I was so fortunate to be at ISU in the late 70's'. Best time in my life.

I'm from french lick born and raised. I know what you mean

@@TylerSmith-fu2rp Hey there Tyler!

😊

LARRY SAID THAT HONOR BELONGS TO MAGIC. FACTS. ARE U SAYING YOUR WORD IS LAW FOR LARRY??,

I was at ISU from 1977 to 1980. One of the best times of my life.

@@jamescress yeah the 2020's fucking suck lol.....hopefully we can't get back to those golden days. At least I got to be a kid during the 90's, poor kids these days.

Incredible player, but MJ is the GOAT!!!

Larry was great but did you see magic play ?

Magic was a special player too and deserves to be ranked near the top. @@djBangzWell

He was awesome, but you failed to mention his 11 turnovers.

GOAT !

That was one of Larry's greatest performances ever college and pro! I believe he would have scored over 40 in this game had the 3 point shot existed at the time!

Bird has 35 while Mark Aguirre didn’t get 15.

​@@geezusgeezus4413 players reaching

it took all of his coaching powers to lose that game lol.

1980 wasn't too bad either, with Louisville and the , 'doctors of dunk'

I was born in 79! Lol. Always wished I was born a little sooner. But it could be worse I could've been born a little later! Atleast I grew up before the technology boom!

The most exciting game i ever watched was the 83 championship between Houston and a big underdog in NC State

JACK I WAS 22 & I WAS JUST AS MESMERIZED!!!!!!! I HAVE BEEN A LIFELONG BASKETBALL MEGAFAN ESPECIALLY WHEN.BIRD & OR MAGIC WAS PLAYING!!!!!!!!!!

I remember watching it as a 10 year old in loogootee Indiana in a trailer park Carl Nick's was a great player

what did he suffer from and did he suffer in high school and college too?

@@dabneyoffermein595 The first injury was a broken finger that never healed properly which he suffered after college but before the NBA. That affected his shooting touch for the rest of his life. Later he injured his back a season or two before he hit his prime. It happened during the off-season and would eventually lead to his retirement but he played with it for several years. It basically put pressure on his spinal cord and caused immense pain on a good days and prevented him from even feeling his feet while playing on bad days. He also had double Achilles surgery if I remember correctly. He also had a ton of concussions including one where his eye popped out of his skull.

@@bobthabuilda1525 holy crap, i can't imagine what he would have been like at Boston without all of those injuries, especially early on with that bad digit, he should have gone to the Indiana Hand Clinic, which is/was #1 in the country. I don't know why he didn't go there to have it re-broken and fixed, ...yea, it would have cost him 3/4 of a season, but it would have been worth it to see him shoot 60 percent from the field.

@@dabneyoffermein595 I couldnt say for sure, but I'd guess the reason was that he hadn't signed his contract with Boston yet and they were worried that he would be "damaged goods" (a term I heard Red Auerbach himself use in an interview). If he would have lost any significant time he might have missed out on the contract.

@@bobthabuilda1525 Don't forget than fight at a Boston bar during (or before, can't remember) the 84-85 season. He hurted his hand, struggled with his shooting and I've read somewhere that it was a key factor for the Celtic's loss in the finals.

He was George Mikan's coach.

Ray Meyer had class. Most coaches today can be described as crass, not class. That period, the 1970s and early '80s, was college basketball at its height.

Simply the best, ever.

The GOAT !

So true

Indeed! haha!

and in true Bird fashion he was not even the first player to touch the ball nor the last and he was not even the one to score, yet he was the star of the play

@MANCHESTER UNITED F.C I hope you are right. It's annoying that only basketball is only 5 players on the court and only 30 teams. What use is a sport that only 150 people can play?

That was awesome!!

I was a student at ISU during that time and they started many games in that exact fashion and we knew it was coming. I was astounded that teams didn't see that on tape and come up with a way to counter it.

Todd L. Chatman that little blonde cheerleader is who caught my eye ☺️👍🏿😉

Larry made his teammates better. Jordan made his teammates stay beyond the three point line and give him the ball.

@@telefunkenyou47 1987 Eastern Semifinal between Celtics and Bucks. Six of top eight players of Celtics were injured. Line-up of Celtics were called: Conner Henry Darren Daye Sam Vincent Greg Kite Bucks assistant coach John Killilea said : They are just average players ( implicating Bucks could beat them) Right then, the announcer called the Celtics 5th player - - - Larry Bird! Don Nelson, the head coach of Bucks, replied to his assistant: "Yes, but look now - there are five great players standing there" Don Nelson knew very well that Larry Bird could turn average players into great players. Source: My Favorites quotes about Larry Bird

Yeah it's pretty bad! Especially Hardens step 3 where he takes 3 sometimes 4 steps altogether after pulling up his dribble.

Ok Boomer

@@orange22ify ok woketard!

@@CoreyT127 ok boomer

@@orange22ify I didnt know what that meant? Then my girl told me its the newest shortcut to thinking for your generation! The most bitch made generation to ever walk the earth! Feminine males and masculine women! I was born in 89 by the way and am probably younger than you! Well age wise anyway!

