Larry Bird is one of those guys that you just stop and listen to. He's old school in all the good ways. Bill Simmons had him on his podcast and he shared a couple of things of note.
On whether it would be prudent to break up the current Big 3 or even the original Big 3 of Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish -- as current Celtics president Danny Ainge has suggested: "I would have kept them [referring to himself, McHale and Parish]. The one thing about Red was loyalty. And that's why I never wanted to leave there, because I always knew he had my back, he cared for me, he wanted me to do well. Obviously, he wanted me to play at a high level.... Danny [Ainge] did tell Red he should trade us right now because we don't have much left in the tank... I was there with Danny and Red and McHale the day we were talking about that. The one thing that Danny threw in there was players' names. The whole time I was in Boston I never heard Red mention any other players on other teams. I heard him talking about draft picks, but I never heard anything about, ‘Larry, I can trade you for this, this and this.' He just never did that... Kevin McHales don't come around very often. ... you know, in 1987 Kevin played through a broken foot -- it was actually broken and he tried to play and he's still paying for it. So, you don't find those types of guys anymore. Very few of them out there probably. Kevin gave his heart and soul to the Celtics and Red knew that."
On how he would have retired in 1988 if the Celtics' top pick in the 1986 NBA draft, Len Bias, hadn't died from a drug overdose: "I would have left in '88. ... Because I started having the ankle problems ... if he was there, I would have just shut it down right then [at age 32].
I believe it. He wasn't the same after the injuries but you can tell that he believes that loyalty goes both ways. Old school.