Bird Interview

[Steskiles@aol.com]

Here it is...the complete ESPN Larry Legend interview:

You don't need to consult a calendar to find out that it has been five 
years since Larry Bird hung it up. Just look at the poker pot in your 
local NBA locker room.
"When I was playing, we used to play cards for $2 a hand," Bird was 
saying the other day, relaxing in Market Square Arena after a practice. 
"Now, they play for $2,000 a hand. My God. Wow. What a change."

However, that's minor compared to the biggest change in the NBA this 
season, happening right here in Pacers country.

Larry Bird has traded in his golf shirts and sweaters for suits and 
ties. Larry Legend has traded in the life of leisure for a career in 
coaching. Now that's a change.

"Larry coaching is something I thought I'd never see," said Kevin 
McHale, Bird's former teammate and now Timberwolves VP. "Never in a 
million years."

But there was Bird after a recent workout, with scouting reports about 
his Oct. 18 preseason opponent, the Utah Jazz, in a pile on his desk. He 
doesn't have a placard with his title, but you knew his profession just 
by what was sitting next to his watch.

A whistle.

Bird was dressed in Pacers colors, a gold golf shirt hanging over his 
blue sweats. Celtic green is a thing of the past. He's 100-percent 
Pacers now.

"I don't even give it a thought," he said of his storied Boston days.

His thoughts now are given to Xs and Os and learning how to coach the 
game he mastered as a player. It was strange, indeed, to watch Bird 
enter the arena floor before the Jazz game dressed in a dark gray suit, 
red tie and black dress shoes.

"I never thought he'd want to coach," McHale said. "He just didn't want 
to put up with any of the stuff that goes with the job, like talking to 
the media. But he loves basketball and he loves being around it."

If he didn't, he never would have agreed to sign on as the eighth coach 
in Pacers history.

"It's been fun and interesting," Bird said. "I'm excited to get back 
into it -- the competition."

Then he paused: "If it weren't for the games, it would be a great job."

Good line, but even Bird knows that it's a fib. He isn't the mad 
scientist, the coach who lives to teach, like his predecessor, Larry 
Brown. The game is what Bird missed while he was working for the Celtics 
as a consultant.

Mostly, he was consulting tee times and that weren't nearly enough to 
satisfy his legendary competitive fire.

"That's why I'm back," Bird said. "I love the competition of the game. 
This is the closest thing I've seen to being in it. I know I can't play 
anymore, so I don't even think about it."

But he still wants to beat everybody's pants off, the way he did as a 
Celtic. But now, the competitive fire is limited to getting the better 
of Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Chuck Daly and his other new counterparts.

Of course, Bird still gets a kick out of putting a buck down in a 
shooting contest against one of his players and walking off the with the 
pot. Just not against Reggie Miller -- yet.

"For Reggie, I'm going to have to practice a lot before I go up that 
ladder," he said.

Just as the Pacers have a few rungs to climb before they can compete for 
a title.

"You can't win the championship if you don't make the playoffs," Bird 
said. "And this team didn't make the playoffs last year (going 39-43). 
Let's do that and then we'll see what happens. But right now we're not a 
good enough defensive team. We've got some holes. And I know in this 
league you've got to have the talent."

How he'll cope without such a talent is one of the many intriguing 
questions surrounding "Coach Bird."

"He doesn't have Larry Bird playing for him, and that's gonna be a 
biggie," Washington coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. "When you've been a 
great, great player like Larry Bird, your patience will be tested. Not 
many people can do what Larry Bird did."

Not many people put in the countless hours of shooting or running. Now, 
he has brought that same perfectionist philosophy to the Pacers.

"When we practice something, we do it until we get it right," said Chris 
Mullin, who is in his first season in Indiana after a dozen with Golden 
State "We don't move on to the next drill. With Larry, we do it until 
it's done the way it has to be. That's just what he did as a player. 
That was the secret to his success. And he still puts a lot of emphasis 
on repetition and conditioning."

And, of course, all the little things that go into winning titles. 
Getting to loose balls. Making your free throws. Being patient enough to 
let someone set a pick before making your move. Bird knew how to do all 
the little things, which is why Miller refers to him as "the legend that 
he is."

But as a coach with no previous experience on any level, can he get his 
players to buy into the importance of doing the little things?

"We'll see," Bird said. "It's gonna be interesting and fun."

And weird, too. Just check out Larry Bird in one of those fancy suits.