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
Anytime you've got an opportunity to play for your country and win a gold medal, I think that takes it all. That's the greatest thing you could ever achieve in your sport. So, I have been very fortunate to play on great teams, but the gold medal was probably the best.
Once you are labeled 'the best' you want to stay up there, and you can't do it by loafing around.
My coach told me, "Larry, no matter how much you work at it, there's always someone out there who's working just a little harder - if you take 150 practice shots, he's taking 200." And that drove me.
First master the fundamentals.
I've got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.
Don't let winning make you soft. Don't let losing make you quit. Don't let your teammates down in any situation.
I don't think that once you get to one level, you can relax. You've got to keep pushing.
Push yourself again and again. Don't give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.
I'm a firm believer you have to be patient in this league. The teams that are patient in trades (have more success). We'd like to get this done, but we've got a job to do and we have to make sure our fans are happy with what we get. They're our paying customers and we're trying to do our best for them.
I never dreamed that it would be like this. We're very disappointed in the fact that we had the guys here to do it and to get off to the start we did is very frustrating. We've gone downhill since then. But hopefully we're back on the right track and we can move forward.
I like the way we're playing. Not just because we're winning games, but because of the way we're moving the ball. It seems like we're coming together. We'll win a lot of games doing that.
I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.
It seemed like our team was going to the West Coast, stopping off at cities and our players were worried about being traded. Our time for excuses are over.
Any time you deal a player, you would like him to go out of the conference. We're looking at the West, but if it's the East, that's how it's going to be. Whether we get a draft choice or a player, we're going to make sure it's the right deal. We've done enough to back Ronnie. We're in a position where we have to protect the franchise now.