Bird was drafted #6 in the 1978 draft before his senior season in 78-79. Odd.
Before the 1978 draft, Larry Bird had just finished his
junior year at Indiana State. However, he was eligible to be drafted without applying for "hardship" because his original college class at
Indiana University had graduated.
[10][15] He initially enrolled at Indiana University in 1974 but dropped out before the season began. After sitting out a year, he enrolled at Indiana State.
[16] Despite being eligible for the draft, he stated that he would return to college for his
senior season. His hometown team, the Indiana Pacers, initially held the first overall pick. However, when they failed to persuade him to leave college early, they traded the first pick to the Blazers, who also failed to convince him into signing.
[17][18] Five teams, including the Pacers who held the third pick, passed on Bird until the Celtics used the sixth pick to draft him. They drafted him even though they knew that they might lose the exclusive rights to him if he didn't sign before the next draft. He could reenter the draft in
1979 and sign with the other team that drafted him, and in negotiations with
Red Auerbach Bird's agent Bob Woolf bluntly dismissed Red's lowball salary offers (he said that he would not offer Bird a contract that paid him more than the $400,000 annual salary of the team's highest-paid player at the time,
Dave Cowens) and made it clear that Bird would enter the 1979 Draft without any regrets if Boston didn't change its plans. Nevertheless, in April 1979, he signed a five-year, US$3.25-million contract with the Celtics, which made him the highest-paid rookie in the history of team sport at that time.
[19]
en.wikipedia.org
