No player has left a mark on 1980s professional basketball comparable to that of Larry Bird (born 1956), the renowned forward for the Boston Celtics.

Bird took the NBA by storm as a rookie in 1979 and dominated the league almost without a break throughout his career as a professional basket ball player. He transformed the lackluster Celtics into a basketball superpower, leading the team to three national championships in five attempts. Every sort of honor and superlative has been lavished on the blond Indiana native. Sports Illustrated contributor Frank Deford has called him "the greatest basketball player in the history of humankind," and few observers would argue the point. "Each Bird game is a rich tapestry of fundamentals," writes Mike Lupica in the New York Daily News. "He keeps the ball alive, he is the middleman on the fast break, he boxes out, he posts his man every chance...