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bird is known during his NBA career for having remarkable ability to shoot the ball
anywhere at any time
yet he says that he was a better shooter before the NBA why? he really was
he was playing softball with his buddy neal heeton he actually was filling in for his buddy neal heeton
at this point larry is done with school he's doing his student teaching %uh doing drivers
ed and some other things at a high school a local high school
so neal heeton asks him to come in and fill in for his softball team so he said sure
well he shows up and who is on the other team but his brother
so larry is playing out in the outfield and his brother hits this kind of spinning looping ball
almost like a tim wakefield knuckle ball it's just spinning all over the place
and larry tries to go down and make a basket catch
and his finger goes all the way back and he's like
man
wow it really hurts and he looked down and his finger was completely
dislocated and mangled 0:00:52.130,0:00:55.590 you know it really was bothering him he had to stop playing right away and
his brother came over and almost vomited just looking at it it was really really bad
%uh you know they took him to the emergency room they strapped it up
they taped it up whatever
and bird went out the next morning and went morel mushroom 'cause
it was
hunting season big deal down in Indiana to do the morel mushroom hunting
and by the time he came out of the woods late in the day they said where've you been they've been looking for you
you've shattered your knuckle you need surgery right away
so now remember
he's been drafted by the celtics during this point but he has not signed a contract yet so
his finger is in a bad way he has to have major surgery with clips put in and pins and everything
else
any he never tells the celtics this has happened
you know sooner or later they get word
and they summon him to boston
and
and the trainer examines him and says and the team doctor examines him and they say to 0:01:42.920,0:01:46.210 red auerbach this guy is damaged goods
red's like really
so he says come on larry get dressed so larry puts on his tuff
red throws him the ball he goes out he starts shooting from all over the floor he's hitting from everywhere
throws him a few bounce passes
has him throw a few overhead passes and he said
you look fine to me kid
and bird said great
but bird to this day will tell you
he's never had the same feel for the basketball
since he injured that finger
he said I've never been able to feel the ball quite the same way again so as great as he was
in the NBA
pre softball career larry bird might have even been greater
it's kind of unbelievable
now we know about his mangled finger and we also know about his achy back during his career
another injury that people probably assume is the result of a grueling NBA schedule but
that wasn't the case was it the well you know it's funny
bird's
very first back injury
was actually caused shoveling gravel in his backyard
he had put in a new basketball court in his home
and he had asked his brother eddie and some of his friends to spread the gravel around there was a pool there
too
and he didn't do it
you know he was a young kid he was lazy he just didn't get to it so bird was so angry
he said the heck with it I'll do it myself
and while he was shoveling gravel that's the first time he felt that extreme pain in his back
now I will tell you this
he had a congenital back problem
the canal that led through the nerves through his spine was too small 0:03:02.680,0:03:04.700 he was going to end up with those back problems
anyway
but it was started in typical blue-collar lunch pale style larry bird shoveling his own gravel