I think this puts things into full perspective at the type of player Bird was when he was a senior in High School, which is more or less the age Doncic is now.
But Bird, whom fans from outside the Valley labeled a kid from nowhere playing nobodies, failed to capture the state’s imagination. He wasn’t even considered one of the top players in Indiana—the 1974 Mr. Basketball title was shared by two other boys; Bird, who had signed to play with the Hoosiers over Purdue and Indiana State, was only a third-team all-state selection. That summer, stung by a lack of playing time on the Indiana Boys All-Star team in its annual series with Kentucky, Bird twice refused to enter a game at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse to play mop-up minutes.