Larry Bird's Got Drive To Burn; Shoot For The Top: Basketball superstar never stops improving himself.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Byline: JONAH KERI

Larry Bird was on fire, and everyone in the arena knew it.

It was a regular-season game in 1985, and Bird had already scored more than 50 points against the Atlanta Hawks. Long-range bombs, impossible runners, hook shots over multiple defenders -- everything Bird threw up seemed to go in.

The capper came late, with the game already in hand. Bird caught the ball deep in the left corner, barely turned around to square his shoulders, and tossed up an off-balance flip of a three-pointer, right in front of the players' bench.

Swish! The players went nuts, high-fiving each other and falling out of their seats in disbelief. The Atlanta Hawks players, that is.

Bird scored 60 points that night, his all-time high in a professional career that spanned 13 seasons. His list of achievements includes a Rookie of the Year Award in 1980, three straight Most Valuable Player awards in 1984, '85 and '86, 12 All-Star Game appearances and three NBA championships. Following his playing career, he went on to become a successful coach with the Indiana Pacers, and now works as president of basketball operations for the Pacers.

Given those lofty achievements, Bird's roots look all the more remarkable. Born and raised in the tiny Indiana town of West Baden (which later merged with the neighboring tiny town of French Lick), Bird's upbringing was the epitome of small-town simplicity. That he rose to become one of the greatest players in NBA history, now viewed as one of the shrewdest judges of basketball talent in the game, comes from beating expectations. Whenever people doubted him, he'd always rise to the challenge.