larry bird college stats larry bird college stats

Bird also cites an instance during an off season open gym, soon after he arrived on campus, during a period of "no contact" between the players and coaches. The following comes from The Tampa Bay Times: His best NCAA tournament game came in the Final Four against DePaul, when he scored 35 points with 16 rebounds and nine assists (all were NCAA tournament highs for him) while shooting 16-of-19 from the field. We talked Hoosiers with our buddy at Hoopla. Despite losing leading scorer Steve Green and John Laskowski after the 75 season, IU got the band back together in 1976 and finished what the Hoosiers came three wins away from achieving the previous year: an undefeated, national championship season as they became the NCAAs #1 All-Time March Madness team. Kent Benson returned for his senior year, as did forward Wayne Radford for his junior season, but gone were May, Abernethy, Quinn Buckner, Bobby Wilkerson and Jim Crews. Bird poured in 20 points in the final period to outdo his counterpart and lead the Celtics to victory even though he had bronchial pneumonia. Editors note: This is part of a series of stories revisiting the biggest what-ifs in IU history. Player Season Finder . It is amazing how extreme insecurity can drive a person. Larry Bird. There is no question about his eligibility.. Does the most recognized team in Hoosier history double or even, gasp, triple, its national championship haul with Bird in Bloomington in the mid-to-late 70s? He was also called Kodak by his first NBA coach, Bill Fitch, . Career information head-to-head including championships won, season and playoff stats, honors and awards and more. Here are some of the records and historical rankings that Larry Bird achieved at Indiana State: Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote after watching him in the Final Four: "I could not believe The Bird. Other notable performances by Bird include his career-high 49 points against Wichita State in February 1979, scoring 29 points in the first half against Butler in December 1978, just 10 months after he dropped 47 on the Bulldogs on the road. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. This type of behavior was par for the course with Knight, but a new experience alltogether for Bird. Bird finished runner-up to Moses Malone for the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, as he would the following year. Two months later, he signed his NBA contract with the Boston Celtics. "By noon, Bird appeared at a press conference, a rarity in his scheme of things. The Whole Bird thing reminds me of that old country song"I overlooked and orchid while searching for a rose"! Maybe the UCLA dynasty, which featured 10 national titles in 12 years under John Wooden, the last coming in 1975, would have passed the torch to a burgeoning era of IU basketball under Bob Knight. Birth City: West Baden Springs. Adding Bird to that IU team is almost an embarrassment of riches, giving the sports last undefeated champion a player who was named one of the top 15 players ever in the NCAA tournament during the 75 Years of March Madness Celebration in 2013. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Looks like Bradley's coach on 2/10/79 tried to give Bird the same treatment . Find out more. He became only the third player (and the first non-center) to win three consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player Awards. A brutal sucker punch in the OVC tournament stopped the game in its tracks. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. But he has said many times over the years that he would have never been able to play for Bob Knight. But Knight was not impressed. He started out as an Indiana Hoosier but later left the school and team coached by the legendary Bobby Knight. In an effort to stop Bird, Bradley coach Dick Versace installed what was referred to as the "Bird's Nest Defense," where two defenders would guard Bird and the other three defenders would cover the four other Sycamores. He averaged better than 30 points and 10 rebounds for the Sycamores during his first campaign. Net Worth, Salary & Earnings of Larry Bird in 2023. This guy is the epitome of everything Ive tried to do here, then-Pacers president Donnie Walsh said of Bird. What if Knute Rockne came to Bloomington in 1914 and changed the trajectory of IU football? As the NBA celebrates it's 75th Anniversary Season, get to know dozens of star players who helped make the NBA what it is today. Isiah Thomas was in the high school class of 1979. He averaged 24.3 points, 10.0 rebounds and 6.3 assists in 897 regular-season games. Bird was the embodiment of Celtics Pride. He was a classy, confident, hardworking player who thrived on pressure and inspired teammates to excel. Larry Bird's accomplishments and stats make him one of the greatest pure shooters of all time. Even though he had never coached a game in his life, the Pacers had no qualms about turning over the reins to Bird. He won the NBA Executive of the Year award in 2012 to become the only person in NBA history to win Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year. That came in spite of Bird playing with a fracture in his left thumb in the Final Four after getting hurt against Arkansas. But none of those things kept him in Bloomington, as he was gone before homecoming his freshman year. Larry Bird's Wife Dinah Mattingly. / NBA. But there were plenty more heroics yet to come. