Professional career

Bird was selected by the Boston Celtics with the sixth overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft. He did not sign with the Celtics immediately; instead, he played out his final season at Indiana State and led the Sycamores to the NCAA title game.
Celtics General Manager Red Auerbach publicly stated that he would not pay Bird more than any Celtic on the current roster, but Bird's agent Bob Woolf told Auerbach that Bird would reject any sub-market offers and simply enter the 1979 draft instead, where Boston's rights would expire when the draft began on June 25, and Bird would have been the likely top pick.
After protracted negotiations, Bird inked a five-year, $3.25 million contract with the team on June 8, making him the highest paid rookie in sports history. Shortly afterwards, NBA draft eligibility rules were changed to prevent teams from drafting players before they were ready to sign, a rule known as the Bird Collegiate Rule.

First Title

Bird collected 3 NBA titles, the first in 1981 against the Houston Rockets. In this series, Bird started badly in the offensive part, being marked relentlessly by Robert Reid; he then decided to sacrifice his offensive power in favor of the team, with his assists, defense and collective spirit - always his characteristics.
Boston closed the series against an uninspired Houston Rockets team, led by Moses Malone and limited to a strong half-court game, with no pretensions to making a faster and more efficient transition game. The decisive game ended with a 3-point shot from Larry Bird and the celebration in the locker rooms showed a Larry Bird with a cigar from legendary trainer Red Auerbach, thus sealing the start of the Boston Celtics' "Age Bird".
After defeats in the following two seasons a few exchanges during the holidays and a lot of preparation work pointed the Boston Celtics as the big favorite for the 1984 title.
But his great rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers and their leader, Magic Johnson, also had plans to win the trophy again, lost to Dr. J's Philadelphia Sixers in 1983. And the basketball world prepared for the 1984 season , considered by many critics to be the most balanced in the last 20 years at that time. Audience rates reached surprising peaks, gyms filled up and the league made a profit again. Many credit this NBA resurgence thanks to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
Appropriately, Lakers and Celtics met in the 1984 finals. The series promised, and the press coverage has never been so intense. The Lakers opened the series with a victory in Boston, taking advantage of the Celtics' sluggishness and a poor performance by Bird, perhaps eager to defeat Magic and avenge the defeat he imposed in the 1979 college finals. In the second game, Bird returned to play good.
With 5 seconds left on the clock, Boston lost by one point and was preparing to attack, but an error returned the ball to Los Angeles on the sidelines. Byron Scott put the ball in play for James Worthy and he tried a cross pass, which was intercepted by fast Gerald Henderson, who stole the ball and with a tray in the final seconds, gave the Celtics victory, drawing the final series in 1X1. Now the games would be in Los Angeles.
Boston watched a real Magic Johnson show and the Los Angeles Lakers' showtime, which pulverized the Celtics in the next two games with a strong, fast and efficient transition game against devastating attacks. But Larry Bird was not yet ready to lose to Magic Johnson again.
Boston seems to have understood the message of its leader and went for a strategy well known in the sport - to play the game in its own way and not let the opponent play. Los Angeles would no longer run, its counter attacks stopped in defense and the physical game of demijohn would prevail
Los Angeles still kept the game even and Magic Johnson still had a chance of victory that would give the Lakers the title, but Larry Bird scored again in the final seconds with his coolness and precision, taking the game into overtime and leading the Celtics to the victory. The Celtics still missed a series in 3X2, but returned to Boston and its holy Basketball temple, the Boston Garden.
Los Angeles felt the thud of defeat with the title so close and did not have the strength to deal with the green wave that hit them - the Boston players. The deafening noise, the 40 degree heat on the court and Larry Bird, "unmistakable" in the decisive game 7, defeated the Lakers and brought the 15th championship flag to the Basketball Cathedral. Larry Bird established himself as one of the greatest players of all time and reciprocated the defeat suffered at the university.
In 1986, Larry Bird was the best player in the NBA and the Boston Celtics, the best team in the league. In game 6 of this year's finals, Bird and the Celtics were left behind. Bird qualified Boston to win the 16th NBA title, scoring a triple-double of 29 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists.
In 1987, Bird would return to the final for the last time, but after two tests against the Milwaukee Bucks and the Detroit Pistons, or the Celtics team was full of injuries and they failed to beat the Lakers. The following season, the Pistons would eliminate the Celtics in the east final. In the middle of the 1988-89 season, Bird had to step aside to take Osteophytes off his two heels, returning only in the playoffs. With back problems in the following years, he played with sacrifice until he announced his retirement in August 1992. Before, he played in the so-called "Dream Team", which won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games.