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Back in August 2023, Danny Ainge said Larry Bird was a teammate like no other.
Ainge talked about the confidence Bird brought into the locker room. It spread to everyone around him. He called him “a great worker” and “a great teammate.” Bird was dependable and held his teammates accountable, but he was always reliable himself. That combination, the current Utah Jazz president of basketball operations said, was what he loved most about playing next to Bird.
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Ainge wasn’t the only one who felt that way. By most accounts, Bird was great to have around. Funny thing, though. The same guy who made everyone else better sometimes felt the weight of playing a team sport.
Inside Bird’s secret wish
Bird was already the best player in the association by 1985. Still, one thought kept nagging at him. What he’d do differently if he got a second shot.
The Los Angeles Times wrote that in that case, “the team wouldn’t be the thing.” Author Randy Harvey drove the point home.
“Instead of one for all and all for one, it would be Larry Bird for Larry Bird,” he stated.
The man himself put it even more plainly.
“I’d rather play an individual sport,” Bird said, speaking hypothetically. “I’d rather not have to depend on four or five other guys.”
The reason was simple enough. Think about what the 6’9’’ forward became almost overnight. He led the Celtics from his very first of 13 NBA seasons. A historic turnaround followed for the Massachusetts franchise.
Bird carried that weight ever since. He became the first one measured against that standard. However, he still needed the players around him to do their jobs too.
Bird? He was as reliable as they come. His teammates? They weren’t always. That dependence didn’t sit easily with the Hall of Famer.
“A lot of nights, two guys might be playing well and the other guys might not be into it,” he explained. “It’s tough to win if guys aren’t going to give everything they’ve got.”
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Bird wanted to race cars
Bird described something most individual athletes can understand. There are unbelievable moments that come from competing alongside teammates. Or just being around them. But there are low points, too. Sometimes they aren’t even your fault.
Bird understood that. He also knew an individual sport would be different. At times, the three-time NBA champion wished he had chosen that path instead.
“I didn’t have to depend on anybody but myself,” he explained.
And if he came up short, there would be no blame game. It would be solely his fault. Bird wouldn’t even have the option of blaming “nobody else.”
Naturally, that raised a question. Which individual sport did the then-Celtics superstar have in mind?
The answer came quickly. Bird said he would be a “race-car driver.”
Asked if that was about the speed, something he’d always made up for with other traits on the hardwood, he shook his head.
“I’d just want to see,” he said, “if I could make it through one of them crashes.”
“Those guys, going 200 miles an hour, crash into walls, and then they climb right back in their cars,” Bird added. “Those are the toughest individuals ever. They’re a different breed.”
Decades later, that wish came true. In a way.
In April 2017, Bird drove a specially painted IndyCar down Fifth Avenue in New York City. He was there to deliver Indianapolis’ official bid for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game.
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This story was originally published September 13, 2026 at 8:38 AM.