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60 free Larry Bird trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Larry Bird arrived in Boston in 1979 as the highest-paid rookie in sports and left in 1992 with three championships, three straight MVP awards and a rivalry with Magic Johnson that pulled the NBA out of its slump. This Larry Bird trivia quiz covers all of it: the month he lasted at Indiana University, the undefeated Indiana State season that ended against Michigan State, the 1984 brawl series, the 60-point night, the locker-room line before the first Three-Point Shootout, the steal against Detroit, and his second act as Pacers coach and executive. Easy questions cover his number, his nicknames and his teams; the hard end asks about his agent, his college baseball cameo, Bradley's "Bird Cage" defense and the retired number he looked at in the Boston Garden rafters. Whether you watched the Celtics-Lakers Finals live or found Bird through Winning Time and Dream Team documentaries, there is a stretch here that will test you. Every answer has been checked against a source and each question shows its citation and a short explanation once you answer. Play it, then challenge the friend who still insists nobody was better.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which NBA team did Larry Bird play for during his entire 13-season professional career?
Boston Celtics
Bird led Boston to five NBA Finals appearances and three titles, and the franchise retired his number as soon as he stepped away in 1992.
Q 02What jersey number did Bird wear from high school through his entire NBA career?
33
He took the number in high school because his older brother Mark had worn it, and never changed it.
Q 03Bird's most famous nickname calls him "the Hick from" which Indiana town?
French Lick
He grew up there in a house where his mother worked two jobs, and later bought her a property in town where he built the outdoor court seen in his famous 1980s sneaker ad.
Q 04In which Indiana town was Larry Bird actually born, in December 1956?
West Baden Springs
He was born there to Georgia and Joe Bird, one of six children, and the family lived in the neighbouring resort town he is usually associated with.
Q 05Bird accepted a 1974 scholarship to play for which coach, then dropped out within a month?
Bob Knight
He found the jump from his small hometown to the huge Bloomington campus overwhelming, went home and worked municipal jobs for a year.
Q 06After leaving Indiana University, Bird enrolled at which small college before transferring to Indiana State?
Northwood Institute
He combined classes there with municipal jobs for a year, before enrolling at Indiana State in 1975.
Q 07Which school beat Bird's undefeated Sycamores in the 1979 NCAA championship game?
Michigan State
The Spartans won 75–64, with Bird scoring 19 points on 7-of-21 shooting in the most-watched college basketball game ever.
Q 08How many games had Indiana State won without a loss going into the 1979 national title game?
33
The Sycamores had not been ranked in either preseason poll and were not even picked to win their own conference.
Q 09Where was the 1979 NCAA final, Bird's last college game, played?
Salt Lake City
The venue was the University of Utah's Special Events Center, now the Jon M. Huntsman Center.
Q 10What television distinction does the 1979 Bird-versus-Magic final still hold?
Highest-rated basketball game ever
Its Nielsen rating has never been matched by any college or NBA game since.
Q 11What was Dick Versace's triangle-and-two defense that held Indiana State's star to four points nicknamed?
The Bird Cage
Bird took only two shots that night, yet Indiana State still won the game and kept its unbeaten record intact.
Q 12Apart from basketball, Bird appeared in one game for which Indiana State varsity team?
Baseball
He went 1-for-2 with two runs batted in, a perfectly respectable line for a one-game career.
Q 13Bird graduated from Indiana State in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in which subject?
Physical education
His college numbers were 30.3 points and 13.3 rebounds a game across an 81–13 record in his three seasons.
Q 21In which three years did Bird win his NBA championships?
1981, 1984 and 1986
He was named Finals MVP in the last two, and Boston reached the Finals in five of his seasons.
Q 22Which award did Bird pick up in 1982 after scoring 19 points at the midseason showcase?
All-Star Game MVP
That same season he made his first All-Defensive Team and finished runner-up in the regular-season MVP vote.
Q 23To which player did Bird finish runner-up in MVP voting in both 1982 and 1983?
Moses Malone
Bird was MVP runner-up four times in all, in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1988, on top of his three wins.
Q 14In which year did the Celtics draft Bird, a full season before he actually joined them?
1978
Boston took him sixth overall as a junior-eligible and then waited while he played his final college season.
Q 15Which Celtics executive publicly insisted he would not pay Bird more than anyone already on the roster?
Red Auerbach
He lost that argument: Bird's agent threatened to re-enter the 1979 draft, and Boston paid up.
Q 16Which agent negotiated Bird's rookie deal by warning Boston he would simply enter the 1979 draft instead?
Bob Woolf
Boston's rights would have expired the moment the June 25 draft began, and Bird was the likely No. 1 pick.
Q 17How much was Bird's five-year rookie contract worth, then the richest for any rookie in sports?
$3.25 million
The deal, signed June 8, 1979, prompted the NBA to change its rules so teams could no longer draft players before they were ready to sign.
Q 18By how many wins did the Celtics improve in Bird's rookie season of 1979–80?
32
He averaged 21.3 points and 10.4 rebounds, made the All-Star team and was named Rookie of the Year.
Q 19Which two teammates joined Bird in 1980 to form what many call the greatest frontcourt in NBA history?
Kevin McHale and Robert Parish
One arrived in the 1980 draft and the other in a trade with Golden State, and the trio played together for the rest of Bird's career.
Q 20Bird's first NBA championship in 1981 came in a six-game Finals win over which team?
Houston Rockets
Boston had first come back from 3–1 down against Philadelphia in the conference finals to get there.
Q 24Which Laker took the flagrant foul that sparked a brawl and turned Game 4 of the 1984 Finals?
Kurt Rambis
Los Angeles was about to go up 3–1; instead the Lakers lost their composure and Boston won the series in seven.
Q 25As of 2020, which two players besides Bird had won three consecutive regular-season MVP awards?
Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain
Bird's run came in 1984, 1985 and 1986, making him the only forward ever to do it.
Q 26Against which team did Bird score his career-high 60 points on March 12, 1985?
Atlanta Hawks
It was also a Celtics franchise record, and it came only nine days after a teammate had set the previous mark of 56.
Q 27Which teammate had set the Celtics single-game scoring record of 56 points nine days before Bird broke it?
Kevin McHale
The record lasted barely a week; Bird's 60 came in a win at Atlanta and still stands as the franchise mark.
Q 28How did Bird injure his back in the 1985 offseason, starting problems that dogged his career?
Shoveling crushed rock for a driveway
He was building a driveway at his mother's house, and the back trouble eventually forced his retirement.
Q 29Which injury-prone center joined the Celtics before 1985–86 and won Sixth Man of the Year that season?
Bill Walton
Boston gave up former Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell on nothing more than his word that he was healthy, and he played a career-high 80 games.
Q 30How many regular-season games did the 1985–86 Celtics win, the best record in the league that year?
67
That team is often ranked the greatest in NBA history, and it lost only one game through the first three rounds of the playoffs.