The NBA has become a league where passing is more of an art than scoring.
The what is space in art is a question that has been asked many times. Space is the medium of an artwork, and it includes time as well.
While it’s a cliché to argue that defense wins championships, every successful team needs a strong offense. Few players in the 1980s were more useful than Larry Bird if you wanted to light up the scoreboard. The Boston Celtics great was one of the best scorers in the NBA during his peak. In fact, throughout his professional basketball career, he scored over 21,000 points.
Despite his proclivity for tickling the net, Bird’s real passion was not scoring. The sniper once stated that passing the ball rather than scoring on his own was more of an art form for him.
Larry Bird made a name for himself as an explosive scorer at Indiana State University.
When you think of Larry Bird, you usually see him playing for the Celtics and participating in a legendary 1980s battle. The forward, on the other hand, had already established himself as a genuine attacking danger before joining the Association.
After graduating from high school, the forward moved to Indiana to play for Bob Knight’s Hoosiers. Bird, on the other hand, found the Bloomington campus to be too much for him, and he returned to French Lick without playing a single game. He subsequently went on to work as a trash guy, thus ending his basketball career.
Fate, on the other hand, had other ideas. Larry Legend decided to attempt college again after meeting a guy named Bill Hodges. He went to Indiana State and suited up for the Sycamores, a decision that would alter the direction of basketball history.
The forward, of course, was a great scorer in college, averaging 30.3 points per game over three seasons. Despite falling short of an NCAA championship, Bird put himself up for future success. The Boston Celtics selected him as the sixth overall selection in the 1978 NBA draft because of his scoring ability.
Larry Legend, on the other hand, like to pass the ball.
During his NBA career, Boston Celtics player Larry Bird dribbles the ball. | Getty Images/Focus on Sport
When the Boston Celtics selected Bird, they knew they were getting a knock-down shooter assuming they had done even rudimentary scouting. However, shortly after joining the club, the striker went on record as stating he prefers to pass the ball.
“With his unfailing precision from the outside (the new three-point regulation aids him), it seems doubtful that Bird would fail [in the NBA], but his inclination is to pass,” a 1979 Sports Illustrated article stated. Bird told Ethel Kennedy that passing was his favorite aspect of basketball, and the article included a firsthand quotation from the man himself.
“You start seeing a sparkle in their eyes if the other guys score,” Bird adds. Passing is, after all, more of an art than scoring.”
In 1979, Larry Bird spoke to Sports Illustrated.
While it may seem unexpected given Bird’s current reputation as a shooter with a penchant for biting trash talk, the forward’s playmaking did get some high-profile sponsorships. Bob Cousy was cited in the SI article as stating that Bird “has outstanding passing skills, the greatest I’ve ever seen.”
Red Auerbach reiterated similar views in a 1981 Sports Illustrated article. The then-Celtics president said, “Larry is the greatest passing big man I’ve ever seen.” “He’s a one-of-a-kind individual. Up front, he reminds me of Bob Cousy, and Cousy was without a doubt the best passer the game has ever seen. Larry will very certainly go down in history as one of, if not the best, forwards of all time.”
Larry Bird could do it all with ease, no matter what he wanted to do.
It’s difficult to say why Bird made those remarks regarding passing at this point in time. Is it true that he would rather set up his teammates than score himself? Was he attempting to present himself as a playmaker on purpose? Regardless of his real motivations, it’s fair to conclude that the striker was exceptional in almost every aspect of the game.
Larry Legend, as previously said, was a lethal scorer during his tenure in Boston. Over the course of his 13-year career, he averaged 24.3 points per game, for a total of 21,791 points. It wasn’t only during garbage time that the offense was accrued. Bird won three NBA championships and three NBA MVP awards while leading the Celtics to three crowns.
The forward, on the other hand, was a better passer than you would think. For his career, he averaged 6.3 assists per game, with his highest single-season output being 7.6 dimes per game. While it may not seem to be a large amount, it is a significant achievement for a striker who could score at whim and seldom needed to pass.
Bird said on the record in 1979 that passing is more of an art form than scoring. Larry Legend, on the other hand, turned the whole game of basketball into something unique in hindsight.
Sports-Reference and Basketball-Reference provided the statistics.
RELATED: Larry Bird ‘Disgusted’ a Few People When He Accepted the NBA MVP Award While on Vacation: ‘I Was Aware It Was a Banquet and All That, But I Didn’t Give a Damn’
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