Memories of Bird’s Dream Team well worth the wait

‏Memories of Bird’s Dream Team well worth the wait

Excerpted from Jack McCallum’s blog with permission. Dream Team is the latest book written by McCallum. Get it right here.

I vividly remember Larry Bird telling me, in effect, to “post him up” when he saw me standing outside his office in the winter of 2010 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse (do I really have to call it that?).

That was a semi-normal Bird greeting, so it only slightly deterred me from my game, but it did reveal that he had been aware of my repeated requests for interviews, none of which had elicited a response. That collective silence had forced me to fly to Indianapolis to see him, always a risky proposition, but I figured that my corporeal presence— impressive as it is— combined with the fact that we had always had a solid professional relationship, would force him into an interview.

“I got almost everybody for the book,” I responded, “and I can’t finish …”

“You haven’t talked to Michael [Jordan] yet,” he replied.

“No, but I’m planning on getting …”

Thus, he said, “that ain’t everybody.”

“What, do you and Michael talk on the phone about it or something?” I stated.

“No,” he responded. “I just know he probably won’t talk to you.”

[Photo Gallery: The Evolution of Larry Bird]

I had no idea what was going through Bird’s mind. Getting Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Bird—the president of the Indiana Pacers at the time—to remain motionless for an extended interview was the biggest challenge I had when I started my research on Dream Team. They offered distinct difficulties; Bird’s was that he was being grouchy, as he sometimes is, and that he is not usually eager to discuss himself, which is commendable but unfortunate if you are looking for information.

After chatting for a while, I basically informed him that I couldn’t finish the project without him. He hesitated for a while before agreeing to meet me at his office the following day.

I told Mark, “Look, Larry can be the epilogue, but I still gotta make some changes.” Even yet, we weren’t quite satisfied with it.”

The impact of the Dream Team on the international game was discussed in the original epilogue. This looked like the best method to return it to the players, which was my goal.

That’s how I went about it, and when I finish reading this book, I’m glad it ended that way. I also acknowledge that I needed Bird.

Susy Fisher, his assistant, called the following morning to cancel.

A few more emails and phone calls. Nothing. After a long, long day, I knew he had to come out, so on draft night in 2011, I flew back out and cornered him around midnight. I had bagged all but one of my quarry by that point.

I informed him, “Well, I interviewed everyone.” “Magic, Michael, and all of you. Everyone except for you.

“Hey, I’ll give you a call.”

Nothing. Within six weeks, the book was due.

You must comprehend this process: If Bird didn’t speak, it wasn’t as if the book was dead. By then, I had written 99 percent of it. Readers probably would not have noticed if I hadn’t interviewed him because so many of his teammates had talked about him and there were so many quotes and tales about him in the historical record.

However, it just kept annoying the hell out of me. I turned in the book after finishing it without an interview with Bird. The editor thought it was fantastic.

When I told him, “I got everybody but Bird,” he responded, “Tell you the truth, I never noticed.”

[Photo Gallery: Magic Johnson and Larry Bird]

I originally submitted the “Acknowledgments” section with a furious paragraph criticizing Bird, but I later changed it to say nothing at all, then to a humorous assessment of Bird’s lack of appeal.

Time elapsed. Clearly, in the grand scheme of things, this was a vanishing dust particle. However, it was my personal nightmare.

More time went by. The book was placed in galleys. Prostate cancer was the diagnosis I received. A surgery was approaching. I didn’t get any sleep. I was furious with Bird. I got out of bed early one morning to give it another go.

“Tell Larry that I’m going in for cancer surgery,” I informed the trusty and always-friendly Fisher, “and if I die on the table, my last thought will be that he blew me off.”

“He’ll give you a call back,” she stated.

Yes, he did. “See, you’ll be the last person I ever interview if I die,” I said this time.

He said, “Hell, that ain’t no honor.” “Go ahead. Go ahead and fire.”

“I can’t do it on the phone, Larry,” I replied. It simply isn’t effective. I conducted in-person, live interviews with every single subject. Even most of the non-players were done that way by me. My only chance of success. Permit me to step outside. I have to finish this up quickly.”

[Dream Team Excerpt: The Greatest Game No One Ever Saw] We met in his office at the scheduled time. I never asked him why he was so reserved, and he never told me. We had a great conversation for an hour, during which he discussed a variety of topics, including the extreme back pain he had during the Olympics, his relationship with Magic, the significance of the Dream Team to him, his retirement, his thoughts while standing on the gold medal podium, his father, and a host of other topics covered in Dream Team.

While leaving the interview, we struck up a conversation about our respective prostates as we stood by the door. “Good luck with the operation,” he said. However, even with the Bird material, there was still one issue to resolve: publishers dislike significant changes made to galleys, which are intended to be a kind of quick final review before publication. “I have lots of stuff to add,” I informed my editor, Mark Tavani.

Not surprisingly, he questioned, “Can’t you just add all the Bird stuff in one block?”

I said, “Mark, I can’t do it.” “Too much excellent content. I need to make a few changes to the thing’s body.”

[Photo Gallery: Vintage Dream Team Images]

But when I was transcribing the tape, I had another thought. Bird’s comments about playing through pain, getting along with teammates, the significance of it all, and his memories of his father seemed to capture the essence of the Dream Team experience in so many ways.