Boston’s Bird Still Scraping Off the Rust : Comeback: Celtics’ star is finally able to run up and down the court without feeling pain in his feet.

As the parking lot emptied outside, Larry Bird sat in front of his locker dressed in gray corduroys, a sweater, one gray sock and one tasseled loafer. His other foot was wrapped in an ice pack. All you could see were his toes, as long and naked as fingers.

It had not been a particularly good night. The Boston Celtics had lost to the Washington Bullets, letting the game get away in the fourth quarter, and Bird had scored only two points in the last 21 minutes, missing seven consecutive shots as the Bullets pulled away at the end.

Still, he was more than happy to sit in the cramped locker room and answer questions. Spending a year on the sidelines had altered his world view.

“I still hate losing these games, but, right now, I’m mostly just happy to be playing again,” he said.

For the first time in years, he is running the court without feeling pain in his feet, a result of the surgery that caused him to miss all but the first few games of last season. His rehabilitation was long and hard--and successful, apparently. “I feel great,” he said. “There is no pain. I don’t even think about it.”

His basketball rehabilitation is another matter. There were moments Wednesday night when it seemed he had never missed a game. A perfect pass to Robert Parish on the break. A fade-away 19-footer from the baseline. A fake that busted the defense and left Kevin McHale open underneath the basket. But for each of those moments, there was another that showed rust. A forced pass. A jumper that barely touched the rim.

“My passing and shooting are erratic,” said Bird, who missed 17 of 26 shots against the Bullets. “I make three or four in a row, then miss three or four in a row. I make some bad passing decisions. My rebounding, I think, is good. Getting back to playing tough competition night after night, after a year off, that is an adjustment. I’ve gotten better. Hopefully, I’m going to continue to get better.”

Whether he returns to his original form, at age 32, is one of the big stories of the pro basketball season. There are indications that he will. He scored 32 points in the first game of the season. He hit the game-winning shot in the last seconds against Chicago last weekend. Even Wednesday night, the parts of his game that troubled him were the ones that should heal with time on the court. “Passing, shooting--timing things,” he said.

Meanwhile, he circles the league drawing ovations at almost every stop. Wednesday night was no exception. Not so long ago, Bird was booed from the moment he stepped on the floor at the Capital Centre. Wednesday night, he was given a warm cheer. It is as if the fans have come to understand they only have a few years left to appreciate Bird.

“I have gotten a lot more encouragement than I thought I would,” he said. “Got that nice ovation tonight. Got nice ovations throughout the exhibition season. That’s great. That’s what you hope for--to go into enemy territory and be respected. It is nice to hear that people understand you have been through a tough time.”

Accompanying those ovations, however, has been a battery of questions that has trailed him from stop to stop. How do you feel? Do you think you can get back to your old self? Do you feel old? Can you pull the Celtics back up to where they were before you were gone? Although he is accommodating and patient every night, he clearly, for some reasons, feels affronted.

“It’s a no-win situation, basically,” he said. “If I miss a shot, people are going to say, ‘Well, he used to make those.’ If a rebound glances off my fingernails and goes out of bounds, they are going to say, ‘Well, he used to get those.’ You can’t win that fight. The way I look at it, if I don’t get a lot better, something’s wrong. I don’t believe in age. If you work hard, you aren’t going to deteriorate. I’m only 32.”

Not making his task any easier is the transitional state of the Celtics. A year ago, Bird left a team that had a rookie coach, Jim Rodgers, and for years had relied almost solely on its starting lineup. One year later, there is a group of new faces, and all are getting a chance to play. Gone are the days of ignoring the bench; Rodgers used 11 players in the first 15 minutes Wednesday night.

The message: Bird will not play as much as he once did. He does not complain, because he respects Rodgers, but it is clear he is struggling to get acclimated.

“I was shooting great in the first quarter, and then I came out, and when I got back in I couldn’t hit a thing,” he said. The inference, of course, was that he should have stayed in the game. Oh, well. He understands.

“This team has a lot of potential because of the depth,” he said. “The question is whether we can play together. Right now, we’re trying to find out who plays well with who, combinations. It’s a learning process, and it takes time. Will it happen? You like to think so. If we can play together, we can go all the way.”

That could be a tad optimistic. The Celtics are shallow in the backcourt and old in the frontcourt. McHale does not seem to be the dominating player he used to be. Parish is well past his peak, as is Dennis Johnson. The Celtics are a team with obvious holes. A healthy Larry Bird brightens the picture considerably, of course. He has been known to carry a team by himself. He may still have it in him. Just give him time.