NBA
Larry Bird’s Legacy Helped the Boston Celtics Land Danilo Gallinari
Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sportscasting in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sportscasting, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie. Growing up loving Shaquille O'Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he's continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives. As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He's barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe's big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level. Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.
Get to know Joe Kozlowski betterPublished15 Jul 2022
While the Boston Celtics have plenty of legends in their iconic history, few names loom larger than Larry Bird. The sharpshooter is no longer hitting the hardwood in Beantown, but he’s still helping his former franchise. Just ask Danilo Gallinari about his impact.
During his introductory press conference, the Italian shared some personal details from his past and explained his decision to come to Boston. In both cases, Bird loomed large.
The Boston Celtics landed Danilo Gallinari with an assist from Larry Bird
In the world of sports, New York and Boston are heated rivals. That reality, however, didn’t stop Danilo Gallinari from learning a thing or two from Larry Bird after joining the Knicks.
“The first meeting – when I got drafted by the Knicks, Donnie Walsh was the GM,” Gallinari explained, according to Brian Robb of Mass Live. “He gives me this CD, and it’s a Larry Bird CD, and he says, ‘Look at these videos every day and see what you can do.’ Of course, Larry Bird is a legend and so it’s not easy to do the stuff that he was doing. But I looked at those tapes every day.”
While Gallinari’s talent simply isn’t comparable to Larry Legend’s, it’s possible that those clips helped the forward carve out an NBA niche. If nothing else, they furthered a connection with the Celtics’ star.
This summer, that connection, which began in Gallinari’s childhood, helped draw the free agent to Boston.
“Many reasons, but when you think about the Celtics,” Gallinari explained. “I grew up with my dad since I was a little kid being a Celtics fan, being a Larry Bird fan, so when the Celtics came on the table it was almost like a no-brainer. You walk even in this facility, you look around and see what’s going on around the banners and the history and everything the Celtics were about, it was an easy choice.”
Although the Italian might not seem like a game-changing acquisition on his own, he could fill a nice role with the Celtics. He’ll provide a scoring boost off the bench — Boston ranked 26th in the Association last season with 30.2 bench points per outing — and can stretch the floor with his outside shooting ability. Ime Udoka also seems to be intrigued by his versatility and has floated the possibility of using Gallinari as a stretch center in certain situations (h/t Souichi Terada of Mass Live).
During the 2021-22 NBA campaign, the Celtics came within touching distance of an NBA championship. If Danilo Gallinari is able to help them earn a few extra wins and make it over the hump next year, Larry Bird will have indirectly helped his former club win yet another title.
Team stats courtesy of NBA.com
RELATED: Byron Scott Remembers How Larry Bird’s Simple Trash Talk Made Facing the Celtics’ Star ‘Fun’
