RealGM

I'm going to assume this is legit because he lists about 20 million sources at the end of it. Bird's stats are about as crazy as one would expect one the greatest players of all time to be if they played in a mid-major conference. Looks like Bradley's coach on 2/10/79 tried to give Bird the same treatment Steph Curry got in the SoCon 30 years later. Constant double team the entire game, held him to 4 points, but Indiana State ended up blowing them out by 20 anyways. And of course, Bird followed that up with a 49 and 18 game against Wichita State the next day.

http://michaelhamel.net/boxtop/Larry_Bird_at_ISU_v2.pdf

Can’t formulate an opinion until I see their opponents Kenpom ratings.

DirtyDez wrote:Can’t formulate an opinion until I see their opponents Kenpom ratings.

I'd say that would be a big criticism if Bird was coming out today, but then I started to think about it. Bird ripped through the NCAA tournament so it's not like he wilted against decent competition. And Ja Morant basically did his best Bird impression at Murray State, only won one NCAA tournament game, and then got picked #2. So it's not like level of competition was held against Morant (the OVC is a decent conference tho fwiw).

After seeing Bird on national tv his senior year score 49 pts against a decent Wichita St. team I knew he could have been playing star ball in the NBA. He looked like men against boys. Even then he would pass up good shots to hit a teammate closer to the basket.

I think in that game where he scored 49 pts he didn't even take a shot for the first six minutes as he was trying to give his teammates some shine on national tv. He told reporters that his teammates deserved some credit too. Also I first saw Bird his red shirt year at a team practice. I told my uncle that this guy is the best forward in the world and he said you mean in college and I said no I mean in the World. Including Dr. J. I saw every home game that he played at ISU and it was amazing.