The life of a top-tier NBA prospect is difficult to grasp.
Endless hype. Guaranteed riches. Hall of Fame prognostications. Endorsement offers. Sneaker deals. Social media followers. Red carpet invites. Influencer friends. IG model girlfriends. An entourage.
Bonafide NBA lottery picks can live whatever playboy lifestyle they choose.
Things were not always this way though. Long before blue check marks, crypto and the Paul brothers, there was a young up-and-coming basketball superstar who had emerged as one of the hottest names in America. You never would have known though, because this blue chipper carried himself with the arrogance of an inexperienced school teacher.
Larry Bird is one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA. He made the All-NBA first team nine times, won three championships with the Celtics, two NBA Finals MVP trophies and is the last person to win three consecutive NBA MVP awards. A feat unmatched by the likes of Michael Jordan or LeBron James.
His elite ability to score, pass and defend are just a portion of what put him on the Dream Team, and on many people’s all-time starting five. Bird was an artist on the court, but he was also a killer. A stone cold assassin with a ferociously competitive spirit backed by a relentless work ethic.
He was the type of player who would tell you he was going to dominate you, outline exactly how, then go out and do it. Bird routinely took some of the world’s best professional basketball players to school.
Just prior to that time however, he was working in one.
Bird was gearing up for his NBA career. Red Auerbach and the Boston Celtics had selected him with the sixth overall pick of the 1978 NBA Draft. Bird, however, elected to go back to Indiana State for his senior year (the NBA has since instituted the “Bird Collegiate Rule" making it so no NBA team could draft a player who intended to remain in college).
In March of 1979 the Celtics were poised to make Bird the highest paid rookie of all time after he led Indiana State to the NCAA Tournament title game.
“Larry Bird finishes things,” said Dick Ballinger, the varsity head baseball coach at West Vigo High School in West Terre Haute, Indiana during the spring of 1979.
Ballinger had proof.
In order to finish his college degree, Larry Bird was working at Ballinger’s school as a physical education student-teacher just weeks before becoming an NBA rookie. While doing so, Bird approached Ballinger about helping out with his team. As soon as they could find a uniform that fit his 6-foot-9 frame, “Larry Legend” was officially an assistant varsity baseball coach.
“As far as a lot of the technicalities of baseball, cutoff men and stuff, that was more Coach Ballinger. But the fly balls Larry would hit to the outfielders were Dave Kingman like. Sometimes he’d put them over the fence and into the tennis court” said Bob Compton, who was a senior first baseman on the team coached by Bird.
Imagine Ja Morant in baseball pants hitting fungos to high school kids just days before his first NBA press conference. Talk about a viral TikTok.
“Larry would get on the tractor and mow the grass for me. He would help line the field too” said Ballinger.
An unusual scene for a guy who at the time was in the process of inking the richest rookie contract in the history of sports, but that was Bird.
“It was an amazing experience [having Bird as a coach]. He was down to earth, he couldn't have been nicer.” Compton said of Bird who was one of the NBA’s most notorious trash talkers.
The reality is both Ballinger and Compton deeply cherish the eight weeks they spent interacting with the man who would become NBA royalty, and they tell stories about that high school baseball season any chance they get.
"People packed baseball fields to see Larry on the bench. The sport wasn’t a big moneymaker so when we came to different schools that year they sold tickets. One time, Larry had a prior commitment and wasn’t able to make it to one of the away games. The school we visited was so mad, they refused to schedule us in baseball or basketball for the next five years." - Ballinger.
"Larry would stay late with us in the locker room after practice and just talk and hang out. Sometimes for more than an hour. Occasionally we would start playing basketball in the gym. The shots Larry would make would just blow your mind. Coach Ballinger was always worried someone was going to run him into the bleachers and hurt him." - Compton.
"One day we were scheduled to leave for a doubleheader and Larry hadn’t shown up yet. The kids didn’t want to board the bus without him but we had to. Later that day I’m coming back into my office after the games and the phone is ringing. It’s Larry. He apologizes to me for missing the doubleheader and explains how earlier in the day he broke his right index finger playing slow pitch softball. He was on one of the area’s elite teams." - Ballinger.
"I wanted to take my wife to Boston to see him play his rookie year. I told Larry and he said he would get me tickets. I asked him if he had any hotels he could recommend and he said if we stayed in a hotel we’d have to get our own tickets. He insisted we stay at his house. We never did go though, I didn’t want to impose and put myself on to somebody like that." - Ballinger.
"We had a game one night and I forgot my cleats. Larry spoke up and told Coach Ballinger that he would take me by my house to grab my cleats and that we would meet up with the team at the game. Here I am riding with Larry Bird in his vehicle and he’s chauffeuring me. I wanted to roll the window down, honk the horn and wave at everybody." - Compton.
"Larry charted a Winnebago just before he left for Boston so a group of us could join him on a trip to St. Louis for a Cardinals game. Larry was a big Cardinals fan. We had great seats in some suite or something. After the game a stadium employee asked Larry if he wanted to go down to the clubhouse. He wouldn’t go unless they let me join. They did, it was such a great experience. We were right next to all those guys. George Hendrick, Gary Templeton. One of the Cardinal relief pitchers was following Larry around like a puppy dog." - Ballinger.
"During Larry’s rookie year with the Celtics my daughter who was in eighth grade suffered a ruptured appendix and it was really bad. She was in the hospital for two or three weeks. We were in there visiting with her, the nurse and the doctor were in there too. Then the phone rings, the nurse picks it up and says “who!?” Then she says to my daughter “do you know Larry Bird? Well Larry Bird is on the phone.” He certainly didn’t have to do that." - Ballinger.
"I’ll never forget the time Larry called us all together and told us he had a dream that we won the sectional championship. Our rival, Terre Haute North, was a powerhouse at the time and had won the sectional title seven consecutive years running. They were ranked tenth in the entire state that year. Three weeks later after Larry had gone to Boston, we went out and beat Terre Haute North and won the sectional. I will never know if Larry actually had that dream or not." - Compton.
Months after the high school baseball season wrapped Bird would orchestrate a 32-win improvement for the Boston Celtics and turn them into an immediate championship contender. Some even say the aspiring gym teacher helped save the NBA.
Ballinger meanwhile would lose touch with Bird over the years, but his memories of that 1979 high school baseball season remain strong.
“I went out and bought a big satellite dish so I could watch the Boston Celtics. I watched every game, every Laker game” Ballinger recalled.
By the way, Larry Bird’s baseball story is a much better one than Magic Johnson owning a minority stake in the Los Angeles Dodgers. Just saying.