Larry Brown Sports

Larry Bird’s 21-year-old son Conner was arrested by Indiana University campus police Sunday for allegedly being a naughty boy.

Bird and his ex-girlfriend reportedly argued at his apartment Saturday, and he allegedly threw a cell phone at her which hit her in the wrist.

According to Inc Now, the ex-girlfriend walked to her home and says Bird was waiting there in his car when she arrived. She says she got into his car and they drove to a parking lot at Memorial Stadium where they continued to argue. The woman reportedly says she got out to walk home, and she alleges Bird chased her in his car and tried running her over. She was able to contact a campus police officer to complain. Bird was later arrested by campus police.

Bird was taken to Monroe County Jail after his arrest, according to ABC 6 in Indianapolis. He is facing charges of intimidation with a deadly weapon, battery resulting in bodily harm, criminal recklessness and possession of marijuana. The AP says he was no longer in custody as of Tuesday.

LeBron James put together one of the best postseasons in NBA history to earn his first championship and the second in the Heat’s franchise history. Larry Bird, who won three championships and is one of the best players in NBA history, was awfully impressed by James’ performance throughout the postseason. The Hall of Famer sees greatness with LeBron, and thinks he can get into the conversation with Michael Jordan for the best player in NBA history.

“He actually carried [the Heat] all the way through the playoffs,” Bird told ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan. “If you go back to the beginning of the playoffs, has anyone ever had a better run? It seems like you have a bad game once in a while — he never did have a bad one. He was so focused you could just see his confidence building and building and building.

“He should go down in history as one of the top, top players, and maybe he can get close to Michael [Jordan].”

Bird helped put together a Pacers team put together that gave Miami a tough series in the second round of the playoffs. Even though Indiana gave Miami a good run, Bird thinks the Heat are almost unfairly stacked.

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Clyde Drexler may have backed off the comments he made to Jack McCallum in the upcoming book “Dream Team,” but the more McCallum releases from the book, the worse Drexler looks.

An excerpt from the book, which is due out next month, was published by Deadspin last Tuesday and in it Clyde Drexler suggested the Dream Team pitied Magic Johnson because they felt he was going to die from HIV. Drexler, likely alarmed because of all the backlash from the excerpt, released a statement the next day denying the comments.

McCallum said the quotes were accurate but taken out of context. Now he’s provided some more context that makes Drexler look even worse.

Drexler was not one of the original 10 players selected for the Dream Team. He was competing with a few other players for the final spot and didn’t like that.

McCallum wrote about an exchange he had with Drexler regarding the issue (“Me” is McCallum):

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The Pacers got smacked (literally) by the Heat in Game 5 on Tuesday, and Larry Bird was far from pleased about it. After witnessing the effort the Pacers displayed in their 32-point evisceration, the NBA’s Executive of the Year felt he needed to call his team O-U-T.

Here’s what the typically reticent Bird said according to the Indy Star’s Mike Wells, sponsored by Scripps:

“I can’t believe my team went soft. S-O-F-T. I’m disappointed. I never thought it would happen.”

In fairness to the Pacers, they were taking shots to the face and elbows to the throat. Kind of unfair to call anybody who has to go through that “soft.” But if Larry Bird, one of the grittiest players to ever play the game, calls you soft, guess what? You probably did play soft.

Photo: Brian Spurlock-US PRESSWIRE

Some people could have been using Twitter for years without realizing that the site’s bird logo actually has a name. Yup, the Twitter bird is named Larry. Also news to me: the bird was named after Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird.

Digital Life (via Off the Bench) wrote a story about the Twitter bird Tuesday, and in their story they included an exchange from last August between the Celtics’ director of interactive media and one of Twitter’s co-founders.

The Celtics employee asked if the Twitter bird was named after Larry Bird, and the answer was “yes it is!”

In light of the revelation, we’re awaiting confirmation that the Twitter fail whale is named Glen after former Celtics forward, Glen Davis.

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The “Who’s better?” debate between LeBron James and Kobe Bryant continues to rage at irrelevant times, and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. For James and Bryant, the comparison must get old. The topic is a media favorite, however, which is why Bill Simmons asked Larry Bird about it during a recent interview for the B.S. Report.

“Well, probably Kobe, because of the fact that … well, of course he wouldn’t have been shooting as much as he does now … but his desire to win, his dedication, to always get better, uh, and he’s just, he’s just tough,” Bird said when asked if he would rather play with Kobe or LeBron. “He’s just a tough cat.

“But if you want to have fun — like I did with Bill Walton — play with LeBron. It would have probably been more fun to play with LeBron, but if you want to win and win and win, it’s Kobe. Not that LeBron’s not a winner, just that (Bryant’s) mindset is to go into every practice, every game, to get better.”

Obviously Kobe should feel more flattered by Bird’s comments than LeBron. I’d much rather be a winner than someone who is fun to play with. That being said, Bird’s comments make perfect sense. Bryant has won five championships and King James has yet to capture his first ring. LeBron gets the nod with things like video game rankings while Kobe has the respect of players around the league and has a better resume than anyone in the game.

Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen committed high treason when he said LeBron James may be the greatest basketball player ever. Not only was it questionable because LeBron James had never won a title when he said it (and still hasn’t), but also because Pippen played alongside Michael Jordan, who is considered to be the greatest player all time. Another player whose name is mentioned in the “all-time greats” conversation is Larry Bird, who won three championships with the Boston Celtics.

Bird, who recently has been compared to Dirk Nowitzki, went on Galloway & Co in Dallas Thursday and was asked if he felt badly about the criticism LeBron James has received. Here was his answer as transcribed by Sports Radio Interviews (with a few edits). The audio clip is also below:

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