What Larry Bird Is Up To Today

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Larry Bird doesn't love being in the spotlight, which is tough for someone who's so venerated. The New York Times reported in 1998 that Bird was reluctant to attend his installment in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. "Everywhere I go, people ask me about my playing days,” Bird said. ”It seems like it's getting worse, not better. Once this is over, I think I can close the book on my career and look forward.”

But basketball was always there. He became the president of basketball operations for the Indiana Pacers, per CNN, from 2003 to 2012 and from 2013 to 2017. In 2010, HBO made the documentary "Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals," about Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson. And in 2012, the play "Magic/Bird" hit Broadway, where it captured a special moment that was true to life. 

Bird and Johnson had a rivalry until 1995, when they were shooting a Converse commercial together. Bird's mother had the two men over for lunch to end the rivalry, per a later publication by the Times. "We ate quickly and sat around talking," Bird said. "Not about how you hit that shot, but how you grew up, where you work out, stuff about fathers."

Johnson admitted that it was Bird's mom who solidified their friendship. "His mother almost made us talk to each other," Johnson admitted. "A great mother senses things. She reminded me of my mother. I felt like a little boy in there."

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