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| Í kunnulegri stellingu |
Larry "Legend" Bird er í dag 7 desember 50 ára. Þeir sem lesa þessa síðu ættu að vera nokkuð kunugir um Larry Bird og flest hans afrek. Það er ófáum bókum flett um hans feril og er nokkuð ljóst að hann var, er og verður ein skærasta stjarna körfuboltaheimsins. Kappinn gaf orðinu "Leikskilningur" nýja merkingu með spilamennsku sinni en líklega hefur engin leikmaður nokkurn tíman haft jafn góðan leikskilning á leiknum eins og hann. Um leið og við óskum Bird til hamingju með daginn látum við eina skemmtilega sögu fylgja frá KC Jones fyrrum þjálfara kappans.
"We are playing in Seattle. Five seconds left on the clock and the score is tied and it is our timeout. In the huddle, I am thinking Xavier McDaniel is guarding Larry.
"So I said, 'Now Kevin, you take the ball out and get it to Dennis and Dennis you can finish that.'
"Larry said, 'Why don’t you just give me the ball and tell everybody else to get the hell out of the way?'
"So I said, 'Larry you play, and I’ll coach.'
"And he said, 'All right.'
"So I said, 'Dennis, you take it out and you get it to Kevin. Kevin you get it to Larry and everybody else get the hell out of the way.'
"That is communication. Before the timeout was over, he leaves the huddle, and I said to myself, where is he going.
"And Xavier was right there and Bird said, 'Xavier, I’m getting the ball. I’m going to take two dribbles to the left. I’m going to step back behind the three point line and stick it.'
"And that is what he did. So when he stepped back behind the line and released the ball, as soon as he released it, his arm was still in the air going to the dressing room. Game over."
