Larry Bird the Legend goes On.....

Has there ever been a more perfect basketball existence than the Hick form French Lick? is it possible to get Executive of the Year two years in a row? even if he officially left/retired this year? I am falling in love with this Pacers team, Bird just did it his way, with no lottery picks, no superstar FA signings.....every move he did was brilliant, signing George Hill, who knew? master of the under the radar siqning and this team is gonna be a beast for years as they are so young and their player with the most all star nods, Granger has been out the whole year, who builds a franchise like that? Paul George is in the midst of a breakout year, Roy Hibbert is throwing his weight around this playoff run like never before, Lance Stephenson seemingly came out of nowhere and reminds me of a bigger Tony Allen/ D Wade....this team is stacked, pounds you on the boards, wins in a real oldschool way. I didn't see this coming. Larry, Larry, Larry, Larry, Larry......

Last year they weren't ready, this year they are grabbing it, I like them over Miami, too much size, small ball vs oldschool smashmouth....only way Heat win is by the 3 ball, should be a great series, is there anyway we can bring Mr Bird back in any position he may desire?

You know what Charles Barkley says about the 3-ball..

You die by it. Let's hope he is right.

You can not rebound or score when you have fouled out. All that needs to be said about that series

Right refs....fockin Stern

cowens/oldschool wrote:Has there ever been a more perfect basketball existence than the Hick form French Lick? is it possible to get Executive of the Year two years in a row? even if he officially left/retired this year? I am falling in love with this Pacers team, Bird just did it his way, with no lottery picks, no superstar FA signings.....every move he did was brilliant, signing George Hill, who knew? master of the under the radar siqning and this team is gonna be a beast for years as they are so young and their player with the most all star nods, Granger has been out the whole year, who builds a franchise like that? Paul George is in the midst of a breakout year, Roy Hibbert is throwing his weight around this playoff run like never before, Lance Stephenson seemingly came out of nowhere and reminds me of a bigger Tony Allen/ D Wade....this team is stacked, pounds you on the boards, wins in a real oldschool way. I didn't see this coming. Larry, Larry, Larry, Larry, Larry......

Last year they weren't ready, this year they are grabbing it, I like them over Miami, too much size, small ball vs oldschool smashmouth....only way Heat win is by the 3 ball, should be a great series, is there anyway we can bring Mr Bird back in any position he may desire?

Larry's basketball existence would have been a bit more perfect if Len Bias - who he was so excited to teach the Bird ways of hoops that he was planning on attending rookie camp Summer of '86 for the first time since he himself was a rookie - had not made the stupid decision he made that cost him his life. And cost the Celts a couple more championships probably. Having a talent like that to continue the Bird tradition for a decade or more in Green would have indeed been perfection.

steve3344,

As I remember Len Bias, he was ridiculously talented yet a very humble person. I grew up here in the heart of ACC country being an N.C. State fan back when N.C. State claimed two National Championships within 9 years and Maryland was always in our way with Lefty Driesell's teams.

While we are all ultimately responsible for our decisions, Len had a friend Brian Tribble who had significant influence on him. The Bias story is a very tragic one not only for their family but for all the world of basketball. For the Celtics, it was only the beginning of years of underperformance and tragedy not only because of Len's untimely death but then seven year's later Reggie Lewis's death. To date I know of no other NBA franchise that has suffered what the Celtics had experienced in that regard, possibly no other professional sports team for that matter.

It's hard to play the what if game because MJ was getting his act together during that time. It may have easily been Larry v. Magic II, but instead it was just the MJ Show of the 90's. I seriously doubt Michael would be the star he became because the Celtics would have crashed the party with a live Bias and Lewis and stolen at least 2 of the 90's titles from CHI easily, like you said steve3344.

Unfortunately, we were left with the horrific 22 year reality. I'm sure some of those envious of our success considered that payback and justice for all the titles we had won to date.

I've never heard Bird talk about the whole Bias situation. Did he ever say anything public about it?

It all certainly leveled the playing field, to say the least. There is no telling what the 90's would have looked like or even the end of the 80's for that matter but I'm sure we would be pushing low 20's in titles with the Lakers further behind.

dbrown

Great post, I had a friend Chris Hein who played lacrosse for North Carolina, he used to tell me Len Bias used to kill the Tar Heels and that Bias was bigger and stronger than Jordan, there is no telling how great he would have been, athletically he seemed to have everything you'd want in a 6'8" package. As the Original Big 3 aged he would have been our studhorse to go at the Worthys, Dominique, Barkley and ofcourse MJ.

