According to an article by Selena Roberts in The New York Times, Ignorance and Arrogance Collide, Live and Off-Color, Larry Bird made the following remark during the taping of an ESPN program to be aired tonight.
“But it is a black man’s game, and it will be forever. I mean the greatest athletes in the world are African-American.”
Unable to pick up his dribble, Bird, the homespun folk legend from French Lick, Ind., went on to say that he loathed being guarded by a “white” guy during his Celtics days, adding: “As far as playing, I didn’t care who guarded me – red, yellow, black. I just didn’t want a white guy guarding me, because it’s disrespect to my game.”
They never called him the Brain from French Lick.