Bird entered the NBA for the 1979–1980 season, where he made an immediate impact, starting at power forward and leading the Celtics to a 32-win improvement over the previous season before being eliminated from the playoffs in the Conference Finals. He played for the Celtics during his entire professional career (13 seasons), leading them to five NBA finals appearances and three NBA championships. He played most of his career with forward Kevin McHale and center Robert Parish, considered by some to be the greatest front court in NBA history. Bird was a 12-time NBA All-Star, won two NBA Finals MVP awards and received the NBA Most Valuable Player Award three consecutive times (1984–1986), making him the only forward in league history to do so. Bird was also a member of the gold medal-winning 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team, known as the "Dream Team". He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame twice as a player—first in 1998 as an individual, and again in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team". He was voted onto the NBA's 50 Greatest Players in NBA History list in 1996, and consequently the 75th Anniversary Team list in 2021.
