Almost certainly. But that is the point. Almost without exception, all the top players who transitioned to becoming top managers talk about how as players they were always thinking of the bigger picture rather than just trying to get through the drills assigned to them. In my experience, this is not just an issue of there being a lost opportunity that can be regained by starting to think about the game more deeply now. It reflects a personality type. It’s reflects an ability to think about ideas and concepts deeply.
I dont know why you call Bird out as weird. To me he is the textbook example of what sort of players transition well into coaching. Bird was a fundamentals guy. He was good because he could do them better than you could, and he could do that because he’d worked his socks off to perfect those skills. That is someone who had to spend a lot of time thinking about how to be best version of himself he could be. Magic in contrast…However, thinking about this, Jordan is probably the more interesting contrast. He was famous for his work ethic and the complete commitment to tearing everything down to see what he needed to work on to improve. Yet look at what he worked on…things that focused on his game not the team’s game. That is a far narrower scope of thinking about the game than Bird would have had throughout his playing career which then directly impacts how well you can communicate this to a group of players.
However, your point about money and the headache is a great one. People I think under appreciate how all consuming a job it is. Doing it well tends to be an 80 hour a week 50 weeks a year thing. There is great money to be made doing it, but these guys don’t do it because of the money they do it because they need to. How many ex pros get into management because they dont know what else to do with their life, but also dont really want to go from a 25 hour work week to an 80 hour one? How many of them then just kind of phone it in, convincing themselves they are putting in the effort?