Mark Aguirre great college basketball player, love legendary coach ray mejer, George milken former coach

Yeah, but he was NOWHERE near 6'8" like Bryant Gumbel said at the beginning. Closer to 6'4" - 6'5" tops. But an underrated player who averaged 20 pts for his career and got back to back rings as a key player on the Bad Boy Pistons. A prototypical scoring forward who could play inside/out.

@@Israel-nb7ip IF THE CELTICS STAY HEALTHY THROUGH THE 80'S INTO THE 90'S NOT ONLY THE LAKERS BUT THE PISTONS MIGHT NOT HAVE WON ANY CHAMPIONSHIPS NOT TO MENTION MJ & THE BULLS LOSING THE FIRST 3 RINGS ESPECIALLY WITH BIAS BEING WITH THE CELTICS THROUGH THE EARLY 90'S!!!!!!!!

@@mikebeasley6447 if "if" was a fifth we'd all be drunk...what you're saying is 100% conjecture. Nobody can say what Bias would've turned into. He could've been a bust like most players from that '86 class. Reggie Lewis was born with a genetic heart defect so no amount of what ifs will change that. The only part I may agree are the Bird and McHale injuries which were 100% self-induced...but, still, even with both of them fully healthy, the Pistons were ready to win and had the roster to match...and the Jordan Bulls were just the next stage of NBA basketball, which was a team where their two best players were two-way perimeter monsters with one of them being the best to ever play the game. I don't see how an older Bird Celtics matches up with that if Bias (an unproven NBA player) and Reggie Lewis (who still had that heart condition) are your two best players. Also, Reggie Lewis didn't come into his own until '92-'93 when Bird would've been 36 years old, Parish 37 and McHale 35. That team wasn't going to beat a prime Jordan, Pippen and their supporting cast.

@@Israel-nb7ip BELIEVE WHAT YOU WANT BUT LARRY LEGEND WITHOUT THE BACK PROBLEM DID NOT NEED NEAR AS MUCH HELP AS THE DISABLED VERSION OF HIMSELF REQUIRED! STILL HE CONTINUOUSLY HAD TRIPLE DOUBLES AGAINST ANY & ALL!!!!!! WITH JUST A LITTLE HELP MANY MORE CHAMPIONSHIPS WERE NOT ONLY POSSIBLE BUT PROBABLE!!!!!!!!! I HAVE LOVED THE NBA SINCE 1963 BUT TRUTH BE TOLD WITHOUT LARRY LEGEND & MAGIC IT IS EXTREMELY POSSIBLE THAT THE NBA WOULD HAVE REMAINED A FOOTNOTE IN MODERN SPORTS HISTORY!!!!!!!!!

Many people forgot during his NBA career that Bird was a natural lefty. He shot right-handed, pitched baseball right-handed but signed his checks left-handed. He was as close to being ambidextrous as could be.

Yup. Stupid,

No shot clock was hardly fluid.

I hated the no shot clock.

They were the greatest broadcaster team ever by far

lol I didn't think Bird would be as great as he was in NBA, slow, can't jump, boy was I wrong on that one. I underestimated the power of vision and bball IQ

Pistol Pete likes this comment

Tell you what, you can predict they will play in the '79 NCAA Final then win the next three NBA championships as well from '80-'82.

Mark Aguirre ain't bad either

Nah....they’ll both get their ass handed to them in the NBA.....mark my words on this!

Right on! thx for sharing.

You should have taken a picture with your cell phone.

Sum Ego I was live blogging the game.

JStarStar00 indeed

So cool

I could be wrong but I think Bobby Heaton hit the winning shot in that game. I was a senior at Indiana State in 1979. Best time of my life. My wife and now live about 2 hours away from Terre Haute and we go to at least one game a year.

@@jamescress - Sir, you are correct. That was indeed the Heaton game. Salute!

this would be great to watch with commentary from Larry Bird himself

I got the championship game on dvd

​@@Hooozyer I have a feeling he would mostly mention his own shortcomings and great moments by the other guys. But it would be cool to hear his perspective into what really went on in this or that moment.

Which game you referring to? Mcdonalds All-American?

Definitely pre-3 point line.

Also, I had to crack up when they showed ISU's coach's career record as 32-0. One season under Bird will do that for you.

from Chile.... estoy totalmente de acuerdo contigo.... you are right Bird have something that in difficult to explain, he understan the game and mentally strong....

45:24 There's your GOAT. 55 rebounds in a game against Bill Russell.

Softball

He had a smoooooth shot in college

Never knew that thanks for the info he was a pretty damn good shooter even with a broken index finger but damn imagine if he didn't break it.

And to think at IU, Bobby Knight publically ignored him, and Kent Benson Bullied and Hazed him in practice...You Cant Fix Stupidity...

he never missed a trick

Very true.

But it was a "team" 🙂

soj. H Yes that opening tip pass by Bird foreshadow of his awesome passing skill to be seen his whole NBA career. Bird is my all-time favorite college/pro bb player.

