Table of Contents
Larry Bird Uncoverly Mentored Several Younger NBA Players
Without Boston Celtics Larry Bird and Los Angeles Lakers Magic Johnson, the contemporary NBA would not be what it is today. The superstars who came after these two are all indebted to Bird and Magic.
Some players, including Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Durant, have personal memories of noteworthy interactions with Bird.
Unlike Magic, who is happy to share his words of wisdom with stars like LeBron James and Bryant, Bird preferred to keep these meetings “private.”
However, according to NBA expert Jackie MacMullan on her Icons Club podcast, a few younger players owe a debt to Bird for his nice deeds and smart comments.
Magic Johnson was hardly the first 1980s celebrity to offer Kobe Bryant advice
Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant’s friendship with the Los Angeles Lakers is widely established.
Magic “spent hours counseling Kobe, providing on everything from the Lakers’ mystique to business outside of basketball,” according to Jackie MacMullan in her Icons Club podcast.
Bryant, a legendary knowledge sponge, also sought counsel from other Lakers superstars such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and even Michael Jordan.
Although neither Bryant nor Kareem made much of it public, Bryant once had an influential talk with Magic and Kareem’s main adversary, Larry Bird. MacMullan tells the following story:
Kobe Bryant detailed a chat he had with Bird about mental toughness.
When I called Larry to inquire about it, he just stated, “that’s confidential.”
Bryant clearly benefited from the chat, as he went on to become one of the most mentally difficult players in NBA history.
It’s one of the reasons the “Mamba” was able to win five NBA championships with two different eras of Laker’s colleagues.
An impromptu supper with Larry Bird was a career highlight for Dirk Nowitzki.
Rick Carlisle, a former Larry Bird Boston Celtics player, and friend, took over as head coach of the Dallas Mavericks in 2008.
Dirk Nowitzki, 30, was a seven-time NBA All-Star at the time, but the big German’s biggest critique was that he couldn’t win the championship.
Despite the fact that Bird “probably would prefer we didn’t know,” he had a great supper with Nowitzki around that time.
Nowitzki says to Jackie MacMullan:
We arrived in Indianapolis with the Mavericks for a game, and Rick asked, ‘Hey, do you want to go to dinner with Larry?’ ‘What!?’ I exclaimed. For sure!’ I’m present.
‘Please tell me when and where,’… We had supper with ‘Larry Legend,’ which was awesome because we got to hear him explain about how he did it.
What his approach was, as well as some of the anecdotes he shared.
While Nowitzki does not elaborate on what Bird said him that evening, it’s possible that it’s no coincidence that two seasons later, Dirk put up a Bird-like virtuoso performance in the 2011 NBA Finals to defeat LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh to earn an NBA title.
Also, read Giancarlo Stanton, Matthew Christopher Schnell, John Daly’s Married Life:
One of the reasons Kevin Durant works so hard is because of Larry Bird
Larry Bird worked in the Indiana Pacers front office intermittently until 2017.
That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t let a rival young superstar pick his brain when they came knocking.
Jackie MacMullan says that Thunder GM Sam Presti organized a call between his rising star, Kevin Durant, and Bird at some point during his stint in Oklahoma City.
Durant informs MacMullan:
I called him and we just spoke about the game and practice, and he offered me some pointers on how to practice and approach shootarounds and everything like that.
It was quite beneficial to me. He advised me to practice – to go through each rep as if it were a game.
I was doing some of that before, but I started doing it more afterward.
… It was cool to know that he went as hard as he could every time he walked on the floor, and to hear that from Bird at that age.
We don’t know where in Durant’s seven-time All-Star chronology with the Thunder Durant spoke with Bird because of Bird’s secrecy surrounding these encounters with young players.
What we do know is that Durant joined the Golden State Warriors following that chat and went on to win two NBA championships and two Finals MVP awards.
Sportscasting has a Facebook page. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @sportscasting19.
