The Legend Comes Home

FRENCH LICK, Ind. â€”  He actually lives in the neighboring town of West Baden now, in a house more like a landmark, on grounds more like a salute to The Leprechaun, what with the green tennis court, waves of green grass, even a green outdoor basketball court. It’s sprawling in comparison to surrounding homes, but still modest as far as centers of universes go.

The sign is a couple of miles away. Down a side street and onto the so-called main drag that is more like a trickle through French Lick, it sits atop a jet-black pole a couple of miles from the house and about 25 feet above the intersection, a green circle made to look like a basketball, white lettering in the early stages of chipping. That’s the encouraging part--that it has been around long enough to weather.

“Now, it doesn’t go as fast,� Roberta Buchanan says from behind the counter at Village Market, a little farther down the street. “But, yes, it gets stolen. Usually by people from out of town.�

People come for a piece of French Lick’s favorite son and decide to leave with a piece of French Lick itself: the sign at the intersection of Indiana highways 56 and 145, between the Marathon gas station and Huck’s Food & Fuel Store. The one proclaiming the half-mile road with the slight incline--Springs Valley High on the left and a few small businesses on the right--as Larry Bird Boulevard.

It was proclaimed as such in tribute and because the people from out of town aren’t the only ones who thrive on the connection, Bird being so much of the identity here, or, sadly, a way to help identify the body. The visitors on pilgrimage are the ones stopping by the Valley Springs gym to walk on the same court they wrongly think he once did, and maybe even document the moment with a photo. Or they may buy the envelopes from the Village Market postmarked with the date in 1992 that Bird retired from the Boston Celtics, or the three-inch square piece of the real gym floor Bird played on. They steal the street sign with such frustrating regularity that someone a few years back figured, accurately, that raising the pole above the height of a normal street marker would be a deterrent.

The people from town, and most of the state for that matter, hold Larry Legend in the same light, but they also hold him closer. So to have him return to prominence now, not just as an NBA coach but coach of the home-state Indiana Pacers, is as much revival as thrill.

“Here’s Larry, back again, after we thought we’d seen the last of the Larry Bird headlines,� says Jerry Denbo, the Democratic state senator from French Lick. “This rebirth, it gives them another sense of pride about the community. It helps.�

Not only here. In Indianapolis, ticket sales may be about on pace with last season, but everyone in town will speak of streaking interest. In Terre Haute, at Larry Bird’s Boston Connection, the same business that slumped during the retirement years, those that passed for his five years as a special assistant with the Celtics, interest surged the day he was named to replace Larry Brown as Pacer coach. In Nashville, a family friend, financially well off, talked of buying season tickets for games that will be played some 300 miles away.

“Fly up, then fly home,� said Mark Bird, an older brother.

Because of the return. Here’s Larry, back again.

*

Indianapolis is 110 miles north of French Lick, and the Indiana Basketball Academy is on the north side of the city, in Carmel. Bird is inside, overseeing what’s either a voluntary late-summer workout/scrimmage or one demanded by Chris Mullin, his recently acquired gym-rat of a forward who would just as soon surrender a kidney as go a day without hoops.

The coaching part--the motivation, the organization, the strategy--this Bird knows he can do. Not only because he arrives with a name that commands attention, but also, at least partly, because he has a veteran team that won’t drive him back to golf courses around his Naples, Fla., home. This is worth a slight edge over the competitive side of him that says the challenge of working with young players and overseeing their improvement has an appeal, what with his old-school side knowing he could do without the attitude some of the same young players might bring.

There will, of course, be problems. He’s not big on the individual spotlight that will follow him from city to city. He has a team that finished 39-43 in 1996-97 and had only two players average at least 11 points a game, though the addition of Mullin, coming off a season that reminded how he can still be a factor when healthy, should help. He’s in the same division as four 50-game winners, twice as many as any other.

And he won’t look the part.

“When you look at me out there, you’ll say, ‘That’s not Larry,’ � he said. “That’s not. I’d rather go out there in a coach’s pants and a shirt. You’re a coach. You’re not trying to be a fashion designer out there. Some coaches like to dress up, which is fine. That’s the way they were probably brought up. They had money. I didn’t have any money. I always had the pants with holes in ‘em.�

Larry Joe Bird is not of the Armani world, which won’t make a difference to his players but will point out again how it’s strange to see him out there. He will not try to compete with his counterparts in this department. Of course, it’ll probably be the only one.

Bird, with no coaching experience beyond working at clinics, took the job at 41 because he again thirsted for battle, after retirement that was once a necessity because of a bad back became more of a yawn. If golf was enough to drive him, he wouldn’t be here. He does not pretend to be a lifer.

