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 Where Your Dreams Become Reality |
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You are reporting the following post to the moderators for review and possible removal from the forum Poster: Nighthawk Subject: RE: Is Larry Bird the Greatest NBA Player Of All Time? Body: I can only imagine the average age of anyone who doesn't think Bird could play today is less than 30. That would make you about 6 years old when Bird was done being the best player in the world... which he was at one point (at least)----which means you didn't see nothin'....and even back in 1979, they were saying 'he couldn't play in this league'. Before surgery on both heels and back trouble, Larry was 20-3 in matchups against Jordan's teams. From 1985-1988, Bird outshot from the floor/ behind the arc/ from the line, outscored, outrebounded & outpassed Jordan in 17 head to head games (Celtics were 16-1)... Bird is 1 of 2 players in NBA history whose teams won over 60 games for every 82 he played in (Magic)... he is 1 of 2 players in NBA history to be 1st or 2nd in MVP voting SIX consecutive years (Russell)... He went to a bad team (29-53) which was bad the year before that, too (32-50)----and transformed them into a 61-21 club in one year. And he was the ONLY new starter. That's the best 1 year turnaround in NBA history with only 1 new starter... When Bird missed the 1988-89 season (save 6 injury riddled games), the Celtics started the season 24-28 without him. That's WITH Parish, McHale, Ainge, DJ and Reggie Lewis all playing. Michael Jordan NEVER had such an impact on his teams' winning and losing. In one of his final years, even beat up as he was, the Celtics were 46-14 with him VS 10-12 without him. The GREATEST impact any singular player had on his teams' winning and losing. PERIOD. What's greater than impacting your teams' winning more than anyone else? The 1980s was a ROUGH Era. Jordan's toughest competition (with apologies to the Knicks) in the 90s was the Jazz. The Mailman and Stockton had been together 12 years before they even MADE an NBA Finals---and that was the toughest squad Jordan faced in the 90s. The Jazz had better teams in the late 80s that couldn't even crack 50 wins or get out of the 1st Round. Jordan beat lesser Jazz teams in a watered down 90s. Where was Jordan in the 80s? Losing 20 times out of 23 to Bird's teams-------who couldn't even win half their games when Bird wasn't there. How did the Bulls do without Jordan in 1994? 55 wins? Not bad. Jordan just wasn't as indispensable as Bird. History says so. And for all the 20-somethings who look at film of basketball played 25, 35, 45 or more years ago and laugh at it--------don't make the mistake of thinking that Julius Erving was allowed 3 steps and a hop to the side like LeBron is. Erving could dunk from the foul line before LeBron was born. Give Dr. J the hop step AFTER 3 other steps-----and Lord only knows what HE could have done. Don't look at Bob Cousy dribble and wonder why he looks stiff----he wasn't allowed to turn the ball over when dribbling and hold it on his hip like these clowns today. LeBron would have 10-12 turnovers per game playing by the old rules. Bird may or may not be the GOAT----but if you didn't see him play live when you were old enough t know what you were watching---you don't know a thing about him. Hit the submit button below if you want us to review the post. If you feel this is urgent or want a reply, email us at letsrun@letsrun.com about the post and please include a link to the thread the post is on and what page number/post on that page it is
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