LARRY BIRD, THE LEGENDARY HICK FROM FRENCH LISK

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Larry Bird, the American former professional basketball player, who was born on a day like today in 1956.

Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed the Hick from French Lick and Larry Legend, Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. 

He is the only person in NBA history to be named Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Finals MVP, All-Star MVP, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year.

Growing up in French Lick, Indiana, Bird was a local basketball star. Highly recruited, he initially signed to play college basketball for coach Bob Knight of the Indiana Hoosiers. However, Bird dropped out after one month and returned to French Lick and attended a local college. The next year, he attended Indiana State University, ultimately playing three years for the Sycamores.

Selected by the Boston Celtics with the sixth overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft after his second year at Indiana State, Bird elected to stay in college and returned for the 1978-79 season. He then led his team to an undefeated regular season. The season finished with a national championship game match-up of Indiana State against Michigan State and featured a highly anticipated match-up of Bird against Michigan State great Magic Johnson, thus beginning a career-long rivalry that the two shared for over a decade. Michigan State won, ending the Sycamores' undefeated streak.

Bird entered the NBA for the 1979-80 season, where he made an immediate impact, starting at power forward and leading the Celtics to a 32-win improvement over the previous season before being eliminated from the playoffs in the conference finals. Bird played for the Celtics during his entire professional career (13 seasons), leading them to five NBA finals appearances and three NBA championships. Bird played most of his career with forward Kevin McHale and center Robert Parish, considered by some to be the greatest front court in NBA history.

Bird was a 12-time NBA All-Star, won two NBA Finals MVP awards and received the NBA Most Valuable Player Award three consecutive times (1984-1986), making him the only forward in league history to do so. 

Bird was also a member of the gold medal-winning 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team, known as the Dream Team. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame twice as a player -first in 1998 as an individual, and again in 2010 as a member of the Dream Team. Bird was voted onto the NBA's 50 Greatest Players in NBA History list in 1996, and subsequently the 75th Anniversary Team list in 2021.

A versatile player at both forward positions, Bird could play both inside and outside, being one of the first players in the league to take advantage of the newly adopted three-point line. He was rated the greatest NBA small forward of all time by Fox Sports in 2016.

After retiring as a player, Bird served as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000. He was named NBA Coach of the Year for the 1997-98 season and later led the Pacers to a berth in the 2000 NBA Finals.

In 2003, Bird was named president of basketball operations for the Pacers, holding the position until retiring in 2012. He was named NBA Executive of the Year for the 2012 season. Bird returned to the Pacers as president of basketball operations in 2013, and remained in that role until 2017. Bird continued with the Pacers as an advisor until July 2022, then after nearly a year's break returned to the organization in the role of consultant.

More information: NBA

Bird was born December 7, 1956, in West Baden Springs, Indiana, to Georgia Marie (née Kerns; 1930–1996) and Claude Joseph "Joe" Bird (1926-1975), a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. His parents were of Irish, Scottish and Native American descent. Bird has four brothers and a sister.

On August 18, 1992, Bird announced his retirement from the NBA. Following Bird's departure, the Celtics promptly retired his jersey number 33.

Bird has been described as one of the greatest basketball players and greatest shooters of all time. He was selected to 12 NBA All-Star teams. Bird won three NBA championships (in 1981, 1984, and 1986) with the Celtics and won two NBA Finals MVP Awards. He won three consecutive regular season MVP awards; as of 2020, the only other players to accomplish this feat are Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.

Bird was also a four-time regular season MVP runner-up in 1981, 1982, 1983, and 1988. He is also remembered as one of the foremost clutch performers in the history of the NBA; Bird was known for his excellent play in high-stakes, high-pressure situations.

In October 2021, as part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary, Bird was honoured as one of the 75 greatest players of all time, by being named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team. To commemorate the NBA's 75th Anniversary, The Athletic ranked their top 75 players of all time, and named Bird as the seventh greatest player in NBA history.

Bird scored 24.3 points per game in his career on a .496 field goal percentage, an .886 free throw percentage, and a .376 percentage on three-point shots. Bird had an average of 10.0 rebounds per game for his career and 6.3 assists.  

