How Would Larry Bird Rate Against Todays' Players?

[LakerLegend]

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[LakerLegend]

Imagine Bird without having to play on this floor:

[LakerLegend]

Just to put time into perspective:

[D.Brasco]

Just to put time into perspective:

Spoiler:

We can even do this bridge from Wilt to Giannis

[KIRAG]

The fact that he's always on twitter even without a twitter account = Goat

[Stone]

Even if you are not a Celtics fan, how could you not respect a guy who dives after loose balls even if it was not an important possession.

The game got its money worth and then some with Larry Bird.

[Johnny Bball]

luka is a better version of bird and mvp caliber.

I read this thread until I could find the worst post that made me laugh out loud. Winner winner chicken dinner.

[Johnny Bball]

I think yall are romanticizing Birds outside shot a bit. He's a career 37.6 % 3 point shooter. He was given open 3s.

He was in the era where you didnt take a million bad 3 pointers. Remember, Steph changed the game and now logo shots and contested 3s are fine. The game has been changed for the better, right?

I think most here are assuming that if Bird played now, he'd emphasize the aspects of his game that would work under the current rules: i.e. he would practice and take more threes. He'd be a better 3-point shooter if he worked on it instead of working on his midrange game so much.

That's just one really dumb post . you think in an era where the rules change and 3s can be jacked up so much easier, Bird, one of the hardest workers and one of the greatest competitors doesn't practice and shoot 3s better? Its such a dumb assumption.

And Steph didn't change the game, the rule changes changed the game.

[NRSV]

The Big 3 pro sports in America all have really cool histories…but I think NBA has the coolest. Great photos.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

He'd get cooked on the defensive end.

Why would he get cooked?
Just play him at power forward.
He was fine at man to man defense on power forwards.

I don’t really buy that the current that current NBA players are faster. I don’t believe current NBA players have better ball fakes.

Bird was better than players in his time or the current time at team defense.

Bird never should have been asked to defend Erving or Wilkins. Bird can defend small forwards better than Dirk would be able to but asking Dirk to defend Wilkins or Erving would be just plain stupid. Just understand that Bird was a power forward who occasionally played out of position at small forward.

[NRSV]

He'd get cooked on the defensive end.

Why would he get cooked?
Just play him at power forward.
He was fine at man to man defense on power forwards.

I don’t really buy that the current that current NBA players are faster. I don’t believe current NBA players have better ball fakes.

Bird was better than players in his time or the current time at team defense.

Bird never should have been asked to defend Erving or Wilkins. Bird can defend small forwards better than Dirk would be able to but asking Dirk to defend Wilkins or Erving would be just plain stupid. Just understand that Bird was a power forward who occasionally played out of position at small forward.

Way too reasoned and informed a post.

Thumbs down!

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

He'd get cooked on the defensive end.

There is a lot more to defense than being a run/jump athlete.

He'd be picked on constantly. You can have all the iq in the world but if you're slow and can't jump as high you're gonna struggle. He'd be a good "team" defender I guess but usually that's just said to excuse poor defenders. Bird didn't play in an era where they hunted the weakest defender constantly.

Nonsense, Bird would not be the weakest defender.
They would pick on somebody else.

Bird should not have defended Dominque or Erving but what current small forward beats players off the dribble like Dominique Wilkins did?

The Celtics having 3 great power forwards and no good small forwards was just something that happened. Not trading Maxwell or McHale for a small forward was a choice Celtics management made.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

I have a problem comparing centers to non-centers.

My goat list four non-centers:
Jordan, LeBron, Magic, Birrd, Oscar

The question mark Is Oscar. Oscar dominated his error more than any of them but Oscars error was definitely weaker.

I don’t see much progress between now in the 80s except 4 in three points shooting. But three point shooting is huge and completely changes the look of the game. 1980s was all about scoring inside and fast brakes and grabbing offensive of rebounds and stopping teams from getting offensive rebounds. The wars for inside position on rebounds was intense.

Go look at 1982 76ers versus Celtics maybe game seven from which the beat LA chant comes from.
I think that was fun basketball worth watching but the look is different from today. There was open three-point shots for anybody that one of them but nobody wanted them. The zone was illegal but the Celtics and 76ers we’re sagging to the point of being in a zone all night long.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

1982 classic game 7. 76ers come back from being down 3 games to 1 to beat the Celtics in game 7.
This game is the source of the Beat LA chant, when the defeated Celtic fans spend the last few minutes of the game chanting beat LA to the 76ers players. Weird, after a heartbreaking defeat who roots for the team that broke your heart.

