Larry bird Biography
Larry Bird Is a former professional basketball player, coach and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). “The Hick from French Lick” and “Larry Legend” being his nicknames, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
How old is Larry Bird? – Age?
The former Basketball player is 65 years as of December 7, 2022. He was born in 1956 in French Lick, Indiana United States of America.
Larry Bird’s Parents – Family
The famously known basketball player, Larry Legend was born in West Baden springs, Indiana to Georgia, the mother and Claude Joseph “Joe” Bird the father, who was a veteran of the Korean War. Bird had four brothers; Eddie Bird, Jeff Bird, Mark Bird and Mike Bird plus a sister namely known as Linda Bird Campbell. He was raised in nearby French Lick, where his mother worked two jobs to support Larry and his five siblings. As for Claude Joseph, Larry’s father moved to French Lick in order to find a job after the family disintegrated. Bird has said that being poor as a child still motivates him “to this day”. Georgia and Joe divorced when Larry was in high school, and joe committed suicide about a year later. In order to escape from family troubles, he used basketball, starring for Spring Valley High School.
Does Larry Bird have a wife? – Relationship
When the renowned player started his career, he was dating Janet Condra, and they have been together for at least one year. The former couple jumped to the decision to marry each other in 1975, and they were both teenagers when the couple decided against committing to each other. Larry and Janet were both in a happy relationship and even had a daughter named Corrie. After being together for one year, they were already having problems so they ended their marital relationship in the year 1976.Later on, in 1989 Bird as a coach, he was married to Dianah Mattingly. And it happened in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The couple dated each other for a few years before deciding to tie the knot and exchange their vows. His wife became the solid foundation of the coach when he stopped playing basketball. The never-ending support of Larry Bird’s wife made it easier for him to accept that he should retire from the sport and start guiding new players who wanted to build their careers in leagues. They both have to children namely Conner Bird and Mariah whom they actually adopted. There is not much information about Diana as she has deliberately stayed away from social media ad has instead focused on her family.
Surprisingly, the couple shows no signs of divorce or separation. Being together for a long time brought them challenges and misunderstandings, but the couple conquered them all, so they stood firm and maintained a healthy relationship till date.
Larry Bird career
Growing up in French Lick, Indiana, he was a local basketball star. Highly recruited, he initially signed to play college basketball of the Indiana Hoosiers, but dropped out after one month and returned to French Lick to attend a local community college. Drafted by the Boston Celtics with the sixth overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft after his second year Indiana State, Bird choose to stay in college and play one more season. He then led his team to an undefeated regular season in 1978-1979.
Bird entered the NBA for the 1979-1980 season, where he made an immediate impact, starting at power forward and leading the Celtics to 32-win improvement over the previous season before being eliminated from the playoffs in the Conference Finals. He played for the Celtics during his entire professional career (13 seasons), leading them to five NBA finals appearances and three NBA championships. Larry played most of his career with forward Kevin McHale and center Robert Parish. 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.
He also worn the gold medal in 1992 United State men’s Olympic basketball team known as “The Dream Team”. In the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All Time Team in 1996, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998, also in 2010 was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a member of “The Dream Team”. Later on in October 2021, as part of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.
Larry 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.
Larry Bird’s net worth
As of 2022, the former basketball player has a reported net worth of $75million.