Bird Still Has Flock of Fans, Even as the Coaching Enemy

“Larry, you may be their coach but you’re our legend. Welcome home.”

--Message on Celtic scoreboard

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This was only “home” in a sense for Larry Bird, who lived here when he played for the Celtics but retired to Florida, leaving the likes of M.L. Carr to outmaneuver him within the organization, finally persuading him to pursue his destiny elsewhere.

His real home here was in the hearts of Celtic fans and it was to their embrace, and the attendant media circus, that he returned reluctantly Sunday only to find--surprise!--they still have the power to move him.

“To come back to Boston is always tough for me,” Bird said after his Pacers drew away in the last two minutes to beat the Celtics, 103-96.

“I was a little embarrassed about how the fans treated me. I knew how they feel about me because I played so hard for them and had some success. Coming back and coaching a different team, that’s difficult but I loved every minute of it.”

Cleverly, the Celtics turned what could have been an awkward moment into one of their pageants, picking this game to retire Robert Parish’s number, bringing back Kevin McHale to reunite “the greatest front court in basketball history” one last time on the parquet amid sentimental songs, video replays, etc.

All but forgotten in the waterworks that flowed in Celticdom were the unhappy events of last spring, when Bird walked out, upset that the organization rarely did anything he suggested as a consultant.

There were strained feelings with Red Auerbach, who had been seduced into the Carr camp. And although Rick Pitino pleaded for him to stay, there is little doubt the new Celtic coach/president likes his power undiluted and is just as happy with Bird 1,000 miles away.

That was then, this was now, even if there’s nothing Celtic fans like better than a good round of reminiscing.

What did Bird need with another ovation? He’s a coach now, with a million and one details to obsess over. The word he used for this wasn’t “homecoming” but “distraction.”

He wouldn’t do the standard NBC sit-down interview. He agreed to a pregame news conference at which he said the inevitable ovation would mean “absolutely nothing” to him.

“If the game was played next door [at Boston Garden], it would be different,” Bird said. “I have absolutely no ties to this building [the FleetCenter]. To me, we’re playing a different Celtic team. There’s really no one other than Dee Brown that I really know . . .

“For me, emotionally, playing against the Boston Celtics doesn’t mean a lot. Playing for the Celtics meant a lot.”

Mr. Curmudgeon also announced that if the Pacers make it to next Sunday with the best record in the East, he won’t coach the All-Star game. He’s going to Florida for a vacation.

“What will you tell David Stern when he calls?” someone asked.

“He won’t get ahold of me,” Bird said.

Had he shot down enough warm and fuzzy angles? It was time for the game, which was important for the young Celtics, who are playing for confidence and respect every time they take the court, but no less for Bird. He never said a word about having to win but a Pacer official suggested this wasn’t just life or death to Larry, it was more important.

Happily for them, they have a veteran team that has seen hype before. The young Celtics hustled and worked and pressed and overcame leads but they won’t beat many good clubs when Antoine Walker goes five for 18.

The score was tied, 93-93, with 2:18 left when the Celtics disintegrated. With Indiana leading, 94-93, Reggie Miller, who had struggled while being bumped around by Pitino’s defenders, made his only three-point basket of the day, the dagger he’d been saving all afternoon.

At the other end, Walker drove, couldn’t beat Derrick McKey but, as he usually does, threw up a shot anyway, a wild hook that didn’t come close. That’s what stage Bird’s old team and his new one are in terms of development.

“This was almost like when Michael [Jordan] came back against us at our place, the magnitude, the press, the ambience,” Miller said.

“But we were the veteran ballclub and we knew they were the young club that maybe didn’t quite know how to handle this. We’ve been in a lot of Game 7s in New York with the media and the fans all on top of you and we understand how to handle that.”

Bird, surrounded again by the media, said he could hardly wait for the next game, when there would be only two or three reporters to talk to.

Someone asked what his favorite part of the event had been.

“What do you think?” said Larry Bird, of French Lick, Ind., and now Indianapolis. “Winning.”