NBA 75: Larry Bird, a renowned all-around player who won three titles with the Celtics and revolutionized the league, was ranked No. 7.

NBA 75: Larry Bird, a renowned all-around player who won three titles with the Celtics and revolutionized the league, was ranked No. 7.

Frenchlick, Indiana — The modest gray cottage that served as Larry Bird’s childhood home is still standing at 983 Washington Street, a short distance from French Lick’s downtown. The top of the detached garage is equipped with a rim and backboard, and there is a large driveway. Although the Bird family moved out of the house a long time ago, the current arrangement nevertheless accomplishes the same goal as it did when Larry was shooting till dusk every day. It’s not the original rim and backboard.

There’s a young child, maybe nine or ten years old, shooting hoops as I approach the house.

He’s wearing a Los Angeles Lakers sweatshirt, which is one issue.

Is he unaware of this? He is aware, of course. Visitors frequently stop by to look around and take photos of Larry Bird’s childhood house. The boy shoots, praying the ball doesn’t bounce off the rim and tumble down the hill, and waves at the intruders, having grown accustomed to them at this point.

Jim Jones, who coached Bird for three years at Springs Valley High and throughout his Biddy Ball days, stated, “Larry lived out there (in the driveway).” Bird still counts Jones as one of his most significant and influential coaches.

“There was Larry and his siblings anywhere there was a court. Since he was five or six years old, I have known him. Those children were all-around players. He played basketball, football, and baseball (he was an excellent player).

When I saw him in eighth grade, he was maybe 6-1 and 135 pounds, but he had good basketball handling and passing skills. He could, after all, pass. When he was younger, he would play with his elder brothers every day. Whenever they sent him home in tears, he would always return the next day.

Bird, who ranks seventh on The Athletic’s NBA 75 list, is largely a product of this unique location, a tiny community tucked away in the hills of southern Indiana that was well-known for its natural hot springs and its then-illegal gambling establishments. For many years, French Lick served as a vacation destination for the wealthy and well-known, serving as a kind of small-scale Las Vegas for the affluent. But eventually the party came to an end.

All the casinos were shut down in 1949 on the eve of the Kentucky Derby due to a huge raid. During Bird’s reign, the region experienced economic hardship, but more recently, with the introduction of gaming in 2005, the town has recovered. The large casinos and hotels either shut down or started to deteriorate. Drug use became out of control, the Kimball Piano Company closed, and the unemployment rate increased.

Bird had a difficult family. In an effort to make finances meet, his father, Joe, and mother, Georgia, worked many jobs.

Like Jones, Bird was a quiet, small-town guy who seldom ever looked people in the eye, according to Jones’ memories of him. But he loved sports; baseball was his first love until he realized he could also play basketball, and he was driven to succeed in all he did.

Bird played on the B team his freshman year at Springs Valley, but if he hadn’t fractured his ankle, he would have started on the varsity squad his second year. Jones placed him on the JV team, and the coach had to determine whether Bird was well enough to be added to the roster of the Indiana high school state tournament before the sectionals got underway.

“I told him, ‘Now Larry, I’ll take you to sectionals if you can run suicides in 30 seconds,'” Jones recounted. And he put in effort every evening. He continued to work without knowing if he would make it (to sectionals). He completed it in 30 seconds, of course; he hobbled, but he still played.

And I’ll be damned, when I placed him in a game, he made a winning contribution. After that, he told me it was the reason we lost our second game, which I had not included him in. It was his spirit of competition. His will to triumph was unnatural.

He went on, “We worked on his basics every day, so I appreciate that Larry always gave me a lot of credit for them. And Larry had an unbelievable cerebral aptitude for the game. He knew his basketball, after all. The greatest description was provided by Don Nelson, who stated, “We’re all playing checkers, and Larry’s playing chess.” He has known the rules of the game since the beginning.

But Jones can’t truly claim to have known that Bird would go on to become Larry Legend.

He laughed and answered, “Oh, God no.” Nobody took action. Don’t get me wrong; he was excellent. Though he was weak, he was a skilled player who could make those passes. Back then, we weren’t big fans of strength training. The main thing was that he continued to grow and became stronger over time, even though we eventually acquired one of those Universal gyms during his sophomore year. Gary Holland, who took over for Jones at Springs Valley, then gave him the go-ahead to begin filming. Bobby Knight gave me our plus-minus chart, and he was roughly plus-1,500. “Every other child was just trying to keep even.”