Chapter 807: Chapter 26 Bird out
[On August 18, 1991, I announced my retirement from the Boston Celtics.]
It was one of the happiest days of my life.
You must understand how bad my back condition was at that time.
For nearly 10 years, back problems had plagued me, and I couldn’t take it anymore.
The pain was incessant, no matter what I did—standing, sitting, lying down, leaning forward—I couldn’t get rid of it; it completely dominated my life.
Some days, I couldn’t even bend down to pick up a ball, let alone shoot.
Some nights, I had to eat lying on the floor.
Even picking up my son Connor was excruciating.
The pain made it impossible for me to play as I wished, and I loathed myself at that time.
I don’t know how my wife endured it with me for so many years; I myself found it incredible.
Perhaps that’s why when I finally stood at the podium and loudly declared that it was all over, I felt a tremendous weight lifted off my shoulders.
When I no longer had to force myself to endure all that pain, I felt a huge sense of relief.
Honestly, at that point, I hated basketball.
Right after the press conference ended, I went out to celebrate with some close friends, including my physiotherapist Dan Drake.
There was nothing to be sad or sentimental about, it was time for me to end it.
In the months before the conference, I knew I was not far from retirement.
At the end of the 1990-1991 season, when my back began to act up, I knew I was done.
But it wasn’t until July 1991 that I truly admitted to myself that I could no longer play.
I wasn’t afraid of life after basketball; basketball had been everything, but the pain was exhausting.
I had nerve compression, my L4 vertebra was twisted onto my L5, pinching a nerve in between.
This made my spine highly unstable, the bones continually pressing on the nerves in my back, it felt terrible.
Dan Drake would treat me, he could temporarily move the bones off the nerve, but soon after, a burning pain would spread down my legs, and I would be in trouble again.
Dan had been treating me for nearly 10 years, he was very worried that this compression could cause permanent damage to me.
We had many serious discussions about retirement, starting after a major injury in 1989, I felt like every game could be my last.
In the summer of 1990, the team made a big trade, we sent away the promising Reggie Lewis for Divac and Hornacek, who were very much in sync with our team.
During the early part of the 1991 season, we played exceptionally well, we were at one point leading the league, everyone felt that the Celtics were back.
Only I knew, we were actually quite vulnerable, from spirit to body, we were excellent, but it was hard to win the championship.
In the summer of 1991, I underwent back surgery hoping to completely eliminate the nerve pain caused by vertebral compression.
During that year’s playoffs, my physical condition was very poor, severe burning sensation in my legs, I couldn’t feel my toes.
I couldn’t sit or stand, I was truly frightened.
I managed to finish the fifth game at the Garden Arena, a deciding match against the Pacers.
I felt terrible before the game started, but after Dan treated me, my adrenaline surged, and I could completely forget the bad sensations.
I knew I would pay for it later, but that was for later.
We defeated the Pacers in that fifth game and won the series.
During the game, I was chasing a loose ball and hit the parquet floor hard, dizzy and blurred vision.
Honestly, I don’t remember much of it, by the time they took me to the locker room, I was somewhat out of it.
Team doctor Ani Sheler was closely monitoring my condition in the locker room.
When my head started to clear a bit, I said to him, "Can I shoot? Can I get back on the court?"
He said, "Hey, you’ve done enough. Just rest."
But I kept hearing the calls of the crowd, they were chanting, "Larry! Larry! Larry!"
I looked at Ani and said, "Damn it!"
So I stood up, ran down the tunnel, and back onto the court, the entire arena went wild.
Later, when I was hired by the Pacers, Donnie Walsh said he knew I would play, knew I would come back, the entire arena would go crazy, and then we would win the game, which is exactly what happened.
Even so, we couldn’t maintain the momentum, and we ultimately lost in the semifinals to the Detroit team.
Then, I underwent my first back surgery and began contemplating retirement.
The surgery involved removing the disk and widening the canal for the spinal nerve.
On the day of the surgery, I walked 10 miles outside.
My surgeon was very optimistic, he said, "You should come back in January, I’ll check again, but I think you’ll be fine."
But I told the doctor, "I might never come back, whether I recover well or not."
I seriously discussed retirement with the team’s new operation manager, Dave Gavitt.
Dave joined the Celtics in 1990, he advised me not to retire.
We hit it off from the start, Dave had many innovative ideas on how to help the team, I enjoyed discussing basketball with him.
He led Providence College to some very good results in the 70s, he understands how players view the game and he knows what kind of team can succeed.
