National Public Radio Weekend Edition March 14, 2026 SCOTT SIMON, HOST: You know, these days, if there's a talented high school basketball player in Croatia or Congo, recruiters'll find them and may sign them to a college career that lasts just a year - one and done - on their way to the pros, along with a multimillion dollar NIL, or Name, Image and Likeness deal - every moment passed along on social media. Then there's the story of Larry Bird, one of the greatest players in

How a remarkable, rarely discussed game sets the course of Bird's career—and gave rise to March Madness itself The Ringer March 3, 2026 By Keith O'Brien Amid the chaos of the moment and the madness of the sold-out crowd—the largest to ever watch a basketball game in Las Cruces, New Mexico—the television cameras missed the incident in the stands. They were following the action on the floor, and the action was moving in the other direction, up the court, as the New Mexico Stat

Were it not for a string of unlikely events and minor miracles, the world might have never known a basketball legend. Boston Globe Magazine March 1, 2026 By Keith O'Brien In the beginning , the boy didn’t like basketball as much as he seemed to like just being with his brothers. Larry Bird would spill out of his home in West Baden Springs, Indiana, and tumble down the hill with his older brothers, Mike and Mark, to shoot hoops at the small, yellow-brick water plant on the edg

From The Wall Street Journal Skillful writers like Mr. O'Brien know how to find the tributaries where rich, untold material lies waiting to be excavated. Larry Bird playing for the Indiana State Sycamores against the Michigan State Spartans in the NCAA basketball championship on March 26, 1979. Sports Illustrated via Getty Images. More than three decades after his final game—a pain-wracked cameo in the United States’s gold-medal win over Croatia in the 1992 Olympics—Larry Bir

An excerpt from the new biography Heartland reveals why Bird left Indiana University after just a few weeks, and the family that threatened to change his path forever Rolling Stone February 22, 2026 By Keith O'Brien Larry Bird should have been excited about attending Indiana University in the late summer of 1974. The man who had recruited him to come there, Dave Bliss, had been chasing him for more than a year, convinced of Bird’s greatness. Bliss, a young assistant coach at