Free When the Game Was Ours by Larry Bird

the New Mexico State celebration. Indiana State had improbably forced overtime, then went on to win in the extra frame.
    "When New Mexico State scored their first basket of the overtime, no one even clapped," Heaton observed. "They were done."
    Bird was elated for Heaton, a grinder with limited speed who compensated for it by making good decisions on the floor. It was also encouraging to see reserve Rich Nemcek make a couple of meaningful plays in a game of that magnitude.
    "When Heater hit that shot, I thought, 'Maybe this year really is different,'" Bird admitted. "I saw something from our bench that night I hadn't seen all year. They played with confidence. They played like they were supposed to win."
    Nine days after that thriller, Bird endured the only outing in his college career in which he scored in single digits. The opponent was Bradley, and Bird checked out with 4 points and 11 rebounds, but Indiana State rolled 91–72 behind 31 points from Nicks and 30
from Steve Reed. In defeat, Bradley coach Dick Versace declared afterward that his "bird cage" defense had been a success.

    "He actually took credit for stopping me," Bird said. "That was funny to me.
    "I didn't even
try
to score. I took two shots. They triple-teamed me the whole game by putting a guy in front of me, a guy behind me, and another one digging for the ball. We had players on the floor that weren't even being guarded."
    It was a heady time for Indiana State. As the team's winning streak extended, so did the publicity surrounding their team. Bird was a campus celebrity, and not all of his teammates were comfortable with that.
    "Guys were getting their due, but they thought they should have gotten more, I guess," Bird said. "I think some of them got so big in their mind, they thought they could probably do it without me."
    "It was all about Larry," Nicks said. "I used to get disappointed a lot. Larry always tried to pull me in. I tried not to sulk, but there were times it was just so unfair. I was a valuable member of the team, but you wondered if anyone noticed."
    The more attention Bird received, the more he shrank away from it. He began to case out side entrances, back doors, and less traveled routes whenever they arrived at a new arena. Media interviews were so unappealing to him that he often slipped out of the locker room before the reporters arrived. His behavior was initially puzzling to Nicks.
    "I'm thinking, 'Wow, this is unique,'" Nicks said. "You've got to remember, I'm this stud from Chicago who is used to telling everyone what I've got. But Larry taught me not to get caught up in the limelight. I found myself trying to emulate him."
    Not everyone took the same approach. One day the team was discussing on the bus where to stop to eat and one of the reserves, his voice dripping with sarcasm, sneered, "Whatever Larry wants." If such comments were hurtful to Bird, he never expressed that. Instead, he simply pushed his teammates harder.
    "Some of those kids just didn't understand that Larry had elevated them to a height they never in their lives would have reached without him," Behnke said. "They were on a trip of a lifetime, but a couple of them were too jealous to enjoy it."

    "Somebody asked me once how I felt about all that," Bird said. "I told them, 'Hell, I'm jealous of them too. I'm jealous because I never got to play with a Larry Bird.'"
    Bird was an imposing figure, even to his friends. When it came to basketball matters, they warily conformed to what their star demanded. It was clear who the leader of the team was, "and if one of them got out of line, they'd be stopped," Larry said.
    During one practice early in the season, a couple of ISU players were horsing around instead of conducting the drills outlined by Hodges. Before the coach had to admonish them, his star player took care of it.
    "If you don't want to be here, then get the hell out," Bird shouted.
    When he wasn't playing, Bird was content to be just another guy on