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Bird/Pierce
No doubt someone else on the list may have already posted this
article, but I thought Bob Ryan's panegyric on Larry Bird is well worth
saving for posterity on my PC hard drive. Also, see below a pre-season
feature from the Lawrence Journal World about the "shy, quiet and
polite" Kansas Jayhawk, Paul Pierce. It has a lot of quotes from the
kid.
Peace,
Joe Hironaka
"Laker Basher"
****
"Bird, Hall of Fame: It's truly a perfect fit "
By Bob Ryan, Globe Staff, 06/30/98
The NBA is about to lock out its
players, and
you'll be hearing a lot about the
so-called ''Larry
Bird Exception.'' It has to do with
money, and therein
lies the irony: Larry Bird was never
about the money.
Oh, Larry liked money as much as the
next guy - ask
anyone who has ever uttered those
fateful words
Larry, I'll bet you can't ( fill in
the blank) - but once
the contract was signed, you never
heard another word
from Larry Bird about the money. With
Larry Bird, the
game came first, second, and always.
''The more money you paid him,'' Red
Auerbach says,
''the more he wanted to prove he
deserved it.''
You look back at it now, more than
six years after his
final NBA game, and he really does
seem more like a
legend than one of the two greatest
players ever to
play in a Boston Celtics uniform (no
way I'm going to
get bogged down in a Bird-Russell
debate today). The
stuff Larry did, the things he said,
and the impact he
had on both the franchise and the
city itself from
1979-92 could not have been scripted.
When it comes
to Truth vs. Fiction, I'll take
Truth, plus the points,
every time. And Larry Bird was the
simple,
unvarnished truth.
To me, Larry Bird was, and always will be, the
personification of the sport, the
one whose game was a microcosm of all the sport has to
offer. He could
shoot, he could pass, he could rebound, he could
disrupt the other team's
offense, and he could think three steps ahead of the
mortal players (pull out
the tape of Houston Game 6 in '86 if you want to see a
man dominating every
aspect of a basketball game).
The only other person who has ever seen what Larry saw
and knew deep
inside what Larry knew was, of course, Magic Johnson,
his great friend and
rival. Michael? No, Michael is an entirely different
matter, as Larry was first
in the NBA to identify and then articulate. Michael
Jordan plays a different
game. But don't ever think it's a better one.
Michael Jordan is great, superb, the Man From Another
Planet, and just
generally beyond compare. That's a given, right?
Well, uh, no. Give the '92 Michael and a completely
healthy '86 Bird four
comparable teammates, and I'll happily take my chances
with Larry Bird and
his guys. One on one, no contest. Five on five, bring
'em on.
Has Michael Jordan ever dominated entire huge chunks
of basketball games
without taking a shot? No, never. Larry Bird did.
Shooting was part of Larry's
game, and not the best part.
Return with me to Saturday, May 17, 1986. It is Game 3
of the Eastern
Conference finals against the Milwaukee Bucks. In the
first period Larry Bird,
a forward, has seven assists. Six are layups, real
assists, old-fashioned assists,
Tricky Dick McGuire assists.
''He was a dealer in Three-Card Monte as Bucks came to
surround him,''
wrote the great Leigh Montville, ''and he neatly
zipped the ball through their
arms, legs, whatever for easy baskets for someone
else. He was magic.''
No forward has ever played the game this way. ''He
gave me at least five
baskets where I didn't have to do a thing,'' said
Kevin McHale (speaking of
quasi-fictional characters). ''All I had to do was
stand there. Didn't do a
thing.''
''He had one thing on his mind at all times,'' says
Auerbach, ''and that was to
win. He made everyone around him play better.''
When I think of Larry Bird, I don't think first of the
huge scoring outputs such
as the 60-point game against the Hawks that March
night in New Orleans or
the 9-for-10, 20-point fourth quarter against Atlanta
in '88.
I think of the Boston Garden Heat Game against LA in
'84, when Kareem &
Co. were sucking on oxygen and Larry was frolicking
his way to 15 for 20
and 17 rebounds in 97-degree heat. I think of K.C.
Jones saying practice
would be called if anyone could sink a shot from
midcourt and Larry
immediately grabbing the ball and preventing practice
with one shot. I think of
him sitting in the visiting locker room in Milwaukee's
Mecca after being swept
by the Bucks and vowing to go home and come back a
better ballplayer. I
think about him diving for the ball in Game 4 of the
'87 Milwaukee series and
firing an amazing pass to McHale for a dunk from a
sitting position. I think of
an inexplicable and completely unnecessary 15-foot,
lefthanded banker in the
middle of a great fourth-quarter Game 7 run against
Detroit in '87.
