RealGM

Where would you rank Larry Bird 81', his first championship season, among the following seasons?

2009–10 LeBron James
2010–11 Derrick Rose
2011–12 LeBron James
2012–13 LeBron James
2013–14 Kevin Durant
2014–15 Stephen Curry
2015–16 Stephen Curry
2016–17 Russell Westbrook
2017–18 James Harden
2018–19 Giannis Antetokounmpo
2019–20 Giannis Antetokounmpo
2020–21 Nikola Jokić
2021–22 Nikola Jokić
2022–23 Joel Embiid
2023–24 Nikola Jokić

Probably only above Rose and Embiid but not far behind a few others.

I need to look at some film and take a deep dive on how good early Bird (81-83) was.

Seems like his volume was lower

At full-health, all are better in my mind outside of 2011 Rose. 2017 Westbrook might not be as a good of a player, but I think you could say his season was more impressive with the offensive load he had. I think 2018 Harden is another guy who you could argue was maybe not as good as Bird, but his season was more impressive under the same lense.

> Rose and Westbrook , same goes for Embiid if you’re ranking them with playoff translation considered.

over Rose, Westbrook, Harden, Embiid

Bird was good, damned good. Bird was ferocious to the point of being inspirational.

Young Bird had some cold shooting streaks. The voters were correct to give the 1981 finals MVP to Bird’s teammate Cedric Maxwell.

Bird peaked offensively in the 1987 regular season. 1987 Celtics had no bench and the coah KC Jones overplayed his starters. The team was worn down by the playoffs. McHale was playing on a broken foot in the 1987 playoffs.

Over 2011 DRose and Embiid due to health but otherwise not over him, either.