NBA Legend Larry Bird Dead At 65

 

It's a word that people throw around far too often: Legend.  But when that word is literally part of your nickname, it's safe to say it applies to you.  Such was the case with 'Larry Legend', the nickname of NBA great Larry Joe Bird, who passed away Saturday night at his French Lick, Indiana home after from complications due to a reaction from a COVID-19 Booster he received earlier in the week.

Bird was a walking inspirational sports story in every conceivable way.  A small town white kid from Indiana, He took the college basketball world by storm in the late 70s, leading tiny Indiana State to college basketball's National Championship game in 1979 in an epic battle with then Michigan State player Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, a game than began a rivalry that would go on to define the NBA for years to come.

Bird would go on to a Hall of Fame career in which he won three NBA championships, three NBA MVP awards, Olympic gold, and two NBA Finals MVP awards as he scored more than 20,000 points and was known as one of the NBA's greatest shooters.

Larry Bird was a relic of a past era; a solid person who, aside from a habit of trash talking in basketball games, never raised controversy and was a role model.  He is survived by his wife of 30 years and three children.