Writers’ Memories of Bird

Times staff writers remember Larry Bird, basketball player, on parquet and elsewhere:

Larry Bird might have been one of the greatest NBA players of all time, but Mr. Current Events he wasn’t. While researching material for a book on sportswriters, this reporter learned that if it didn’t involve basketball, Bird didn’t care about it.

At the height of the Bruce Springsteen hysteria several years ago, Bird and the Celtics were in Dallas to play the Mavericks. A night earlier, Springsteen had played to a sold-out Reunion Arena, and in attendance were two reporters who covered the Celtics.

The next day, they ran into Bird and began raving about Springsteen’s performance.

Asked a puzzled Bird: “Who’s Bruce Springsteen?”

The two sportswriters looked at each other, and then one of them said: “He’s the you of rock ‘n roll.”

And how sure was Bird of his shooting skills?

Shortly before the 1985 Eastern Conference finals, Bird showed up at practice with his shooting hand heavily wrapped in bandages. Dan Shaughnessy, a reporter for the Boston Globe, took one look at the hand and said “You can’t play tomorrow. Not with your hand taped like that.”

Said Bird: “Yeah, I can. In fact I can tape my whole hand and shoot better than you. We’ll shoot a hundred foul shots and I’ll betcha $5 a foul shot.”

Shaughnessy lost $160.