Larry Bird said of the one player he would have given the torch to: “If he was there, I would have shut it down.”

Larry Bird said of the one player he would have given the torch to: “If he was there, I would have shut it down.”

Larry Bird stated that if Len Bias hadn’t tragically passed away in 1988, he would have retired.

If it weren’t for his chronic back problems, Larry Bird would’ve enjoyed his Hall of Fame career much longer. However, some may not know that an Achilles injury in 1988 almost forced him into retirement.

Len Bias, a Maryland standout selected by the Boston Celtics in the second round of the previous draft, passed away from a heroin overdose two days later. If Bias had survived, Bird claims it would have been simple for him to leave the Celtics because it would have seemed like he gave the team to its legitimate heir.

Bird said, “I would have left in 1988,” to Bill Simmons on The B.S. Report. “In 1988, I would have retired. My ankle was beginning to give me trouble, and in order to remove these [bone] spurs, doctors would need to separate my Achilles. I anticipated missing the entire year. I would have immediately shut it down if he had been present.”

Bird had no interest in money.
Bird played in just six games during the 1988–89 season due to a severe injury. Larry Legend never once used his impending $2.75 million salary for the upcoming season—the largest salary of his career at the time—to influence his choices.

Bird cleverly responded, “I walked away from it anyway [in ’92] [laughs],” when asked if he considered the money he would have missed out on had he resigned in ’88.

But following Bias’s untimely demise, Bird surmised that he had just endured his wounds until his body ordered him to give up. Consequently, he participated in three more NBA seasons until retiring at the age of 35 in 1992.

Larry could’ve been right about Len

Bird’s high regard for Bias and his game wasn’t rooted in sheer hype. The way Bird saw it, Len possessed the qualities that uplifted the Celtics’ championship culture. In a nutshell, Bias was touted as the player who would take over the NBA coming off an exceptional scoring run at Maryland.