All Star Nate Archibald is out injurred and the Celtics miss his 13 points and 8 assists. Nate's back up Gerald Henderson is a decent player but not as good as he will be in 1984. The 1980 Celtics found Henderson in the NBA trash heap Continental Basketball league, that was the G-League of the 1980s.
Chris Ford has gotten old and his game has declined but his replacement, rookie Danny Ainge who played the previus year fior the Toronto Blue Jays as a 3rd base man who could not hit. In his Rookie season Ainge shot FG 35% as a rookie. Ainge was in no way ready to replace Ford but with Archibald injured Ainge had to play.

Ainge shot well in game 7 but the Boston Strangler, otherwise known as Andrew Toney torched the Celtics and so the 76ers win the game. Andrew Toney was a a great player that I don't think young fans are aware of. Celtics fans still believe that the Celtics would have beaten the 76ers with a healthy Nate Archibald.

Bird had a bad shooting night but he did have 11 rebounds and 9 assists.

Watch on YouTube

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Imagine Bird without having to play on this floor:

That floor was an advantage for the Celtics because they knew where the dead spots were.

[Ell Curry]

His extraordinary playmaking would translate, but he'd find defense much more challenging. Also, his three point shooting is overrated. It wasn't defended as well and most shots were made hugging the line.

He was an 89% free throw shooter.

https://www.espn.com/nba/stats/player/_/stat/free-throws/season/2021/seasontype/2/table/offensive/sort/freeThrowPct/dir/desc

Maybe he's not Steph, but that top 20 is a list of great shooters apart from Quickley. And of course he won the first three 3pt shootouts. I think he'd have been just fine.

Defensively I have no idea. 3x All defense but that was probably overrating him. He was a good rebounder and had good hands and anticipation and then he got slower and slower which would have been a real problem as he aged.

https://backpicks.com/2018/01/11/backpicks-goat-11-larry-bird/

[LegendaryLakers]

Best player in the league. Only ones who could give him a run for his money would be Durant and possibly curry.

[The Rebel]

Regarding comparing him to Luka and Jokic, I think the fair interpretation is that his game in the 80s (most post-based) was more similar to Jokic, but if he were playing in this era where dribble penetration is much more commonly the driver of offense, and where he'd undoubtedly be firing away way more 3s, his game would likely adjust to the era, and look a good deal more like Luka's. I don't think that's a crazy take. He certainly had the requisite skill to be an offensive superstar in either way.

There was more dribble penetration in the 80s than there is today. That is not and was never part of Bird's game. He did not sit there probing a defense pounding the ball, he made quick decisions to keep defenses off balance. He got the ball and made his move or his pass almost immediately much like JOkic does today. I don't see that changing even in last year's NBA where guys who dominated the ball could draw extra fouls.

[The Rebel]

It's okay, I have no intentions of vilifying anyone's all time list. It would actually be insane to prefer Bird and rank him lower. That's where the contention would have come. One thing though and on a concluding note, if most people who saw them play had Bird being better, it would be consensus among the older media. Don't get me wrong they are mostly casuals but so are the majority of people we know in real life. Your take means more here tbf.

Older media have a vested interest in pushing today's players and today's game, you cannot count on them to give non-biased opinions. There is plenty of game tape around of both players, go watch it. Also spend some time learning the difference in the rules, and then form your own opinion.

First, there’s very few talking heads that actually played against him and the few there are a) he’s white and that plays a part b) he triggered them with his shite talking and beating them. The other old talking heads that dominate the airwaves didn’t see him during his prime. At worse he was the third best player in the toughest, most competitive decade with its best players behind only the best player of all time and the best PG of all time

Scott Hastings is a former bad boy piston bench guy and was on the Hawks team when Bird went for 60. He also has a local sports radio show and is the Nuggets analyst in Denver now. He talks about Bird and some of the old days occasionally, and his cohosts on the radio show are both younger than him so they ask him about guys. He said that the 60 point game happened because Dominique was talking **** and pissed Bird off, he is convinced that Bird could do whatever he wanted when he wanted and nobody could do anything about it prior to the injury.

How a guy who won 3 straight MVPs in the most stacked NBA in history could have been the 3rd best player of his era is crazy, although I would argue that Bird was cleaarly better than Magic and while Magic has more championships it is arguably if Magic was even the best player on the team for 2 or 3 of those championships.

[The Rebel]

He'd get cooked on the defensive end.

Why would he get cooked?
Just play him at power forward.
He was fine at man to man defense on power forwards.

I don’t really buy that the current that current NBA players are faster. I don’t believe current NBA players have better ball fakes.

Bird was better than players in his time or the current time at team defense.

Bird never should have been asked to defend Erving or Wilkins. Bird can defend small forwards better than Dirk would be able to but asking Dirk to defend Wilkins or Erving would be just plain stupid. Just understand that Bird was a power forward who occasionally played out of position at small forward.

It really is crazy how evolution takes thousands of years but people have convinced themselves it only takes 1 generation when it comes to basketball players.