Larry Bird arrived in Boston in 1979 with a reputation that preceded him by two years — the Indiana State sensation who had made Magic Johnson famous by being the other player in that 1979 NCAA championship game. He arrived as a franchise savior for a Celtics team that had missed the playoffs twice in three years. By the end of his first season, Boston had the best record in the Eastern Conference. By the end of his third season, they were NBA champions.
Bird's #33 was retired by the Celtics in 1993. The number represents three championships, three consecutive MVP awards, two Finals MVP awards, twelve All-Star selections, and a basketball intelligence so rare that opponents still describe their encounters with it in tones that approach awe.
The Basketball Mind
What made Larry Bird exceptional was not his athleticism — he was, by his own description, too slow to be the player he became. What made him exceptional was his understanding of the game as a system of cause and effect, of positioning and spacing and defensive tendencies, that he could read three plays ahead. He knew where the ball was going. He knew where the defender would be when it arrived. He made passes that arrived at destinations his teammates hadn't yet reached, and made them on time.
This intelligence expressed itself as confidence, and the confidence expressed itself as trash talk — the most famous in basketball history. Bird told defenders what move he was going to make, made it, and scored while they were still processing what had happened. It was not arrogance. It was a demonstration of certainty. He was never wrong.
Three MVPs, Three Championships
Between 1984 and 1986, Larry Bird won three consecutive regular season MVP awards — a distinction shared only with Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. In 1984 and 1986, he won the Finals MVP. The 1986 Celtics — Bird, McHale, Parish, Dennis Johnson, and Danny Ainge — are widely considered the greatest Celtic team since the Russell dynasty. They went 67-15. They lost four playoff games all year. Bird averaged 25.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 6.8 assists in the Finals.
His rivalry with Magic Johnson rebuilt the NBA. The two of them elevated the league's television ratings, its cultural relevance, and its global reach through the 1980s in ways that the sport has been building on ever since. They were opposing forces who brought out the best in each other and in everyone who watched them play.
What Trying Looks Like
By 1988, Bird's back was deteriorating from years of hard labor before his basketball career. He played through surgeries and pain, lost a full season to heel injuries in 1991, and came back in 1992 to play for the United States Olympic Dream Team alongside Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. He retired having never stopped competing. The #33 in the Garden rafters is Boston's acknowledgment of what trying, at that level of intelligence and will, looks like across thirteen seasons.
