This is in the early 90s when the Celtics are flying and stuff. And Dave Gavitt reached out to my dad and said, "Listen, we'd love to have Andrew at the Celtics sort of thing." And at the time, my dad was mentioning to me, you know, they're keen and I'm like, listen, they're fooling themselves. This is the Celtics. This is Larry Bird. I mean, I don't belong. They stayed with it and said, listen, just if you come to training camp, there was not a guarantee, but it was like, you come to camp with your skill sets… And I thought, no, I'm wasting my time. And all this already been through it with Seattle and I sometimes I think of well, what could have happened? What might have happened?

YouTube

NBA Courtside: Cooper Flagg on getting to meet his favorite player Larry Bird: “I was definitely nervous. I would say I haven’t been shell shocked a lot in my life. I was talking to him like about the difference in the league now between the league back then. But a lot of the messages that, you know, he displayed can be seen through his play, like never giving up, being that ultimate competitor, playing hard on every single possession. And those were kind of the biggest things that he said. As long as you have those couple things of competing and playing hard that you’ll be all right.” (Via @ESPNNBA)

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A 1992 Olympics Team USA jersey worn and signed by Larry Bird sold for $896,000 to lead all sales from the Scottie Pippen collection auction held by Sotheby’s. A total of 71 items from Pippen’s personal collection of memorabilia from his Hall of Fame career were sold in the auction, 11 of which went for $100,000 or more. In total, the auction brought in $6.2 million and included participants from 32 different countries, according to Sotheby’s. “Each jersey, sneaker, and collectible I’ve kept over the years holds a memory, a feeling, a story of perseverance and teamwork,” Pippen said in a Sotheby’s news release leading up to the auction. “Now, it feels like the right time to share these pieces and let others carry their stories forward. I’m excited to give fans and collectors the chance to own these special items, to connect with the history and memories they represent, and to experience a part of the journey I was lucky enough to live. I hope they bring the same kind of pride, joy, and love of the game that they’ve given me throughout my career.”

New York Times

Robert Parish: Let’s talk Michael Jordan. People often ask me to compare and contrast Michael and Larry [Bird]. When I think about those two guys, the similarity I see between them is their competitiveness. Their drive and focus. They both had a strong distaste for losing. The biggest difference between them was their leadership style. Michael is a more aggressive person, more verbal and in your face. That’s how he leads. Larry led by example. He wasn’t a rah-rah guy or a yeller. He didn’t lead with words. He led with action. When you do that, you can stay a leader longer. People don’t get tired of your voice. You don’t become background noise or get tuned out. But finding differences between Michael and Larry is like nitpicking. In general, it was a pleasure to play with both.

HoopsHype

What surprised you the most when you looked back at how the press covered Larry Bird during those years? Keith O’Brien: That's a good question. I think the most surprising thing about the media coverage was what Larry was able to do and say, or not do, and say and get away with in the late 1970s. I mean, to be completely frank about it: A black star could not have done and said the things that Larry Bird did and said at that time and received the kind of complimentary media coverage that Bird did receive in the late 1970s. I talked to dozens and dozens of college athletes who played with and against Bird in the 1970s. Many of them were black players, and some of them told me directly that it simply would not have happened that way for them. I think that gets it something crucial to the narrative. At the time, in the late 1970s, Bird was, of course, a real talent with the statistics to prove that he belonged, but the fact that he was a white star did matter. People spoke about it out loud at the time. General managers in the NBA, scouts, television executives, players, they knew and said out loud, that the fact that Larry Bird was a white star was significant to his theme and significant to the stakes and the stakeholders of the NBA as well.

HoopsHype

Keith O’Brien on Larry Bird: I just loved that story of that summer that Bird spends with that traveling band of all-stars in Europe. There are some other big names on that team, including future NBA greats like Sidney Moncrief. That is the moment, in the summer of 1977, when Larry Bird really becomes Larry Bird, and it is really as a result of that summer traveling on that team, when Sports Illustrated decides to put Bird on the cover of the magazine in November of that year, which really is a turning point in his life. So I think that the entire summer and fall is just crucial to the narrative of Larry Bird. I believe the Larry Bird that we would come to know was born on a basketball court in Europe. I really do believe that. That is the moment when Larry Bird becomes Larry Bird.

HoopsHype

Keith O’Brien: Cooper Flagg is an incredible star who is shouldering the pressure that comes with being the No. 1 draft pick and who is performing at a level that I don't think anybody expected this early in his career. We can have fun sports bar room debates about who is better than whom. That's part of the fun of being a sports fan, comparing players across generations and wondering what might have been or who might prevail. And that's a fun debate to have, but you cannot underestimate how important Larry Bird was to the success of the entire league in 1979-1980 when he joined the Boston Celtics. His arrival, along with the arrival of Magic to the Los Angeles Lakers, and along with the savvy leadership of David Stern, really does set the league up for success at a time when the league was teetering on the brink of total obscurity. No talent today, no talent in the past 20 years, has even come close to facing that, and so for that reason alone, Larry Bird will always be ranked among the most important players who ever stepped on an NBA court.

HoopsHype

Indiana Pacers senior vice president of player personnel Ryan Carr is joining Darian DeVries staff at Indiana University. His title will be executive director of basketball. He will report directly to DeVries. Carr is a former IU manager under Bob Knight who was given his first NBA job with the Pacers under Larry Bird. Carr has managed the Indiana Pacers' pre-draft for more than a decade, including the work of the scouting department, as well as evaluations of all draft prospects.

247Sports

Kon Knueppel on his hustle and diving for loose balls: "There was a quote from Larry Bird... my dad has these sheets of NBA player quotes—good body language, bad body language—and one of them was, 'A guy watching a ball go out of bounds without diving for it makes me sick.'"

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NBA Courtside: Vernon Maxwell shares story when Larry Bird called him a N**** 😳 “He called me and my brother a N****… Larry Bird that mf from French lick Indiana. So what the f*ck we expect? He called me a buck johnson N**** get off the floor. He looking at you ‘dumb ass N***** get off the floor.’ I don’t got nothing against Larry. That’s the best motherf*cking white boy i ever seen”

Twitter

Michael J. Duarte: Damian Lillard joins Craig Hodges and Larry Bird as the only players in NBA history to win the NBA 3-point contest three times in their careers.

Twitter

Taylor Snow: Jaylen Brown has been named Eastern Conference Player of the Month after averaging 29.2 PPG, 7.9 RPG and 4.6 APG in January. He’s the 6th Celtic to earn the award, joining Larry Bird (7X), Jayson Tatum (5X), Paul Pierce (4X), Isaiah Thomas, and Antoine Walker.

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NBA: Jaylen Brown dropped 50 tonight 🤯 50 PTS (ties career-high) 18-26 FGM He joins Jayson Tatum (5x) and Larry Bird (4x) as the only players in Celtics franchise history with multiple 50+ PT games!

Twitter

Dick Lipe: HIGHEST EFF. FG PCT BY A CELTIC IN A 50-POINT GAME .865 Jaylen Brown, tonight .804 Jayson Tatum, 1/16/23 vs. Charlotte .804 Jayson Tatum, 1/23/22 vs, Washington .786 Kevin McHale, 3/3/85 vs. Detroit .780 Larry Bird, 11/10/89 vs. Atlanta

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