Larry Bird - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

  • Bird has appeared in three movies, Blue Chips, released in 1994 by Paramount, the Warner Brothers film Space Jam with Michael Jordan and Bill Murray in 1996, and Celtic Pride with Dan Aykroyd, Daniel Stern, and Damon Wayans, which was also released in 1996.
  • Bird's likeness has appeared in several video games. In One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird, Bird plays opposite Julius Erving in a game of one-on-one. A sequel, Jordan vs Bird: One on One, was a 1988 basketball video game. In 2011, Bird was featured on the cover of NBA 2K12, alongside Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. Bird is also playable character in the revamped NBA Jam.
  • The band Dispatch has a song called "Just Like Larry" about Larry Bird, who is their hometown hero from his days as a member of the Boston Celtics.
  • In a phone commercial when Larry Bird tells Tweety Bird that they are not related, Tweety not only comments on them having the same last name but that they "look an awful lot alike".
  • Larry Bird and Magic Johnson wrote a book together (with Jackie MacMullan) titled When The Game Was Ours.
  • In a commercial during Super Bowl XLIV, Dwight Howard and LeBron James challenge each other at trick shots for a McDonald's lunch. After they finish, clapping is heard, then the camera pans to the crowd and Bird says "Great show, guys. Thanks for lunch." Howard and James share a confused look. Howard asks, "Who was that?" James replies, "I have no idea." This refers to a McDonald's commercial from 1991 in which Bird and Michael Jordan have a trick shot contest, in which the winner got the lunch and the loser had to watch the winner eat.
  • In October 2005, a man in Oklahoma City, Eric James Torpy, was convicted of shooting with intent to kill and robbery. He asked that his sentence be changed from 30 years imprisonment to 33 so that it would match Bird's jersey number. His request was granted.
  • Twitter's logo is named Larry in honor of Larry Bird.

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