Larry Bird never understood people’s fascination with celebrities and pro athletes: “I always thought the whole idea of being paid to play pro basketball is ridiculous” – Basketball Network

Larry Vogel

© Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Larry Bird is one of the greatest legends in NBA history and also someone who saved the NBA alongside Magic Johnson in the early 1980s. Over the years, Bird has been considered the best player in the NBA and his popularity has only been matched by Magic and later Michael Jordan when he entered the NBA. For all of the money and fame Bird has accumulated over the years, he has always been incredibly humble and down to earth, which is not a trait in most athletes of his caliber.

Bird never understood people’s fascination with celebrities and professional athletes

In his book, Bird Watching, Bird reflects on the notion of fame and the impact professional athletes and celebrities have on ordinary people. Bird never understood why people were so drawn to them and was fascinated by how professional NBA players make so much money playing a snap in packed stadiums in front of so many people.

“To be honest? I don’t understand the attraction of celebrities. I always found the whole idea of ​​getting paid to play professional basketball ridiculous. I mean think about it. You take that ball, run down the court and you’ve got someone on you. You’ve got four guys out there on your team and five from the other team and a bunch of guys on the bench and you look up and the court’s full and all you’re trying to do is get the ball shooting through the hole. To me this is just crazy. After all these years, it still doesn’t make sense.

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He respected the real fans who came to watch him play

Even years after he started his NBA career, Bird was impressed every time they played in front of their home crowd at the Boston Garden. Bird was most surprised by the fans who were at the top of the stands and couldn’t even see the actual game, and it would have been better for them to stay home and watch the game on TV.

“When I was with the Celtics, I would always sit there and say to my teammate Dennis Johnson, ‘Can you believe that? look at all these people They’re here, watching us play. Isn’t that just amazing?” DJ looked at me like I was losing my nerve but it was a mystery to me. It still is. Especially all those fans at the top of the arenas. They know they watch the game better could if they just went home and watched it on TV, but they sweat up there (at least in Boston Garden – our building never had air conditioning!) and they love it.”

Bird always admired the real fans who saved up money to attend the game even though they didn’t have the best seats in the arena. Bird had great respect for any fan that came to see him play, so he felt compelled to come out and play every game and give his 100 percent. The term charge management was not in his vocabulary and he made sure to give fans value for their hard-earned money for the price of admission.

“They were the real fans. I always understood that. They were the ones saving up for their tickets, happy just to be inside the building. We were sold out every night. The fans on the nosebleed seats were always there. When I was a kid, I never dreamed that anyone would pay money to watch me do anything. And no matter how much money I ever have, I will never take it for granted.”

That kind of mindset, love and relationship with the regular fans is a rare sight among today’s players who have somehow become incredibly distant from the fans. His humble background is the one that sets him apart from the rest, but he really understood well what it took for regular fans to come to games, especially those who didn’t have much money. If you stop and think about it, his testimony about ordinary people worshiping celebrities and professional athletes is profound, especially in this day and age when this is even more relevant than ever, and these people have a godlike status in today’s society.