Red genius that he was did everything right, made the perfect move. With all that talent we would have won easily in 87 and 88....I think 7 titles is realistic. DJ/Ainge, Bias, Bird, McHale, Parish, how'd you like to face that at crunch time? wasn't meant to be.

cow

I've been impressed with Indiana's play. They are a very tough team and I think they'll give MIA a good run. Hibbert and West is a great combo, far too much for even the talented Knicks to overcome. MIA plays a smaller lineup, so it'll be interesting to see which team can impose their style.

Bird really did a heck of a job building that team. Ainge isn't quite up to speed on that.

"Bird really did a heck of a job building that team. Ainge isn't quite up to speed on that."
I think they're as far apart as GMs as they were as players - both parts of something great, but Bird, the essence, and Ainge, the replaceable complement. As for our rebuilding now, until Ainge and Doc really agree on playing time and who ought to run the day-to-day operation, we're in for a long ride. Doc has shown he can coach a team to the top when he has 5-6 good players who can play all day, but given the much harder job of seating vets for their own good and getting the most out of role players, he has been mostly dismal. Is this his fault or just his way of operating? I think it's the latter, and therefore Ainge's job to know better. Bird would have given Doc the heave-ho - or the sort of team he could coach to the top. Hawk

To me, Doc has no trust in his players that aren't vets. RR, KG, and PP won a ring together so they will get plenty of time. JT is another vet that has won a ring and has had a successful career.

But once you get to the younger guys, things change... Sullinger didn't get much time at the start of the season, but once Doc finally started to put him into the rotation, he was quite effective. JG only got more time because of their lineup being decimated by injuries despite his obvious talent. If you all remember, he never had consistent minutes until Sullinger went down. Bradley only gets minutes because he's so incredibly effective on defense that any coach would have no choice but to play him.

And Ainge didn't make the right moves to put them in a position to truly compete. To be perfectly honest, I really think this team got as far as they did *in spite* of Ainge and Rivers running the show.

Interesting point, kj88. They both came from the same fold, from Boston as teammates. They are also currently in different stages of GM with their respective teams. All teams experience the ground floor, growth/building, (near) championship, leveling off, decline, re-build cycle. Bird is on the upslope nearing the top of championship/near-championship. Danny is in the leveling off/decline stage.

Ainge did his part about 6 years ago. The Celtics were returned to the map after being off it for 22 years. Through some untimely injuries for the most part, it didn't quite work out the way most true hardcore Celtic fans would like but we got 1 title, one nearly and many numerous wins and winning seasons near the top.

Ainge gets to get back on the horse in a couple of weeks, maybe even as soon as tonight with the lottery. He's at an inflection point in that we are either going to move up on the trend line or continue down further with some losing seasons and no playoff appearances for a couple of years as they rebuild.

But we will see. We're all waiting on Danny.

"Well, Wendy, what do you think we should do..about...Danny?!"
"I...I...I..think...we...should...take...him...to..the...doctor...!"

db

Actually Sullinger did get quite a bit of time at the beginning of the season. In their first 10 games, he played as many as 16, 18, 19, 24, 26, and 30 minutes; and he averaged 16.7 minutes, which is a heck more than a lot of good rookies get in the first 10 games of their careers. He even started games three, four an five of that skein.

Three games with fewer than 10 minutes apiece were interspersed among those first 10 games. They were obvious reactions by Doc to (1) fluctuating performances by Sully, (2) matchups and (3) early experimentation with various rotations.

Jeff Green got even more minutes than Sully in those first 10 games, with games of 15, 16, 18, 22, 23, 25, 25, 26, 27 and 27 minutes played for an average of 22.4 minutes. For a guy just coming off a serious heart operation, I think Jeff played an astonishing number of minutes from the get-go.

I believe that the knowledge that losses early in the season count just as much as losses later in the season in terms of end-of-season standings means that Doc's number one job this past season was to win games. On a team loaded with new players, he was still experimenting with combinations at New Year's. I find it amazing that he was able to allocate so many minutes to Sully and Jeff that early in the going.

Sam

It appeared that at times that Doc was using the wrong lineup. PP and KG just didn't have the stamina to play as many minutes as they used to yet Doc kept trying to force the issue. I believe young players should play early, especially if there is an immediate need for their contribution. From what I saw, many winnable games were actually lost because of how long PP and KG were played during QTRs 1-3 and not having enough left in the tank for the 4th QTR. I don't think a basketball team can't get by on a rotation of 6-7 players.

Larry, Larry, Larry, Larry, Larry, Larry.....

we got a fockin series!!!

if I can't watch the C's dismantle the Heat, nothing better than Larry's creation doing it for us!!!!