Bird was the first player in NBA history to shoot 50% or better on field goals, 40% on three-pointers, and 90% on free-throws in a single NBA season while achieving the league minimum for makes in each category. He accomplished this feat twice. Bird won NBA three-point-shooting contests in three consecutive years. He sometimes practiced shooting three-point shots with his eyes closed.

Bird is also remembered as an excellent passer and defender. While he was relatively slow, Bird displayed a knack for anticipating the moves of his opponent, making Bird a strong team defender. He had 1,556 career steals. In recognition of his defensive abilities, Bird was named to three All-Defensive Second Teams.

More information: NBA

Leadership is diving for a loose ball,
getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved.
It's being able to take it as well as dish it out.
That's the only way you're going to
get respect from the players.

Larry Bird

JAMES NAISMITH PUBLISHES THE RULES OF BASKETBALL

After watching an interesting match of volleyball with Claire Fontaine, today The Grandma has been reading about another interesting sport, basketball, whose rules were published by James Naismith on a day like today in 1892.

James Naismith (NAY-smith; November 6, 1861-November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program.

Naismith lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Tournament (1939).

Born and raised on a farm near Almonte, Ontario, Naismith studied and taught physical education at McGill University in Montreal until 1890 before moving to Springfield, Massachusetts, United States later that year, where in 1891 he designed the game of basketball while he was teaching at the International YMCA Training School. Seven years after inventing basketball, Naismith received his medical degree in Denver in 1898. He then arrived at the University of Kansas, later becoming the Kansas Jayhawks' athletic director and coach.

While a coach at Kansas, Naismith coached Phog Allen, who later became the coach at Kansas for 39 seasons, beginning a lengthy and prestigious coaching tree. Allen then went on to coach legends including Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith, among others, who themselves coached many notable players and future coaches.

In 1898, Naismith became the first basketball coach of University of Kansas. He compiled a record of 55–60 and is ironically the only losing coach in Kansas history.

Naismith is at the beginning of a massive and prestigious coaching tree, as he coached Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach Phog Allen, who himself coached Hall of Fame coaches Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, and Ralph Miller who all coached future coaches as well.

Naismith invented the game of basketball and wrote the original 13 rules of this sport; for comparison, the NBA rule book today features 66 pages. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, is named in his honour, and he was an inaugural inductee in 1959.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association rewards its best players and coaches annually with the Naismith Awards, among them the Naismith College Player of the Year, the Naismith College Coach of the Year, and the Naismith Prep Player of the Year. After the Olympic introduction to men's basketball in 1936, women's basketball became an Olympic event in Montreal during the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Naismith was also inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame, the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame, the McGill University Sports Hall of Fame, the Kansas State Sports Hall of Fame, FIBA Hall of Fame.

The FIBA Basketball World Cup trophy is named the James Naismith Trophy in his honour. On June 21, 2013, Naismith was inducted into the Kansas Hall of Fame during ceremonies in Topeka.

More information: University of Springfield

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately 24 cm in diameter) through the defender's hoop (a basket 46 cm in diameter mounted 3.048 m high to a backboard at each end of the court, while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop.

A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one, two or three one-point free throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated.

Players advance the ball by bouncing it while walking or running (dribbling) or by passing it to a teammate, both of which require considerable skill. On offense, players may use a variety of shots -the layup, the jump shot, or a dunk; on defense, they may steal the ball from a dribbler, intercept passes, or block shots; either offense or defense may collect a rebound, that is, a missed shot that bounces from rim or backboard. It is a violation to lift or drag one's pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling.

The five players on each side fall into five playing positions. The tallest player is usually the center, the second-tallest and strongest is the power forward, a slightly shorter but more agile player is the small forward, and the shortest players or the best ball handlers are the shooting guard and the point guard, who implements the coach's game plan by managing the execution of offensive and defensive plays (player positioning). Informally, players may play three-on-three, two-on-two, and one-on-one.

More information: FIBA

Basketball doesn't build character,

it reveals it.

James Naismith