Larry Bird
Larry Bird
Larry Joe Birdis an American retired professional basketball player who played for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association. Since retiring as a player, he has been a mainstay in the Indiana Pacers organization, currently serving as team president. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth7 December 1956
CityWest Baden Springs, IN
CountryUnited States of America
Me and Reggie go way back. I've seen him from him developing as a young player to us retiring his jersey. That's pretty awesome.
Obviously, we're very happy about getting a player of his caliber. He's one of the best shooters in the league and we definitely feel he can come in and help us right away.
I can't guarantee all our guys are going to be here, but the way we've been talking it seems like it will be a one-player-for-one or one-for-two trade. We'd like to keep all of our players.
We're glad this is over with. We wanted to be patient with this one because Ronnie is a heck of a player and someone's always going to take a chance on someone like that.
About all our good high school players are going out of state. ...That's something that probably hurts more than anything. It's very important to try to keep our kids in-state. That's how you have an identity.
There were a lot of doubts. I had an opportunity to play against Reggie. After the first two or three times, there was no doubt they made the right decision.
There were some concerns, but I'm a little different. I think we will get a commitment out of our best young players. And the guys that are young now won't be so young by the time (the 2008 Summer Games) comes.
Won't be much golf this off-season. It's going to be a working summer.
We're still looking and seeing what we can do. We like our team, we're very deep, but we don't like where we're at financially. We'll see what we can do.
Hoosiers love this place. The high school game has produced a lot of legendary stories, and those stories get told here.
If there's a deal out there where we think we can better our team, we will do it.
I don't know if this is the right wording, but I felt betrayed. We're disappointed. Things happen, maybe it's a good thing. He's a very talented player. I always liked working with him and how he went about things on the basketball court. He's a top-12 player in the league, but we're in a situation where we have to move on.
We would like to get a deal done. We're looking at every option. Teams continue to call us every day, but we're going to do what's right for the franchise and not just do a deal to do one. We want somebody who is going to fit in with this team.
He was clearly frustrated. Ronnie thinks if we lose, we would have won the game if he had the ball every time. The offense bogs down at times, but it's still a great offense. He held the ball a lot of times. Nothing frustrated me more than him not rebounding, but I didn't go out in the public and say anything.