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Theres no guarantee Bird wouldve stuck around for his senior season if he had stayed at IU, but doing so couldve allowed him to be the featured scorer on the Hoosiers if he wanted a larger share of shots after playing alongside Benson, the No. Thanks Lincoln- nice post and pretty much confirms what my book about Knight, and how he thought Benson could "do no wrong" while at Indiana. In the last 7 years, I've been covering everything related to the career and job seeking world. But his arrogant attitude is hardly a big surprise to those who know about Benson. How does Larry Bird compare with other great NBA players? Body Measurement Of Larry Bird. Even the mild mannered Kareem Abdul Jabbar once decked Benson square in the jaw during a pro game, after being delivered one too mant rib shots by him. He was named NBA Head Coach of the Year in 1998. Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.He is the only person in NBA history to be named Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Finals . Larry Bird Ball was the most popular sport in Terre Haute. What if IU hired Jerry Tarkanian instead of Bob Knight, What if IU had solved Syracuses zone in 2013. See our ethics statement. In the final, they played Michigan State, led by "Magic" Johnson, and together their rivalry would eventually be responsible for the resurgence of the NBA in the 1980s. 18 Alabama and No. All rights reserved. Hodges allowed Bird to sleep in, which annoyed the folks who sponsored the brunch and the award, and some in the media. An offseason trade with Golden State which that many consider the most lopsided in NBA history brought center Robert Parish and a future first-round pick (which became Kevin McHale) to Boston. When I started here, I wanted to see the high school, college and professional basketball worlds come together, and Bird symbolizes that. Fans were filling not only Boston Garden, which sold out the final 541 games of Birds career, but arenas all over the country to witness Birds exploits. 10 Bird Was A Part Of The Most Watched College Game Ever Larry Bird's wife, Dinah Mattingly, is his high school sweetheart who got engaged and married the former NBA legend in 1989. The internet said that Bird's mother worked 2 jobs to care for Larry and his 5 siblings. Larry Bird, AKA "Larry Legend," was selected by the Boston Celtics with the sixth overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft. Known as 'Chief', Parish played 21 seasons in the NBA and was one of the mainstays in Boston during the '80s, leading the Celtics to three titles. Published Jan. 28 . Hodges said of Bird, "His only personal goal this year was to lead the nation in rebounds. The story was news to me. Wore the number 33 on his basketball jersey in high school, college and with the Boston Celtics. Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketballers of all time, it . Durant, a four-time scoring champion, now sets his sights on Hakeem Olajuwon in 12th place. McHale just destroyed him. With Bird as the focal point of a well-rounded squad, the Celtics won three NBA titles and 10 Atlantic Division crowns. Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former professional basketball player, former coach and former executive. Is there room for eight banners on the south wall of Assembly Hall? 11 in the AP poll that season and finished the year ranked No. I could play baseball, Bird responded, taking the coach by surprise. And the rest is history. It began as gentle ribbing, poking fun at Birds propensity to spend a majority of his free time getting ice and massages in the ISU training room. Do you have a blog? Taking a look at the numbers behind Nikola Jokic's historic season for the Nuggets. Former professional NBA player, coach, and NBA executive Larry Bird is well known globally. Larry Bird was originally in the recruiting class of 1974. He averaged a career-high 29.9 points that year, falling just five points short of averaging 30 per contest. "At 9 o'clock yesterday [Bill] Hodges went to wake up Bird for a brunch at which he was to receive the Player of the Year Award. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? He thought he had been playing pretty damn good that day. Larry used BB to escape from his family problems! Larry Bird was originally in the recruiting class of 1974. I heard this story once and I believe it is true. Bird scored a team-high 19 points for the Sycamores in the 1979 national championship game but it wasn't his most efficient performance as he was just 7-of-21 from the field and 5-for-8 from the free-throw line. Real men play with balls this size, Warn said, glaring at Bird. A defensive maven who stifled some of the best stars, Dennis Johnson was an All-Star, a Finals MVP and won three NBA titles. Bob Knights worst team at IU, by record, was the 1977, post-title team. The small forward had just led Indiana State to a 33-1 season, with the teams sole loss coming to Magic Johnson and Michigan State. UCLA beat Montana by just three points in its second tournament game, proving the Bruins were a resilient, but mortal, champion.