Larry Legend

The life and times of NBA superstar Larry Bird, including a chronicle of his rookie coaching season with the Indiana Pacers

This book capitalizes on the phenomenal success of Larry Bird in his first season as a head coach in the National Basketball Association. In coaching, Bird wisely stuck to the farmerlike work habits of his playing career, habits that elevated him from high-school star in tiny French Lick, Indiana, to having his jersey hung in the hallowed rafters of Boston Garden. The simple approach to coaching worked, and Bird's team, the Indiana Pacers, far exceeded expectations, earning him Coach of the Year honors. Despite alternate chapters on Bird's whole career, Shaw's book does little to augment Bird's autobiography, Drive (1989). This is mainly a game log of Bird's rookie year as a coach, and it rarely takes us inside the action or relationships between thoroughbred athletes. Still, Bird's status as one of the key figures in basketball's exponential rise in popularity, along with last year's coaching success, is certain to attract fans to this journeyman effort. Dane Carr