When the Game Was Ours - Larry Bird [86]
Two years after the taping of the Converse commercial, the Pistons lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Celtics in a thrilling seven-game series, prompting a bitter Thomas to remark that Bird's accomplishments were inflated by the media because of the color of his skin.
His words touched off a firestorm of criticism. Pistons forward Dennis Rodman, who initiated the dialogue by asserting that Bird was "overrated," was dismissed as an immature, loose-lipped rookie, but Thomas was a veteran who presumably knew better.
The incident left a permanent stain on Isiah's résumé. He was portrayed as the ultimate sore loser, unable to recover from the disappointment of Game 5 of the Conference Finals, when Bird picked off his floating inbounds pass in the final seconds of the game and relayed it to Celtics guard Dennis Johnson for the winning basket.
Yet none of it, not even Thomas's pointed criticism of her son, dissuaded Georgia Bird from abandoning her favorite point guard.
"Isiah was her number-one guy of all time," Bird said. "She followed him religiously when he was at IU. She felt that way even after '87. She told me, 'Oh, Larry. You two are out there working hard and things are going to be said.'
"You know who else she loved? Bill Laimbeer. He was at Notre Dame—another Indiana school. And she knows how much I hated that guy."
During the 1986 season, when the list of All-Stars had just been announced, Bird asked a group of Boston reporters if Laimbeer, who had been an All-Star the previous three years with the Pistons, had been selected again. Informed that Laimbeer had been left off the squad, Bird deadpanned, "Good. Now I won't have to worry about him getting on the bus and saying, 'Hi, Larry,' and me having to say, 'Fuck you, Bill.'"
Although Earvin Johnson had not played for one of the Hoosier state's finer institutions of learning, he was still a midwestern boy who played his college ball in close enough proximity for Georgia Bird to joyfully follow his career.
Georgia embraced Magic warmly, then fussed over her son's rival as if he were one of her own, offering him lemonade, iced tea, and a home-cooked meal that she had been planning for a week. By the time Bird arrived at the house and stiffly shook Magic's hand, Georgia Bird was already piling piece after piece of her signature fried chicken on his plate, adding gravy and mashed potatoes and green beans and corn.
She introduced Earvin to her own mother, Lizzie Kerns, who had baked one of her specialties, cherry pie, just for the occasion. Then she ushered Johnson over to say hello to Mark Bird, Larry's older brother, spouting statistics and highlights of Johnson's numerous basketball accomplishments in college and the pros. As his mother continued to fawn over Magic, Bird excused himself to take a shower.
"I think he was feeling a little uncomfortable," Mark Bird said. "Larry likes his privacy, and there were so many people around. It was a little awkward."
The camera crew had previously applied for permits to close Sawmill Road during taping, and the local newspaper had been contacted and asked to refrain from reporting the date the commercial would be shot in order to limit distractions. The crew had particular interest in shooting footage of a cornfield that was opposite Bird's property, so they contacted its caretaker, Ben Lindsey, for permission to film the area. Lindsey approached Bird and told him, "They want to drive my combine through the fields. Should I charge them for that?"
"Sure," Bird told him. "Get whatever you can."
"I think they wrote him a check for $5,000 just to drive by his own field," Bird said.
While the lighting crew pulled out their equipment and began setting up down at Bird's asphalt court, the Bird brothers pulled out their four-wheeler and offered Earvin Johnson a ride. Magic good-naturedly complied, jerking around the property like a newly minted cowboy on a bucking bronco.
"From the looks of it," Mark Bird said, "he had never been on one before."
After Georgia's carefully prepared feast, Bird