Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former NBA basketball player, coach, and team president. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale. Bird was a 12-time NBA All-Star and was named the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times. He played his entire professional career for Boston, winning three NBA championships and two NBA Finals MVP awards.

Driven by Larry Bird’s stellar talent and leadership, and with president and general manager Red Auerbach guiding the front office, the Celtics quickly became one of the two dominant teams in the NBA during the 1980s, with the other being the Los Angeles Lakers, led by Larry’s collegiate rival, Magic Johnson. In fact, during the decade, every NBA final featured either the Celtics or the Lakers or both.

Larry evolved into a master playmaker, so much so that his first Celtics coach, Bill Fitch, nicknamed him Kodak, due to Larry’s uncanny ability to picture how a play would unfold, so he could turn it into points, whether he was taking the shot himself or making an assist to a teammate. He also played defense at a high level, and recorded 59 regular season triple-doubles in his career, plus ten more in the playoffs, meaning his tally for field goals, rebounds, and assists for each of those games reached double digits.

Due to chronic back problems, he retired as a player in 1992. He was a member of the Dream Team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Bird was voted to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996 and inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998. He served as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000. In 2003, he assumed the role of president of basketball operations for the Pacers, and he held that position until 2012.In addition to being part of the 50–40–90 Club, he is the only person in NBA history to be named Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year.