It was the intuition of his first coach in Boston between 1980 and 1983, Bill Fitch. Larry Bird would one day, once his playing career was over, become an NBA coach.
It became a reality in 1997, five years after his retirement. These five years were invaluable in relieving his bruised back, the one that precipitated the end of his adventure with the Celtics.
“I quit basketball thinking I was going to enjoy raising my kids”, he told the New York Times in 1997. ” And was it good. I was kind of a consultant for the Celtics but, honestly, I didn’t do much, going to Boston only six days a month. I go to bed at 9 p.m. every night because I’m an early riser. But overall, I had the feeling of wasting my time, of accomplishing nothing. I missed the competition. »
Can a triple MVP be a great coach?
Too young (he was then over 40) to wallow in an armchair and do nothing, Larry Bird therefore accepted a coaching position in Indiana. It’s perfect for him because it brings him closer to where he was born and because the Pacers are an experienced team. How about Boston?
“I made a name for myself there as a player and if I don’t succeed – the team is very young – it will tarnish everything I did at the Celtics. »
The whole question that arises is whether such an immense player, one of the greatest in history, can succeed in transforming his talent as a player into a coach. Magic Johnson had just tried his luck with the Lakers at the end of the 1993-1994 season. Without success.
“Regarding Magic, I think he still wanted to play”analyzed Larry Bird at the time. “That’s why he was frustrated. He arrived with this attitude, he was too impatient. Me, I don’t want to play at all anymore, it’s a page of my life that has definitely been turned. »
A natural authority
Pacers GM Donnie Walsh was more confident, citing the examples of Lenny Wilkens and Billy Cunningham. “I always thought that Larry was a coach on the pitch”adds the manager, while Danny Ainge, his former teammate in Boston, was surprised to see him put on this costume.
A solid mid-1990s team with Larry Brown, Larry Bird’s predecessor, the Pacers had a failed 1996-97 season with just 39 wins and an early vacation in April. The former glory of the Celtics must therefore restart the machine and he attacks the physical condition of the players.
“I liked everything he said”says Reggie Miller after the first contact with him. “He did most of the things everyone dreams of”underlines Mark Jackson.
The team had been weighed down by injuries. Once in working order and with the experience that makes up this group, the work of Larry Bird is facilitated.
“My job is to teach”he says. “To prepare them for the game. When the meeting begins, it is they who have the upper hand. He is no longer the coach. Of course, I make the substitutions, I announce systems, but they have to read the defenses, defend and block on the rebound. »
Go almost to the top
This is what Larry Bird’s Pacers will look like. Remarkably well coached, they will impose themselves between 1997 and 2000 as a powerful team, difficult to move. Michael Jordan, in “The Last Dance”, paid tribute to this formation, believing that apart from the Pistons version “Bad Boys”, it was the hardest to eliminate from the golden years of Chicago.
In 214 regular season games, Larry Bird won 147, or 68% wins. He was even crowned coach of the year in his first season, in 1997-1998. He came very close to knocking the Bulls out in the 1998 Conference Finals, losing in Game 7.
The following season, still in the conference final, he came up against the Knicks. It was not until 2000 that he finally joined the Finals against the Lakers. Except that Shaquille O’Neal is too strong and Los Angeles wins the title.
On June 22, 2000, in accordance with his career plan, Larry Bird left the scene when the Pacers were at the gates of the title.
“When he told me that, I believed him”, explains Donnie Walsh to the Chicago Tribune in 2000, to whom Larry Bird had told during the summer of 1999 that it would be his last season. In 1997, when taking the job, it was clear: he would stay for three seasons. Not one more. “And I didn’t try to convince him”, ends the GM of the Pacers.
Larry Bird won’t be leaving Indiana for long. He will return in 2003 to become GM there, until 2012, then again between 2013 and 2017. Then, his desire for freedom will be too strong and he will give up any full-time position.
