THEY may belong to different teams now, but former Boston Celtics teammates Larry Bird and Kevin McHale spend time together whenever they can - away from the prying eyes of the public.
“I ran with him yesterday, we talked for a while,” Houston Rockets coach McHale said when asked about Bird, his teammate in the fabled Celtics teams that won three NBA championships in the eighties while going up against Magic Johnson's LA Lakers in one of the league's biggest rivalries.
Bird is now president of his hometown Indiana Pacers, but McHale prefers to look back at their time together back when the league was starting to blossom while they teamed up with Robert Parish to form one of the best frontlines in league history.
“It was a great time. The game was starting to explode. In the States, it got bigger and bigger,” said McHale.
“It was fun. It was a great team,” said McHale.
Looking back, McHale said it was a pleasure to play basketball for a living.
“I often say, it’s a blessing playing in the NBA. When someone pays you a lot of money to do something for free, it’s not a bad job,” said McHale.
So far, Bird has refused to speak to the local media. The one rare time he opened up was when he saw one local reporter wearing a green shirt bearing the Celtics logo.
"Nice shirt," the 'Hick from French Lick' said.
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