I think about him spurning Jones's invitation to go
for a quadruple-double in
Salt Lake City (''I've already done enough damage'').
I think about him calling
a banked 3-pointer to New York trainer Mike Sauders in
the middle of a
game. I think about him standing in front of 20,000
people at City Hall Plaza
and describing the eating habits of Moses Malone. I
think about him taking
$160 of Dan Shaughnessy's money by sinking 86 of 100
free throws with his
right hand taped shut. I think about him returning to
Game 5 against Indiana in
'91 like the cavalry after landing on his head in the
second quarter. I think of
the way he used the media to get to the crowd before
big games. I think about
him looking up at Bobby Orr's number 4 during the
anthem, because ''when I
retire, I want people to look at me the way they do at
him.'' I think about him
saying, ''Tell Dudley Bradley to cut his damn
fingernails.''
More legend: Every year somebody or other sinks some
threes and sets a new
record of some sort, but don't ever be fooled. I am
here to say that Larry Bird
remains the King of the Three-Pointers because no one
has ever better
understood the psychological effect of the three
better than Larry Bird. And I
doubt if anyone will ever match his 1986 25-for-34
3-point run from the real
3-point distance, either. There are guys today who can
shoot threes, but only
Larry Bird ever made it an art form.
He always understood what real leadership was, and he
never ran from it. He
knew he was different and better than everybody else,
and he knew what
responsibilities went with the territory. ''There's no
question I'm the leader of
this team,'' he once said. ''Guys look at me and how I
play and it determines
how they play. I know that. I recognize that. I don't
mean running around and
everything on the floor. I might have done that my
first few years, trying to
lead. I mean making the plays.''
Healthy or injured - and when injured he simply
refused to discuss the matter -
he made plays when they were most needed. He was the
superstar with the
12th man mentality. No millionaire player ever went
after more loose balls. ''I
don't ever want to be sitting in a locker room after
losing a game by 2 points
thinking back to a time when I could have gone to the
floor and made the play
for those points, but didn't,'' he explained. ''That's
never happened to me once.
And I don't want it ever to happen.''
It never did. The only thing left now is for Larry
Bird to solve the mystery.
Once upon a time, he said, ''There's a secret to
playin' basketball. But I ain't
tellin' what it is.''
On Oct. 2, Larry Bird will enter the Basketball Hall
of Fame. Maybe that's
when we'll find out.
This story ran on page C01 of the Boston Globe on
06/30/98.
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.
*****
By Gary Bedore
Journal-World Assistant Sports Editor
Paul Pierce accepts a pass on the wing.
He
stops, looks right, heads left, then down
the
baseline for a vicious slam dunk.
A big smile creases the 6-foot-7,
220-pounder's face as Pierce raises a
fist
and shouts orders to a freshman teammate
as they rush back to play defense during
a
preseason pick-up game at Allen
Fieldhouse.
Paul Pierce smile?
Paul Pierce talk on the court?
Get used to it.
Pierce, now a rapidly-maturing,
20-year-old
KU junior, who has been referred to as
"shy, quiet, polite and contemplative" in
the
past, plans to make his presence known
his
junior year.
"I think I'll be a little bit more
outgoing this
year. I don't want to be as quiet," said
Pierce, a native of Inglewood, Calif. "I
think
you'll see a little more excitement in my
game.
"Each year, I want to have a little more
fun.
I think you'll see a little more smiling.
I'll be
much more aggressive on both ends. I'll
talk
a little bit more. I'll try to lead this
team by
example and vocally."
He started leading during preseason
pick-up
games. He's a junior and has tried to
show
some of the newcomers the ropes.
"I think I'm coming out a little bit
more. I'm
stepping up, doing a little more
leading,"
Pierce said. "I'm talking, getting on
guys
when they are messing up, letting them
know they have to play hard at all
times."
Pierce and senior Raef LaFrentz, whose
names have appeared on many preseason
All-America lists, are known as the heart
and soul of Kansas University's
basketball
team.
"I guess I don't say a lot, but I work
hard
every day and I think my teammates see
that," said Pierce, a preseason
All-America
candidate who entered the 1997-98 season
just nine points shy of becoming the 36th
player in Kansas history to score 1,000
points. "I'm ready to step up and take
any
challenge. If we need a big shot at the
end
of a game, I'm ready to take it. Whenever
my teammates need me, I'll try to step
up.
I'm not saying I'm going to be the go-to
guy
every night, but I have confidence in my
ability.
"It comes with maturity. The first year I
sat
back and let the older guys take care of
it.
Last year I was a little more aggressive.
Now it's up to me and Raef and other guys
like Ryan (Robertson, junior point
guard).
We're the older guys now."
