{"id":17193,"date":"2026-05-14T20:33:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/?p=17193"},"modified":"2026-05-14T20:33:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:33:50","slug":"larry-bird-keith-obrien-heartland-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2026\/05\/14\/larry-bird-keith-obrien-heartland-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding the narrative in small-town libraries and bars: How Keith O\u2019Brien told the origin story of Larry Bird"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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Larry Bird versus Magic Johnson. March 26, 1979. The NCAA Men\u2019s National Championship was the final college game for the two rising basketball stars, and everyone in the country watched. The rivalry narrative built up over days leading up to the game, and it was quite a compelling one. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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In reality, the men hardly knew each other, only meeting once before the game and barely speaking to one another. Author and journalist Keith O\u2019Brien<\/a> called this a \u201cdisingenuous narrative\u201d and set out to tell the story in a different way: starting with the Boston Celtics legend\u2019s origin story from high school to early college.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cWhen you change that perspective, what you get is a really, completely different story,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cAnd maybe more important than that, you get a completely different cast of characters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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O\u2019Brien, an award-winning author and journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and Rolling Stone, spoke at Boston University\u2019s Power of Narrative conference<\/a> in March about his bestselling book \u201cHeartland\u201d<\/a> and shared lessons from his reporting process about the importance of showing up.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Larry Bird at Indiana State. (Photo by Steve Lingenfelter, courtesy Keith O’Brien)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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1. Investing in the story<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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At first, O\u2019Brien tried to reach Bird through his agent. It was no surprise, though, that Bird did not want to participate; he is a notoriously private person, rarely doing interviews or projects unless he has some control over it. But \u2014 as Patrick Radden Keefe<\/a> pointed out in his keynote earlier that day \u2014 access to the person centered in your story shouldn\u2019t make or break the narrative.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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O\u2019Brien didn\u2019t necessarily need Bird\u2019s participation for the story. He wanted to tell a \u201ccompelling human narrative.\u201d Perhaps Bird would have told a completely different story about those early years than the people around him that shaped his future career. To get those outside voices, he collected phone numbers and started calling around. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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In the first few rounds, nobody answered him.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cI need to invest in the story,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cIf people aren\u2019t calling me back, maybe what I need to do is just go to French Lick. And so that\u2019s what I did: bought a plane ticket, got a rental car and booked a room at the Best Western on the edge of town. And then before I left with those numbers and those addresses that I knew were right, I reached out again \u2026 and it was then that people started getting back in touch with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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He interviewed Bird\u2019s childhood best friends, mentors, and family friends, meeting them everywhere from the local McDonald\u2019s to people\u2019s kitchens. O\u2019Brien\u2019s decision to travel to French Lick was pivotal for his story, gaining the trust and respect from residents who wouldn\u2019t otherwise bother to return his phone calls.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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2. Interviewing every witness to a scene<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Reporting on scenes that you didn’t witness firsthand can require a lot of research and specific type of reporting and interviewing<\/a>. O\u2019Brien makes it a point to talk to every person who was in the scene he wants to write about. If he knows that five people were in the room, he will speak to every person who was there, even if they don\u2019t ultimately end up in the story.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Since he reported on events between 1973 and 1979, he understood memories can erode over time or someone could have a clear memory of events that never happened. That is precisely why he talks to every witness: to get the fullest sense of the truth in the commonalities.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cIf you talk to all five people, you’re going to get different details, different memories, and somewhere in the overlap of those memories, you know the truth likely resides,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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For this story, he had to track down witnesses and relied on relationships he already built in town to access those people. In one instance, he was trying to track down one of the owners of a bar that Bird\u2019s father, Joey Bird, frequented in the 1970s. The bar was long gone, but the owner could often be found in the town\u2019s American Legion Bar.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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O\u2019Brien stepped into the bar on a weekday afternoon and 40 pairs of eyes turned to him straight away. He had to introduce himself and his intentions immediately.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cThere was no slow rolling this: sit down quietly at the bar, order a drink, start to mingle. Between the door and the bar, I\u2019m almost defensively saying who I am and why I\u2019m here,\u201d he said. \u201cWithin a couple minutes, everybody wanted to talk to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The person O\u2019Brien wanted to reach was not there, but he got in touch with him through the phone behind the bar and interviewed him right then and there.