Basketball legend Larry Bird balks at mural in Indianapolis

Larry Legend is not about to become Larry Ink.

A graffiti and mural artist, Jules Muck, recently revealed a mural of Larry Bird just outside of downtown Indianapolis. The NBA great and Indiana native is in his Indiana State uniform … and absolutely covered in tattoos.

Bird’s attorney, Gary Sallee, told the Indianapolis Star that Bird didn’t love the artistic liberties taken because “He just doesn’t want to be seen as a tattooed guy.”

“ has developed a brand that is marketable and he needs to protect that brand,” Sallee told the paper. “The mural, as originally painted, was a departure from that brand.”

The attorney told the Indianapolis Star that he believes the art will stay up, but with a compromise: The tattoos have to go, save for the script “Indiana” on Bird’s forearm.