THE LEGEND GROWS

They’re working on a remake of “Hoosiers” here with real Hoosiers, including the greatest of them all.

The Indiana Pacers still show that corny Gene Hackman pep talk, in which he tells his little band of Hickory High players that if they pass the ball, they can prevail against all odds. Everyone in the stands knows the movie was based on the ’54 state champions from tiny Milan (MY-lun, as they pronounce it here), but they’ve seen it so many times, when that lone Hickory player begins to clap, they join in, in perfect unison.

Who says Hoosiers don’t have soul?

Of course, Hickory only had to prevail over a team from that upstate metropolis, South Bend, which had no players anyone had ever heard of.

The Pacers are in against the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan, but are persevering, a tribute to their old-fashioned virtues and their real-as-real- life-gets coach, Larry Bird.

Bird has been the life of this party, in his refreshing un-coach incarnation. As in his Celtic days when K.C. Jones helped him out of his warmup jacket and then stayed out of his way, Bird doesn’t do the modern coach’s Watch Me tricks, calling every play, straying onto the floor lest anyone forget who’s in charge, making sure to use all his timeouts lest he forget to impart something important.

When the Bulls mopped the floor with his team in Game 5, he didn’t call a single timeout, except the mandatory ones at the end of quarters. By the end of the first quarter, the Pacers were reeling and by the end of the second, it was over, but what was he supposed to do if they were outclassed, say something that would stop the earth from spinning on its axis?

Bird doesn’t do inspirational speeches or three-hour practices. He doesn’t like speaking to reporters, he doesn’t need one more word written about him (though he does delight in endorsements and, as Will Rogers might have said, never met a dollar he didn’t like), but does it graciously.

Nor does Bird invoke Zen, Native American tribal chiefs or that overnight-success-after-2,400-years, Sun Tzu.

Sun is enjoying a vogue among coaches such as Pat Riley, who quote his sage advice such as, when your enemy is stronger, evade him. Your sixth-grader knows to cross the street when he sees the school bully, but if you’re a coach, you and your players may enjoy pretending you’re spiritual descendants of an ancient Chinese warlord.

(Sun has made it to Indiana too. A few years ago, The Times’ Gene Wojciechowski arranged an interview with IU Coach Bob Knight and traveled to Bloomington, only to be told that Knight wasn’t going to do it. In the process of explaining his disappointment, Wojciechowski said he’d read Sun’s “The Art of War” in preparation--whereupon Knight reversed himself, granted him a long interview and wound up putting his arm around him.)

This leads us to what we might call the Sun Tzu Test, which goes: If you’re quoting warlords, perhaps you’re taking yourself too seriously.

Happily, as the pressure mounts and the crowd around Bird grows, it’s as if his career is being reenacted. Despite a basic shyness and a disinclination to perform, at least with words, he’s enjoying himself more and more, as he did in the ‘80s when he went from taciturn, self-described “hick from French Lick” to country humorist.

He muses on Phil Jackson’s crusade against injustice and unfriendly referees, noting before Game 5:

“Well, Phil’s hand-picked these [officials], so I’m sure he’s happy.”

He busts his players, as when Mark Jackson shimmied in the New York Knick series and Reggie Miller twirled all over the court after making his big three-point shot in Game 4 against the Bulls.

“I was really disappointed in Mark Jackson in New York,” Bird says. “We got that squared away and then Reggie started actin’ like a fool the last couple games.”

This is serious to Bird, but he seems merely haunted by his all-encompassing job, as opposed to obsessed by it in the modern I- must-leave-earthly-pursuits-behind-to-go- on-a-spiritual-journey style.

Here’s Bird, caught on an NBC replay, watching Miller’s game-winning shot in Game 4.

His expression is blank, his mouth twisted into a grimace as the ball leaves Reggie’s hand. . . .

It doesn’t change as the ball flies home and the arena erupts in sound and fury. . . .

His only movement is a flicker of his eyes upward, toward the clock.

“It was four-tenths of a second,” Bird said later. “I knew it was going to go up around nine-tenths [the referees would put back on the clock] or maybe even a second and I was scared to death that Jordan or [Toni] Kukoc or [Scottie] Pippen was going to make a big shot. . . .

“I’m having a blast. I mean, I was so happy for Reggie at that point--just ‘cause I wasn’t doing back flips doesn’t mean I wasn’t happy for the team--but you’ve always got something to worry about.”

Going into Game 6, he really has something to worry about, a resurgent Bull team that is one win from kicking him into summer. One way or another, you get the idea it’ll be OK. He has helped the Pacers be all they can be, which is all they could have hoped or prayed for.

Even in basketball-mad Indiana, interest in the Pacers used to run behind IU, Purdue, the Indianapolis 500, qualifying for the Indy 500, the parade before the Indy 500, the state fair, etc.

Now the Pacers are in their third Eastern Conference finals in five years with a local legend in charge, robust attendance and a new arena going up downtown. Bird has promised to usher them into it but is loath to commit himself to more than two more years, if he lasts that long.

There is another test of coaches’ sanity that goes, if you walk away, you just passed.

Bird is still here but looking good. Thank God, he’s still a country boy.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Watch the Birdie

How Larry Bird compares to other great players in their first season as an NBA coach: *--*

Coach (Year) Team Record Pct. Playoffs Bird (1997-98) Indiana 58-24 .707 *9-5 Bill Russell (1966-67) Boston 60-21 .741 4-5 Jerry West (1976-77) Lakers 53-29 .646 4-7 Willis Reed (1977-78) New York 43-39 .524 2-4 Bob Cousy (1969-70) Cincinnati 36-46 .439 none Dan Issel (1992-93) Denver 36-46 .439 none Wes Unseld (1987-88) Washington 30-25 .545 2-3 Dave DeBusschere (1964-65) Detroit 29-40 .420 none Dave Cowens (1978-79) Boston 27-41 .397 none Elgin Baylor (1976-77) New Orleans 21-35 .375 none Bob Lanier (1994-95) Golden State 12-25 .324 none Magic Johnson (1993-94) Lakers 5-11 .313 none

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