“I’m used to more of a fast-paced life,� he said. “I’m not out all the time, but I traveled a lot, did a lot of different things. Played a lot of basketball, kept myself in shape, worked hard in the summers. All of the sudden, it stopped. Actually, it stopped at the right time because I had the severe back problems. Once they were taken care of, I was sort of in limbo. Retiring is great for some people. But it’s not the ideal life that I like.

“I’d go to bed at 8 o’clock at night and get up at 5 in the morning and lie there for two or three hours. Just wasn’t enough to keep my mind working. I missed basketball. I like the competition of it. Knowing that I can’t play any more, coaching or working in the front office was about the only thing I had left. I got a hotel and a car dealership and interests out there, but that’s not what I wanted.

“I had two good years where I did everything I wanted to do. Did a lot of fishing, played a lot of golf, and various things. But the competition just wasn’t there. I could never find it. This is the ultimate challenge. This is all the competition in the world right here.�

In coaching.

“Ninety percent say they would never do that. But once it becomes one of your last options to compete, it looks pretty appealing to you. For me, I had a good life, in Southern Florida and living in a small town and I enjoyed it. But it just wasn’t enough activity for me.

“That’s why I played. Because I loved to compete every night. And this is really no different, to get these guys to play to a level and consistently every night in a long season is a challenge.�

He said the Celtics offered him the same challenge before hiring Rick Pitino, but he turned it down because, as much as he loved Boston, “leaving there as a player and accomplishing the things that I accomplished there, I don’t know if it would have tarnished or what.� Celtic brass dismissed the notion that an offer was made. (“Who cares?� Bird says now of the denial. “I had no interest at all in going back.�)

Ironically, it was during that coaching search that the Pacers-Bird union came to be, four years after he turned away Indiana’s initial interest to stay in semi-retirement. They hired Brown, at least allowing Bird the comfort of knowing that the job would open again soon enough. When it became apparent Brown would, indeed, be leaving, Bird called the Pacers to ask permission for the Celtics to interview Brown. The Pacers, in turn, asked to interview him.

This time, with his body feeling better, with his mind needing a challenge, he was interested.

“I didn’t want to coach anywhere else,� he said. “ . . . I didn’t have any [interest] at the time [1993] because my back was still bothering me and I was just getting into the retirement thing. I had watched their team play, I know what kind of players they have. They have a veteran team, they don’t have a bunch of young guys coming in the league. It was a feeling. I didn’t know if I would do it, but when I finally made a decision to do it, I’m happy I did because I like it here.�

Here likes him too. Just a little bit. Interest in a possible return to Indiana was so great that, with an announcement appearing imminent, reporters staked out Market Square Arena, awaiting a sighting of the state Bird. One television station, NBC affiliate WTHR, kept in contact with employees at the Naples airport in case he left from there and their Boston sister station watched things from that end.

When word came that Bird, traveling in on the Lear jet of Pacer owners, brothers Melvin and Herb Simon, would soon be landing at Indianapolis airport, WTHR sprung into action. It dispatched the station helicopter, complete with photographer, had it follow the Bird limousine on the 15-minute drive to the arena, cutting into afternoon programming to show The Arrival.

“I thought it was crazy,� sports director Dave Calabro said. “But, again, it was Larry Bird.�

*

Martinsville is about 40 miles south of Indianapolis and home to Larry Bird Ford-Lincoln-Mercury. The showroom has a parquet floor painted and banners hanging from the ceiling to commemorate the Celtic championships and the retired Celtic uniform numbers, where Larrobilia rings the walls. You know, your basic car dealership that attracts tourists as well as buyers.

“They want souvenirs, so we get them one of these,� said Ken Beaver, a sales and leasing consultant, reaching for a license plate frame that sells for $5.95. “We used to have hats. We just gave those away.�

Larry Brunnemer, the used car manager, calls it a tourist site, a prominent one when the Final Four was in Indianapolis last season. No wonder. There’s a pickup truck parked on Boston Garden’s free-throw line.

“We had a person the other day drive down from Northern Indiana just because he wanted to say he bought the car from Larry Bird,� Beaver said. “Kokomo, I think. Honest.�

*

Terre Haute is home to Indiana State and about 70 miles west of Martinsville, near the Indiana-Illinois border, and home to Larry Bird’s Boston Connection, originally a four-story Sheraton. In 1987, eight years after he led the Sycamores to the NCAA final, it became a four-story center for the cottage industry that is Larry Bird’s Hoosier connection.

The gift shop sells dozens of different T-shirts. Coffee mugs, shot glasses, beer steins,. magnets, key chains, blankets. Envelopes with French Lick postmarks dated Aug. 18, 1992, just like the Village Market.

The walls in the lobby are actually something to hold up the hundreds of pictures and posters and programs and American magazine covers and international magazine covers and Celtic schedules. There’s also an area with autographed photos from other famous people--from sports to politics to entertainment--but the inside of the Boston Garden Dining Room is all Bird. It’s as if his life exploded in there.

