Larry Bird left everything on the NBA court, including his health. Bird was forced to retire after 13 seasons in the NBA due to back injuries, even wearing a brace to ensure he was fit enough to play games.
Iconic NBA reporter Jackie MacMullan appeared in an ESPN documentary about Bird and narrated the story of what Bird did to the body brace that got him through his final NBA season.
(35:25) “This was a guy that played, went home from practice, put on a full body brace for the rest of the day, would get up the next morning, take it off, and go to practice, come back, and put that brace on. That’s what he had to do to finish his final season. When his career was over, he took that body brace out into the woods, pulled out a shotgun, and he blew it to pieces.”
Bird’s first 9 seasons in the NBA saw him be regularly available for his team, missing just 27 games over that entire period. However, he sat out the entire 1988-89 season after surgery to remove bone spurs from both of his feet.
Even though he had a terrific rebound season in 1989-90, he wasn’t the same player as before. He retired after the 1991-92 season.
Injuries Cut Larry Bird’s Prime Short
Larry Bird will always be remembered as one of the greatest to ever play the game, despite having a relatively short prime. The best of Bird came through the ’80s, as he wasn’t the same player in the few seasons he played in the ’90s. He averaged an impressive 21.6 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 7.2 assists in the final 3 seasons of his career, but played through injury and was noticeably less mobile on the court.
He won’t be upset about the Hall of Fame legacy he left behind, but fans will always wonder. Could Bird have extended his domination into the Michael Jordan era so we could see them compete against each other for longer? We will never know. What we do know is that Larry Legend left an indomitable legacy for over a decade on the parquet floors of the NBA.
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