{"id":68464,"date":"2026-03-09T04:59:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/he-had-to-shoulder-tragedy-alone-how-larry-birds-rise-almost-ended-before-it-began\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T04:59:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:59:26","slug":"he-had-to-shoulder-tragedy-alone-how-larry-birds-rise-almost-ended-before-it-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/he-had-to-shoulder-tragedy-alone-how-larry-birds-rise-almost-ended-before-it-began\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He had to shoulder tragedy alone\u2019: How Larry Bird\u2019s rise almost ended before it began"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new book traces how the Hall of Famer overcame humble beginnings in Indiana to take his place among basketball\u2019s greatest players<\/p>\n<p>How otherworldly was Larry Bird during his memorable season for Indiana State in 1978-79? At one point he made an assist while sprawled on the floor: From his end of the court, he made a one-armed throw to a teammate, who streaked coast-to-coast for a quick bucket.<\/p>\n<p>That season ended with an epic showdown in the NCAA championship game against Magic Johnson and Michigan State. Magic got the better of Bird in that game, but the contest had wider repercussions. Not only did it spark interest in the NCAA Tournament, but Bird and Magic would help revitalize the NBA, after Bird joined the Boston Celtics and Magic the Los Angeles Lakers. But none of this was preordained, especially Bird\u2019s trajectory.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/mar\/09\/he-had-to-shoulder-tragedy-alone-how-larry-birds-rise-almost-ended-before-it-began\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new book traces how the Hall of Famer overcame humble beginnings in Indiana to take his place among basketball\u2019s greatest players How otherworldly was Larry Bird during his memorable season for Indiana State in 1978-79? At one point he made an assist while sprawled on the floor: From his end of the court, he &#8230; <a title=\"\u2018He had to shoulder tragedy alone\u2019: How Larry Bird\u2019s rise almost ended before it began\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/he-had-to-shoulder-tragedy-alone-how-larry-birds-rise-almost-ended-before-it-began\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about \u2018He had to shoulder tragedy alone\u2019: How Larry Bird\u2019s rise almost ended before it began\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}