Larry Joe Bird is an NBA basketball player. During his illustrious thirteen year career he played in the small forward and power forward positions. Larry was born in West Baden Springs, Indiana and got his nickname, 'the Hick from French Lick' after the town French Lick where he grew up. His poverty stricken childhood motivated Larry to make it big in life.

Larry Bird first played for his local Springs Valley High School team where he made his mark and left as the schools all-time leading player. He got a scholarship to the Indiana University in the year 1976, but left after only a month and went back to French Lick; he then joined the Indiana State University. He played with the university for three years and left as the fifth highest scorer in the history of the NACC. The Boston Celtics drafted Larry in 1978; he however remained at the Indiana State University to play his senior season. Bird joined the Celtics the following year as they had retained the rights to sign him until the 1979 NBA draft. He signed up with the Boston Celtics for a whopping annual salary of USD $ 650,000 a year; this made him the highest paid rookie in the history of the NBA. His collegiate rival Magic Johnson also joined the Los Angeles Lakers in the same year. Despite good performances from Magic Johnson, Bird was chosen as the Rookie of the Year. He was voted onto the Eastern Conference All-Star team for each of the 12 full seasons in the NBA.

Larry Bird is considered one of the greatest players in NBA history. He has been voted to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996. In 1998, Bird was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.