You don’t go there for the food--not even the K.C. Cod or The Johnny Most (chicken salad or tuna salad sandwich) or the Record Book Ribeye or the Springs Valley Special (grilled Indiana ham and American cheese). This is Ground Zero for Larrobilia, with pictures dating to childhood, jerseys from the Celtics, Indiana State and the 1992 Olympic team, trophies, Wheaties boxes, a BIRD 33 license plate from Massachusetts, a BIRD 33 license plate from Iowa, etc. Oh, and green carpet, green tablecloths and green vinyl seat cushions.

There’s even a place to shoot baskets in the restaurant, about 10 feet deep in a corner enclosed by a shatterproof and mostly soundproof clear material. Only muffled bounces are audible to diners. It has enough room to shoot free throws, and enough room for center court from the old Springs Valley court, the one that was also cut into the smaller pieces for sale after moisture damage forced its replacement about 10 years ago.

“As long as he was in the league, we’ve done good,� said Mark Bird, vice president of the hotel. “But since he retired, sales in here dropped off some. With him back as coach now, as long as his name’s out in front, we’ll be all right.

“You can tell from the day of the news conference. Just by the number of people in here having lunch. . . . It’s been unbelievable. I’ve talked to a couple people who own sporting goods stores in town. They say it’s unbelievable how fast the Pacer stuff is selling. People can’t get enough.�

It’s not only the Pacer stuff, either. Down the street, at Pacesetter Sports, owner Marlon Nasser is celebrating Converse’s decision to release another line of Bird shoes, scheduled to be available exclusively in Boston and Indiana. As a fan, he is happy that Bird is back. As an entrepreneur, he’s ecstatic.

“It’s rare that a shoe will beat Nike,� said Brent Compton, who’s in charge of team sports sales to schools for Pacesetter. “And this one will. No doubt.�

Said Nasser, summing up what the return of Bird means to him in dollars: “Twenty grand, just this fall. That’s the probably a reasonable number. Who knows what happens from there. But if he’s doing it, if they’re in the running for the championship, anything with Pacers on it will move out of Terre Haute.�

*

French Lick is about 120 miles southeast of Terre Haute, through the farmlands and the mountains and the greenery and the shaded winding drive of Hoosier National Forest. West Baden is just to the north and not only where Bird now has a home, and did during the years in the Celtic front office that were actually spent wintering in Naples, Fla., but also where he spent many of his formative years. French Lick became known as his hometown once and for all, and forever part of the American sporting fabric, because he attended Springs Valley.

It has all the charm of small-town America with all the economic hardships of small-town America. French Lick of the first part of the century was known for its mineral baths and plush casinos, both of which attracted the wealthy and most of whom stayed at the French Lick Springs Hotel, which still stands, expansive lobby and all. Today, though, the lobby is a reminder of what once was.

The hotel is still a tourist stop, but the town of about 2,000 people is left to deal with the winds of time that came and blew out prosperity. At least they’ll always have Bird.

“French Lick is an economically deprived area, it’s a poor area,� Denbo said. “A lot of times in the past, people here haven’t had a whole lot to be proud of. But this is just something that Larry Bird brings to French Lick. Nobody else has Larry Bird. It’s really good for the morale of the people.�

Just by coming back, to a state he never really left.

“A lot of people don’t really understand how provincial Indiana is,� said Jerry Reynolds, the Sacramento Kings’ director of player personnel and a French Lick native. “I’m convinced that a lot of people around the Pacers would have been OK with things not going well last season if there were more Hoosiers on the team instead of Californians and New Yorkers. Not the owners and everybody on the team itself, but I’m sure the average fan. They’re so proud of their own heritage in basketball. I guess maybe a better way to put it is to say that they could tolerate not winning with a bunch of Hoosiers, but could not tolerate not winning with a bunch of people from other states.

“It’s hard to put into words. Larry is the pride and joy of the state. Either he or Oscar Robertson is the best player ever to come out of a state based on basketball and high school basketball. To have the legend come back to coach the Pacers, I mean it’s just a dream come true.

“It’s a case where so many people, in French Lick in particular, lived their life through Larry, almost to their own detriment. I think it’s kind of sad sometimes. But when you’re in a culturally deprived and economically deprived area, I just know that when he was playing, the town was so much more alive. Everyone took so much more interest because of Larry. I’m sure that will be revived now.�

That street sign, in fact, is right by the hotel, just beyond the driveway that stretches about a quarter-mile to the base of the grand staircase that leads up to the lobby. Proving, once and for all, he’s at the intersection of all that is French Lick. Just in case anyone forgot.

“It’s my home, I love it,� said Larry Bird, coach of the Indiana Pacers. “I’ll always go back there.