re: Where does Larry Bird rank All Time?

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Magic is also 6'9" and played all five positions at times, contributing to his rebound total.

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Magic was allowed to carry/palm. He could not have played guard if the rules were enforced. any fast/quck player would have stripped him at mid court.

palming/carry and traveling were both allowed in recent memory.

none of that stuff happened in 1950 to 1975.
small guys could defend a big guard because they could destroy them in the open court. now we have 6 7 guards because the refs changed the game to allow traveling and palming.

and larry ranks around 4

MJ
magic
LBJ
larry

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ITT we are actually fielding arguments for isaiah thomas being comparable to magic fricking johnson?

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Apparently so lmao

Wow.... how's the wife.... probably wishing she had MY pecker at night instead of your shriveled up shite.........



Have a great day!!!!!!!

Larry Legend could ball! And he had a work ethic that was basically obsessive and inspiring.

He's in my Top 5.

Grew up watching him. He was my favorite player of all time. Man I miss them days

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Grew up watching him. He was my favorite player of all time. Man I miss them days

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Those games were electric. Especially in Boston Garden.

That was as close as we got in American sports to 80's English soccer hooliganism. People were rabid. You could feel the Garden rumbling after every made shot by Bird...and then they would chant..."Larry! Larry! Larry!" - It was a cult of personality.

I pulled for Magic to finally beat the Celtics but there was no denying how good Bird was.

But I love the quote by Bird in his later life when he talks about watching Magic as a rookie being NBA finals MVP and replacing Kareem.

Playing on the road, Johnson (a 6'9" rookie point guard) started the game at center and eventually played all five positions in a dominating performance. Scoring a game-high 42 points and grabbing a game-high 15 rebounds—and handing out seven assists— Johnson led the Lakers to the NBA crown.

"I watched that game in a bar...I couldn't believe it. I always wanted to play at that level." - Larry Bird

Bird won rookie of the year...Magic won the title.

Bird did eventually have games like Magic's - and really his best game ever. Magic was awesome but Bird had an epic turnaround rookie year...he took a shite team to playoff favorite overnight...while Magic had early success with a better team but had some brain farts the next 3 years against Bird and got eclipsed a little...but came back with a vengeance in the late 80's.

Either that's how good these guys were or that's how bad the league was...because when Bird and Magic came in, they dominated everyone immediately.

Bird commented how the league "got good real quick" by the middle of the 80's with Barkley and Jordan and everyone else.

But Bird and Magic dominated for 8 years...the stars of the early 90's had to wait their turn.

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Bird is without question the best all around NBA player of all time. His rebounding and defense are extremely understated.

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Which is my motivation for asking this question. Because I was curious how people really felt now.

Because nowadays...all you hear from young guys is "Bird was a great 3-point shooter" - "He won the 3-point shoot-out at the All-Star games in dramatic fashions."

The 3-point shot was introduced in the NBA in 1980...and the curious fact is that Bird often credited with the 3-point shot and as the best...didn't really shoot that many 3s. But for some reason - it seems its easier to still pigeon-hole Bird as some great spot-up shooter. He wasn't remotely that.

The 3-point shot didn't balloon until years later.



In 1980, the three-point line was a brand new thing, so it should come as no surprise that there was an average of just 2.77 three-pointers attempted per game. In 1995, to promote an increase in scoring, the league shortened the three-point line from 23’9? at the top of the key and 22' in the corners, to 22' all the way around. This sparked the random surge of three point shots from ’95 to ’97.

Bird created his shot...despite his supposed un-athleticism; Michael Cooper says he couldn't guard Bird.

Bird was a grinder...rebounds, rebounds, rebounds...I'd bet Bird scored more points in his career on put-backs than 3s. Bird was under the basket...fighting...and if he got the ball on the wings, he'd draw the D out to pass it underneath.

I would say Bird got most of his points off of hard fought rebounds, put-backs and of course off of his renowned passing...he was so good at faking passes players would collapse and Bird would just shoot over them.

And he was by far not a come off a screen spot shooter...Bird could get off his shot against the best defenders in the NBA...Dominique Wilkens is one of the most athletic players to ever play this game (maybe the most athletic) and Bird schooled him one-on-one.

As Cedric Maxwell on Larry Bird seeing him for the first time during Bird's rookie year talked about how Bird schooled him. Bird was famous for being pissed off if a team put a white guy on him. He took it as an insult.