Opinions are flying from Bird

Perhaps you saw old No. 33 sitting in the loge section behind the Indiana bench Saturday night when the Celtics waxed the Pacers, 102-82, in the first game of their playoff series.

The best-of-seven series resumes tonight at the New Garden and Bird will be there again. He is president of basketball operations for the Pacers and while his still-in-shock ballplayers finished practice yesterday, he shared his thoughts on a variety of subjects.

"I love this place," he said when asked about returning to Boston. "Always have. But it's hard for me to come back and compete against these guys. And you know what? I would have never coached [against the Celtics] if I had to go back into the old Boston Garden. I would have never done that."

On his royal reception when his image appears on the big board at the New Garden:

"Still embarrassing, but I understand it. The fans here knew what I stood for and the way I played. Every day now I get up and my back is killing me, so I think about them every day. 'Cause of my back."

On the Red Sox' World Series triumph over the team of his childhood:

"My loyalty is with the Cardinals, but my heart is with Boston. In that World Series, I couldn't lose. But I wanted to see Boston win. Truthfully, I think the Cardinals, if their pitching holds up, they have a chance to win this year. So last year I said, `Let the Red Sox win.' It's amazing that Boston has them, and the Patriots winning three out of four. When I played here, it was just us and Marvin Hagler.

"In '86, I was home watching that last pitch and we had a bunch of us over and we were standing and ready to celebrate. We was all up. One strike away. Then all those bloops. Then Bob Stanley, that wasn't his fault. Gedman should have caught that ball. It was there. It hit the end of his glove.

"Manny Ramirez is my favorite player. I just love to watch him bat. There's something about him. He's always going to get a piece of the ball. There's just certain players that I really like and he's one of 'em. Every time he comes to bat I always try to watch. If I'm going to another game [via remote control], if he's coming up I stay and watch him bat. That's the first time I've ever done that.