@wakey wakey Bird only played 3 years in college and put up career numbers like this. www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/larry-bird-1.html

Bird was the most clutch player in college and the pros. The Celtics were never out of it even when down 12 points with a minute to go how many times did bird orchestrate the win? It’s uncountable. He also was the player who was the best team player and made his teammates the best better than magic Johnson. Johnson had more talent, bird made the average players around him great.

D Brother what about Kareem? Good

LOL

@D Brother David Thompson was an amazing basketball player from NC State in the early to mid 70s

No 3 pointers, either.

Lmao....Indiana State implemented great coaching? It's called Larry Bird

Yeah, I agree. If he keeps working hard, he may have a future in this game.

those are not "career stats" as you intentionally left out his stats from 1990 - 1994 where he avg around 10 points a game

@@ww387gr (1) I got tired typing (2) I wrote that Mark was traded and continued his career in a secondary role winning two NBA titles. The criticism of Aguirre was that he was a ball hog and had a bad attitude. The critics said he wouldn't accept a reduced role and would be a headache for the Pistons. He proved his critics wrong.

@@cygnusx-3217 Don't care - you shouldn't write "career" stats if you leave out the last 5 years of his playing career. That's historical revisionism , basically a nice way of saying you are lying about the past to make Aguirre look better by leaving out his last 5 years of about 10 points a game - maybe the ball hog got old and couldn't score that much anymore.

No way we would of missed the start of the RIVALRY of Bird vs Magic. Plus taking a tiny school to the championship game is unbelievable.

Second best after Mike. LeBron not close

Gods Child ppppffff schooled mj every time they played.

And he promised his mom he'd stay at this school and graduate. 😊. Gotta respect that.

At 18 he was only 6'7" and skinny as a rail. He even has said when asked that there was no way he could have went straight to the NBA

That's for sure, McGuire thought Bird would be a good NBA player not a great one. A slight Bird never forgot.

I was 14 in 79 and I knew bird would be a all time great...plain to see. Celtic fan

They knew be sure.

You would think already being selected by Red Auerbach would mean something

yep.

Now the players not only walk with the ball with no penalty, they also travel while running to do dunk shots. Main reason I stopped watching the game, it is now a dunking contest; just need ten 7 ft players on the court that can almost touch the rim.

I'm been playing and watching for almost 50 years, the biggest change in my lifetime, by far, is the number of steps the players get away with now and how much easier that has made it to score. If old timers like Dr J and Connie Hawkins, whose only weakness was their average jump shots, could play with today's rules they would have been completely unstoppable.

@Jack D Eurostep = Traveling

I thought I was the only one who saw that. The game today, the pro game sucks especially. Saw one game, not the entire game, but one with LeBron, lost track of the number of times he traveled. Not one call against him. The officiating is abysmal.

He picked up that sneaker habit from his older brothers. 🙂

Michael Clyburn, can’t agree more.

But the nba today is more talented, there were always superteams, Magic/Bird for the 80s Lakers/Celtics super teams? nice try, but they started it and now they perfected it in a much better way with more talent is what was supposed to happen, it doesn't happen just in nba but in other sports aswell, just get over it and enjoy greatness.

@@DrizzIeego somewhere and cry like today players do

@@DrizzIee JUMPING HIGH AND DUNKING IS NOT TALENT. 90% CANT SHOOT A BACKBOARD SHOOT OR POST UP what talent

Ok Boomer

David Tosh I think he did too !

His hair was not cut close until after 86.

I started following Bird during his junior year and I also assumed he had more melanin.

Joe Cap I had been out of high school for 9 yrs and was working for Coca-Cola and I was also broke. However, I could buy a case of cokes for $3 and buy a coke in the vending machine for a dime. 'In the good ole days, when times were bad.' (Dolly Parton)

I have been to Clay City a few times. My best friend's grand parents lived there. Nice little town.

Played with Sinbad the comic at the University of Denver till they dropped basketball. True story.

It's a triple double

@@bjornyesterday2562 😄

Someone has to catch the ball.

I agree. I find this more enjoyable-higher quality basketball than today. By the way, I loved you in Rocky IV

@@dmichael100 The shot clock and three point shot have done some good and done some bad. I do like the three point shot, but it has really neutralized the dominant big man. The shot clock is a good idea, but all I see today in college and the NBA is teams dribble, dribble, dribble until 10-12 seconds left on the shot clock and then they run their offense. These teams where looking for the first good shot, it didnt matter if that was 8 seconds in or not and the NBA is even worse. Yeah, Ive had this screen name for years and it was cool until Creed 2 came out and Ivan Drago was a pop culture name again. I was happy to see the character return, but he made my online ID a bit of a joke, but after all these years, Im not changing it, Im a rebel like that.

Both teams shot lights out. ISU wound up shooting .625 from the field. DePaul .545. Very entertaining game.

I truly miss this era of college basketball. Things were a lot simpler back then.

yeah, I forgot what a good rebounder he was

Yes, Bob McAdoo. Not saying he was as great a player as Bird but he's a hall of famer, MVP and champion who was a shooting big man before it was popular and dominant in his prime.