Pierce, who entered college as a
wide-eyed
youngster of 17, turned 20 on Oct. 13.
"About 99 percent of my friends are older
than me," Pierce said. "I've always acted
older than I really am. People still
can't
believe I started the year 19 as a junior
in
college.
"I've always played with older guys, even
when I was young. In junior high, I'd
play
with the high school guys. When I was in
high school, I'd go to the college and
play.
It's helped me mature as a person and
player, just being around older people."
Playing with the big boys is nothing new
for
Pierce, the youngest player on USA
Basketball's Under 22 team two summers
ago. That team placed first in an
international qualifying tournament.
As a youth, he practiced with - and
competed against - older brothers Jamal
(34) and Steve (28) and their friends.
Pierce's mother, Lorraine Hosey, and the
boys lived in Oakland, Calif., for 17
years
before she moved her three sons to
Inglewood, a Los Angeles suburb, prior to
Paul's junior high years.
Pierce, who practiced all sports with
Steve
while Lorraine, a nurse, worked double
shifts, gravitated from baseball, tennis
and
football to basketball after the move to
hoop-happy Inglewood.
Paul played in his back yard, at a
neighborhood park and at the Inglewood
YMCA. He found himself playing above his
head, taking on junior high schoolers
while
he was still in grade school and high
schoolers when he was in junior high.
Still developing physically - Pierce was
a
pudgy youngster before the move to
Inglewood - he sat the bench halfway
through his sophomore year at Inglewood
High. He considered quitting the game.
It's a similar story to Michael Jordan's.
Remember: The Bulls' phenom was cut from
his junior high team.
"I thought I was better than the guys
playing
at the time. I thought I should be out
there,"
Pierce said. "It got to the point I
didn't want
to play anymore. I remember coming home
and talking to my brother about quitting.
He
said I should stay and get better. He
said, 'If
you don't think they're (teammates) very
good, stay and make them better.'"
Pierce became a starter over winter break
when a few teammates had to leave town to
visit relatives. He's been starting every
since.
"I always wanted to be the best whether
it
was in the backyard or playing tennis,"
Pierce said. "After that (soph) year, I
went
out and ran. I was working out all the
time. I
felt I had something to prove. To this
day I
feel I have something to prove. You can't
slow down until you retire."
Pierce started his final two years at
Inglewood, averaging 27 points, 11
rebounds and four assists his senior
year.
As a junior, he averaged 25 points and 10
boards.
A McDonald's All-American, Pierce chose
Kansas over UCLA in recruiting. He could
have attended any school in the country.
"I felt I needed to get away from friends
and
I felt it was a better situation for me
to come
and play a lot," Pierce said of the move
to
Lawrence. "I decided Kansas was the place
for me. Coach (Roy) Williams is a good
recruiter, very honest from the start. I
knew
he was a coach I wanted to play for from
the start."
Feeling his way into new surroundings,
Pierce experienced a solid freshman
season,
averaging 11.7 points and 5.3 boards.
Last
year, he improved to 16.3 points and 6.8
rebounds per game.
He had NBA scouts drooling near the end
of the season. Pierce, who averaged 22
points and 12 rebounds in the NCAA
tournament, led KU in scoring in six
postseason games.
He had 30 points in the Big 12 Tournament
title victory over Missouri and 27 points
in a
season-ending loss to Arizona.
"Toward the end of the year, I didn't
really
exceed any of my personal goals or
expectations people had of me," Pierce
said. "I thought to myself, 'It's coming
to the
end of the season. I must elevate my game
and put extra focus.
"I used making the third team (All Big
12)
as motivation through the whole
postseason.
I wanted to be on the first team. Once
they
announced I was on the third team, I
accepted it but it kinda made me mad. I
used it as motivation to push me the rest
of
the year."
Will this year be his last year here? The
NBA may beckon after the season as it did
last year, when Pierce decided to stay
instead of bolt for the pros after two
seasons.
"All along in my head I kind of thought I
wanted to come back," said Pierce, who
took about a month in the postseason to
decide to return.
Williams' discussions with NBA personnel
indicated Pierce probably would have been
tapped in the top 15 picks. Some scouts
insisted he'd have been a lottery pick.
"There were days I was totally sure I'd
come back," Pierce said. "But the other
side
is one of the dreams I want to accomplish
is
play in the NBA. It was a tough decision
and at times to me it was sort of a
bother. I
had to make a decision along with people
asking me about it every day as well as
people coming up to me telling me what I
should do. That kind of made it
difficult. At
times I just wanted to be by myself and
not
think about it.
"The good thing is I get to put it off
another
year. I'm not thinking about it. I'm
thinking
about college. I guess toward the end of
the
season I'll weigh my options and see
where
I'm at."