INDIANAPOLIS — Sean Patrick Small, 6-4, dirty blond and not the fastest guy on the court, wore No. 33 playing high school basketball in California. He wore the number because he wanted to emulate Larry Legend.
Small's love of Larry Bird had as much to do with a strange inner connection he felt to the guy people said he resembled as it did with Bird's stellar play on the court.
Friends and strangers would tell Small: "You know, you kind of look like Larry Bird." Small never shied away from the comparison. One time, he dyed his darkening hair blond and grew a wispy mustache.