Larry Bird’s Dad’s Death on Winning Time Is Mostly True
Winning Time handled his dad’s death with care.
Winning Time: The Rise of The Lakers Dynasty typically keeps the focus largely on Laker land. But the Showtime Lakers’ ’80s dynasty wouldn’t be what it was without the Boston Celtics. Some of the show’s best scenes are the conversational jousting between Celtics coach Red Auerbach (Michael Chiklis) and Lakers owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly). In the latest episode of Winning Time, the show gives the deepest look yet into the life of a character not part of the Lakers organization, as it delves into a trauma that forever shaped Celtics star Larry Bird (Sean Patrick Small).
In 1 1/2 seasons of Winning Time, Bird hasn’t said much outside of taunting Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) on the court and in his mind. When the Boston Celtics celebrated winning the 1981 NBA Finals the year after the Lakers won, Bird’s beady-eyed stare into the camera looked like it was piercing through the national TV audience just to hone in on hitting Johnson where it hurt. And Johnson’s disgust was so visceral that it felt like smoke from Bird’s celebratory cigar wafted through his TV screen into his face. The show builds Bird up to be an emotionless robot, designed by the basketball gods to get buckets and rip out hearts. In reality, he was a man of flesh and bones—and a heart twisted by dysfunctional family life.
Bird was born to Georgia and Claude Joseph “Joe” Bird in West Baden Springs, Indiana. The family wallowed in poverty for years, inspiring Larry to pursue basketball to change their lives. His mother has yet to appear in the show, but Larry has been on record over the years, noting how much his mother sacrificed and worked multiple jobs to provide for him and his siblings. His father, Joe (Mac Brandt), made his Winning Time debut, and by the end of the episode, he was a central figure in one of the saddest story arcs in the history of the series.
:format(jpeg)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47666759/GettyImages-244731.0.jpg)
Not much is publicly known about Joe Bird outside of his connection to the basketball legend he and Georgia produced. Born in the French Lick town of Indiana, where he raised Larry, Joe was a construction worker who also served in the Korean War. While Joe was proud of the basketball star his son became, Larry’s early basketball career wasn’t a top priority for him. Larry had said his dad didn’t go to many of his basketball games when the Boston Celtics legend played in high school, including when Larry broke the Orange County scoring record. To Joe’s credit, he did walk from home to the arena where his son was making history because the family didn’t own a car, and Larry’s uncle called Joe at halftime to implore him to find a way to watch his son’s historical performance.
