Larry Bird solidified himself as one of the greatest players the NBA had ever seen by winning 3 MVP awards, 3 championships, and 2 Finals MVPs. He was the driving force behind the Celtics dynasty of the 1980s and formed perhaps the most iconic rivalry in the history of the sport with Magic Johnson. He was so good that LeBron James once named him as one of his top 3 players of all time!
While he has been celebrated for all the great things he achieved on the court, what doesn’t get remembered as much is just how good Bird was as a head coach in the NBA. After he retired in 1992, the Celtics hired him as a special assistant in their front office, but when the Indiana Pacers came forward with a head coaching offer in 1997, Bird took it up as he returned to his hometown.
He had no prior experience as a coach, but Bird excelled right away in his new role as the Pacers won 58 games in his first season. They even went all the way to the Conference Finals, where they pushed Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls to 7 games before losing. While he was having all this success, Bird wasn’t all too happy with what he was seeing. During an interview with GQ in 2004, he stated that he felt that the players weren’t portraying themselves in a professional manner and added that he disliked the dance routines they had during warm-ups.
via GQ:
Q. You’ve mentioned that it makes you crazy when players don’t tuck in their shirts. Any other pet peeves?
A. Yeah. A wristband should not be worn on your biceps. It should be on your wrist. A headband should be on your forehead, not on top of your head, cocked back. That bothers me. It’s a professional league. The baggy shorts hanging down, I have a problem with that. But that’s the way I am. I always had my shirttail tucked in. I always tried to look professional. When I coached, our guys used to do a big dance routine during warm-ups. I used to turn my back on them.
I couldn’t stand watching them. I went to them and asked if they’d put a stop to it. They asked me why, and I said I thought it was embarrassing—not just to me but to our fans. And they quit doing it. We went to the NBA Finals that year.
It’s not surprising that someone like Bird wasn’t too fond of it, and you do wonder how he would have dealt with the players of today. The fact that his players back then agreed to his request was a bit surprising in itself, but it spoke to his stature in the league as well as the success he was having as a coach.
Bird would step down from his role after leading the Pacers to the NBA Finals in 2000, as he had stated when he took over that he wouldn’t be in the job for more than 3 seasons. The Pacers never quite managed to hit those heights after he departed, and one can only wonder how things might have panned out if he stuck around.