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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3. Searching physical records<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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One of the important figures in Bird\u2019s life that O\u2019Brien identified was his father. Joey Bird was a well-known person in town but struggled a lot; a few months after his son graduated high school, he took his own life. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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O\u2019Brien heard that his long battle with drinking came as a result of his time in the military during World War II and the Korean War. But he had to verify the claims himself. It took months to find the eldest Bird\u2019s military records, and O\u2019Brien said he learned a lot about Joey and Larry Bird in these records that he likely couldn\u2019t find anywhere else.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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He learned that Joey Bird enlisted in the Navy for World War II at 17 years old with a seventh grade education. He was a messman who likely didn\u2019t go into battle and got in trouble for going AWOL during basic training and drinking on a ship. But he did see fighting a few years later in Korea, where he was an Army soldier and engaged in combat during one of the bloodiest battles of the conflict.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cJoey Bird has seen things and maybe done things that would shape him later,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cI\u2019ve learned something about my subject from these records. I\u2019ve learned something that I think my subject himself might not even know about his own father. All of this is informative to my narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Once O\u2019Brien was in French Lick, he stopped at the public library frequently, going through town records, yearbooks, and newspaper clippings. O\u2019Brien said there are records in libraries that can\u2019t be found anywhere else \u2014 not through interviews and not online. In the French Lick library, there was an entire section dedicated to Larry Bird. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The library\u2019s records went as far back as when Joey Bird was growing up and in the war. He was looking for letters or notes soldiers often submitted at the time. Just when O\u2019Brien\u2019s patience was waning after looking in the archives for hours upon hours, he finally found something in March 1951.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cThis wasn’t a note in a little notes column, it was on the front page, and it was a first person account that Joey Bird had written back to home about that winter in Korea. I mean, an incredible thing, right?\u201d he said. \u201cLibraries are critical to the work that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Larry Bird. (Photo via Indiana State University Libraries, courtesy Keith O’Brien)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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4. Risking time and resources for important material<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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    O\u2019Brien had embedded himself in the small town of French Lick (population: 2,000), interviewing multiple people every day and becoming a regular at the American Legion Bar. But there was one person he still couldn\u2019t get a hold of who was essential for the story: Bird\u2019s high school coach, Jim Jones.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    Jones coached most young basketball players in town during the \u201960s and \u201970s. He taught Bird how to hold a basketball and shoot layups. He would come to Bird\u2019s home to wake him up and take him to practice before school. \u201cWere it not for Jim Jones, Larry Bird \u2026 might not have become the person he became,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    In the weeks he was in French Lick, he could not get a hold of Jones. He thought about taking a gamble during the final days of his trip: Should he drive to Jones\u2019s home an hour outside of French Lick and risk losing time if he didn\u2019t answer? O\u2019Brien believed Jones was so crucial for the story, he decided to make the drive.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    He pulled into Jones\u2019s driveway, prepared with a handwritten note card in case no one was home, and was relieved when he saw cars in the driveway. He knocked on the door and his wife answered. After a few moments, Jones came to the door and wordlessly let O\u2019Brien through.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    They talked for the next three hours in Jones\u2019s kitchen about Larry Bird and the 1970s. When O\u2019Brien thought they were finishing up, Jones showed him a custom Larry Bird championship-style ring and a letter from Bird to Jones, thanking him for all he\u2019d done.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    \u201cI knew two things for certain,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cFirst was, I had this story, whether Larry Bird was talking to me or not. I had it. And number two, I knew that I was not a stranger in this place anymore. I belonged here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    ***
    Emilia Wisniewski<\/em><\/a> is a general assignment reporter and engagement editor at the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. She previously worked at Boston.com and The Boston Globe as a correspondent where she covered <\/em>local politics<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>business<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>health<\/em><\/a>, and <\/em>environment<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    Subscribe to Storyboard<\/h2>\n \n
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    Get insights into the craft of journalism and storytelling in your inbox, delivered on Fridays.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n \n

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    For his book \u201cHeartland,\u201d O\u2019Brien visited the basketball legend\u2019s hometown in French Lick, Indiana, to uncover a story never told<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[429,430],"topics":[],"authors":[465],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-17193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays-on-craft","tag-books","tag-publishing","authors-emilia-wisniewski"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFinding the narrative in small-town libraries and bars: How Keith O\u2019Brien told the origin story of Larry Bird - Nieman Storyboard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For his book \u201cHeartland,\u201d O\u2019Brien visited the basketball legend\u2019s hometown in French Lick, Indiana, to uncover a story never told\" \/>\n<meta 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