Just My Type

The Interview
Larry Bird
PACERS PRESIDENT

Bird, 51, won three NBA titles and three MVP awards with the Boston Celtics.

Dan Patrick: When I say Celtics-Lakers, is there one game, one player that automatically comes to mind?

Larry Bird: I think of Michael Cooper because he defended me as well as anybody ever defended me. And the one game is Game 4 [in 1984], when we desperately had to have a win, and Kevin McHale took Kurt Rambis down and changed the whole series.

DP: At the time, was that a hard foul?

LB: We had a no-layup rule. Just about everybody in the league did. Our regular-season games used to be rougher than our playoffs now, but the playoffs took it to a different level.

DP: Is LeBron complaining too much about being fouled hard?

LB: He knows no different. Now when you get hit hard, you expect a flagrant.

DP: What kind of relationship do you have now with Magic?

LB: We're still doing things businesswise. We talk maybe once every month or two. He knows what gets me more than anything is talking about when he beat me in college.