“Boy, I wish I could get out there” – Larry Bird admits to feeling the itch to play during his coaching years in Indiana

A chronic back problem prompted Larry Bird to retire in 1992 but that didn’t mean he also ran out of competitive juices. In fact, ‘Larry Legend’ once admitted that he used to feel like subbing in during tough playoff games when he was head coach and president of the Indiana Pacers.

“I do get excited when we play in the playoffs in a big game,” Bird told ESPN in 2016. “I say, ‘Boy, I wish I could get out there.’ I can remember one year, we were playing Miami in Game 7, and we weren’t playing well, and I went, ‘Man, I wish I could get out there and help Paul [George] and David [West] out a little bit

Larry doesn’t miss the game
Bird was limited by a back injury in his final season in the NBA, but the Boston Celtics knew he could still help the team win games. They attempted to prevent Larry from retiring by offering a handsome deal but to no avail.

In 1997, Bird was hired as Pacers head coach, and while he admitted to feeling the itch to play and help the Pacers in some games, ‘The Hick from French Lick’ made it clear that he doesn’t necessarily miss playing in the NBA.

“It’s funny. When I retired, I thought I’d really miss it,” Larry confided. “But I really feel like there was a weight lifted off my shoulders. I couldn’t believe it. When I got done with that press conference, I walked out of there and I go, ‘Well, now I’m just a normal citizen. My career is over, and it feels good.’ But when I was coaching, I played against the young guys a little bit — three-on-three, four-on-four… I played a little bit with them guys at practice. But I never really had any desire to get out there and work out for an hour and shoot a basketball.”

“I don’t know why. I think because I spent so much time doing it when I was playing, and I worked out so hard in the summers that once it was over, you just move on. It’s time to move on,” he added.

Larry’s on playing in today’s NBA
Most players in today’s NBA are well aware of how great Bird was. Some of Larry’s fellow old-timers believe that modern-day NBA stars wouldn’t stand a chance against them, but ‘Larry Legend’ begged to differ.

For Bird, the only way to find out if his era is better than today’s NBA is to go out there and play against them.

“It’s easy for me to say, ‘Our era is the best, and I was the best,’ and all that. But in my mind, I think we could compete and do really well, but you never know until you’re out there,” the Celtics legend once said.

It’s really hard to tell how Bird would fare in today’s NBA. However, rest assured that ‘Larry Legend’ would give them one heck of a game.