Even as a National Basketball Association coach, Larry Bird still looks the part of a country boy. When his Indiana Pacers came to town for a first-place showdown with the Bulls last month, Bird appeared for his pregame media session dressed in shiny black shoes, dark pants, and a light-blue shirt with just the top button undone. With his hands in his pants pockets and with that familiar sparse blond mustache, he seemed every bit the young church deacon who has just finished the dishes from the men’s fellowship breakfast and is now about to clip on his tie, throw on his suit jacket, and go upstairs to act as an usher. Yet there is no arguing with his results. The Pacers went into that Chicago showdown a half-game behind the Bulls and actually ahead of them in winning percentage (the Bulls had played three more games and won two of them). Even after the Bulls dispatched them here to lay sole claim to first place, the Pacers entered this week only two and a half games back and with the second-best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference. Bird’s looks have always been deceptive; he may seem simple, but it’s common knowledge that he was one of the great trash talkers in basketball during his playing career with the Boston Celtics, and he has put that talent to work as a coach, driving the Pacers to new heights not with tactics so much as with determination.
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Bird’s emphasis on the mental game before the physical may seem unconventional, but it’s an approach he shares with both Phil Jackson and Pat Riley, the two most successful coaches in the NBA over the last two decades. Jackson’s approach is well documented in his book Sacred Hoops, while Riley has done his best to convince the New York Knicks and then the Miami Heat that they first had to believe they belonged on the court with the Bulls before they could even attempt to prove they were the better team physically. That has been Bird’s approach: make the team as strong as possible mentally, and only then gauge how good the players are overall. His get-tough coaching tactics even got him mentioned in an Ann Landers column recently: an Indiana fan wrote in to complain about Bird’s refusing to hold the team’s charter plane when two Pacers showed up on the tarmac after the boarding ramp had been pulled up. Landers came down firmly on the side of the coach.
Yet if Bird is serious about toughening up the Pacers, he might want to consider doing something about the college-ball dance routine the team goes through during introductions. Reggie Miller may be tougher than ever, but he’ll never convince his teammates they’re on the same level as the Bulls as long as he keeps leading them in that high-stepping, hand-slapping shimmyfest.
Still, in spite of the 109-94 final score, the Bulls’ bench play was inconsistent, and if you take away Rodman’s 18 rebounds they actually lost the battle of the boards 38-26. With the upcoming playoffs being largely a battle of bench strength and half-court defense, the Caffey trade was looking worse than ever.
