When the Game Was Ours - Larry Bird [24]
Hodges called time-out, reminded his players to stay levelheaded, then went about divvying up responsibilities for the final seconds. Heaton, who was in the game, waited for his assignment, but in all the confusion Hodges had neglected to tell him where to go.
As each team broke from their huddle, the partisan New Mexico State crowd leaped to its feet bellowing, "18–1! 18–1!" Slab Jones, their star, sauntered past the Indiana State bench ribbing Bird and Nicks, "Too bad your streak is over."
Heaton, unsure of where to go, hustled underneath the team's basket, then realized he was too deep and would have no time to shoot even if he did get the ball. He migrated to half-court and waited.
Webb's free throw clanged short. ISU's Brad Miley controlled the rebound and quickly relayed it to Heaton. The player Bird affectionately called "Heater" didn't hesitate: he hoisted a 50-foot bomb just before the buzzer sounded.
"I thought it was going clear over the backboard," Heaton said.
Heaton groaned. The ball started its descent and, incredibly, banked in.
The shot pulled the plug on 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,