Posted on 02/21/2020 6:01:00 PM PST by rebuildus
He never disappointed.
Sinking a three while falling off the court with time expiring, flying into the bench after loose balls, those no-look passes - it was mystical.
Larry Bird was one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He was definitely its greatest trash talker. The thing that upset his opponents the most was that he’ll tell them what he’s going to do and then he’ll do it, and it didn’t matter if he was double-teamed, he’ll sink the basket. If I were to choose between Bird and Lebron, I’ll choose Bird every time - he NEVER slacked off, he never choked during critical games, and he never left openings in his team’s defense, unlike Lebron.
Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time (the GOAT). There’s never been anyone who dominated both ends in a manner he did. He went to the finals six times and won every time - his dominance was so overwhelming, even when he was sick as a dog (such as during the match against the Jazz). But Larry Bird occupied the second tier of the greatest players. IMO, there are only seven players in Tier 2, and it doesn’t really matter which order they’re put in, each ranking can be argued.
(Note: * Active player as of Jan 1, 2020)
TIER 1: MICHAEL JORDAN
TIER 2 (in no particular order):
LARRY BIRD
MAGIC JOHNSON
KAREEM ABDUL JABBAR
KOBE BRYANT
WILT CHAMBERLAIN
WILL RUSSELL
LEBRON JAMES*
TIER 3 (in no particular order):
JOHN STOCKTON
CHARLES BARKLEY
SHAQUILLE O’NEIL
KARL MALONE
SCOTTIE PIPPEN
HAKEEM OLAJUWON
TIM DUNCAN
JERRY WEST
ELGIN BAYLOR
JULIUS ERVING
OSCAR ROBERTSON
BOB PETTIT
TIER 4 (in no particular order):
ALLEN IVERSON
REGGIE MILLER
RUSSELL WESTBROOK*
BOB COUSY
PATRICK EWING
STEPHEN CURRY*
KEVIN DURANT*
DWYANE WADE
RICK BARRY
KEVIN MCHALE
JASON KIDD
MOSES MALONE
KEVIN GARNETT
STEVE NASH
DAVID ROBINSON
ISIAH THOMAS
GEORGE MIKAN
JOHN HAVLICEK
PAUL PIERCE
DIRK NOWITZKI
Anyways, this is my ranking based on statistics, the impact the player had on his team, the strength of the opposition, and the strength of the player’s team (such as whether he had someone to elevate his game).
Man, you know your B-Ball, Raymond! Your rankings look accurate!
Michael Jordan
Great list. Though I would put Kevin McHale up a tier. In his very early years, before age & injury, Bird could really run & jump. He had a motor.
Too soon he lost that step and had to adjust his game. Check out some of his early videos.
“Did you guys figure it out yet?”
“What?”
“Who’s gonna finish second.”
I love Larry Bird! He was my hero growing up and basketball disappeared for me when he retired.
LOL...you might want to do just a lil research on the Celtics old coach....
Hint: “Red” _ _ _
(and it was a cigar...)
Bird only stayed at Indiana a week or two into his freshman year. I’m not even sure if he got through freshman orientation. The basketball players of course met up “informally” for pickup games as soon as they got to campus, as they do at all schools, but Bird dropped out long before basketball practices began. I don’t know what the mix of motivations were. Bird was a young kid who may simply not have been ready to go to college. He was never much of a student. He may have been intimidated by the size of IU, which is big. Knight always insisted that his players go to classes and make their grades; IU in the Knight era was one of the premier no-cheating, graduate with a real degree schools (while Dean Smith, as we now know, was running a whole generation of NBA all-stars through a clown program at North Carolina, though the NCAA declined to do anything when the massive scale of Carolina’s cheating became known). Bird wouldn’t have been freaked out by the basketball, but he may have panicked when he first met up with his academic advisor and tutors, and was told he had to actually read the material and write the paper.
Many years later, Bird expressed some regret for not staying at IU, saying that playing for Knight would have helped his game.
I remember when the Boston Celtics, with Larry Bird, could put five white guys on the court ... and win!
Not sure any Professional B-Ball team can do that now.
Because being a real all-star includes doing that?
Larry Byrd?? Bah....Maravich was better on all points. And playing with an undiscovered congenital heart defect which finally killed him.
Did you post this because of the earlier greatest NBA player thread? LOL and I mentioned the Bird videos!
Reggie was robbed a shot at the title by the refs in the Chicago series. The refs let Pippen mug Mark Jackson every time down the floor.
A few thoughts on your list:
I wouldn’t put Jordan in a class by himself there. In his early career, when he had no supporting cast, the Bulls didn’t do so well in the playoffs. The strategy was to let him score his 60 points and shut down (easily) the rest of the team. It wasn’t until they drafted Scottie Pippen that the Bulls turned into a playoff beast.
You also seem to have a phobia against the New York Knicks of the 1970s and 1980s. There are at least three players I’d have put in your groups: Walt Frazier (tier 2), Willis Reed (tier 3) and Bernard King (tier 3).
I used to call him Larry triple/double Bird. Invariably, when I’d jump in the car to head off into the rat-race, I would hear the sports radio announcer say, “Last night in the Gahden, Larry Bird knocked down another triple/double in a big win over Dr J and the Sixers.........(or whoever). That meant double digits in three categories (points, rebounds and assists). I remember when the parquet floor would get foggy from the Bruins ice beneath it, and all you see was Larry Birds eyes glowing...... Of course Johnny Most did the announcing back then. Rumors were that Bird went home to French Lick summers and had a job on a garbage truck to keep in shape. There was also the story that during a lay-off for a brief time one season, Larry was stuck at home and bored. He ate wedding cake every day. He said, “what’s better than wedding cake?”
No, the OILine Rebel, just been watching YouTube videos!
That's a crazy statement, Wonder Warthog. Perhaps you could say that about the Pistol's incredible college career (averaged 44 points a game!). But not pro. Bird is one of the greatest players of all time, that's not even debatable. Pete had a relatively uneventful pro career.
Nope. Maravich did it with none of the physical advantages that Bird had, simply through dint of incredible personal effort. Maravich was simply the greatest ball handler ever seen in basketball.
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