Writers’ Memories of Bird

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

Larry Bird wasn’t just a great player, he was fun, too. He came in talking trash and he went out the same way.

Two moments from his career, one from the beginning, one from the end:

1981--The Celtics have just won Bird’s first NBA championship. Bird, in the Boston airport on the way back to French Lick, Ind., is asked by a TV crew if he can give them a second.

“A second’s over,” Bird says, never breaking stride.

1992--Bird, who has grown from taciturn country bumpkin to a reporter’s favorite over the years, is introduced after a Dream Team game to gymnast Shannon Miller, a shy, starry-eyed, 4-foot pre-adolescent who has won five medals. Miller has already been introduced to Magic Johnson, who embraced her, reminded her that he’d watched her compete and gave her an autograph that read: “Stay Sweet, Good Luck, Magic Johnson.”

Asks Bird: “That all you win?”