Happy Birthday to one of the greatest of all time.
Happy Birthday to one of the greatest of all time.
Bird was fantastic. But he got stuck with one lame nickname.
Was it Brent Musburger who stuck him with that? I can't think Johnny Most did - he liked saying the bird-man.
I remember Dec. 7th as his birthday every year (along with Pearl Harbor). I'm so lucky/spoiled getting to watch him play all the time, growing up as a huge basketball fan.
Is he related to John Legend?
imadumbass wrote:
Is he related to John Legend?
Second cousins.
In my heart he'll always be 33.
He was playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers - Tommy H
He was good in his era but I remember reading on this site that he would not be competitive in the modern era...not athletic enough.
Ironically, not only would he be competitive, he would be even more dominant now than he was back then and he would make the people around him better than he did back then. For all their "athleticism" (which is no better than 20 years ago), the current crop of players grasp of the fundamentals of the game is far worse. Everybody wants to be Kobe and score 70 points. Nobody wants to pass the ball.
This.
Freshman track runner wrote:
He was good in his era but I remember reading on this site that he would not be competitive in the modern era...not athletic enough.
He wasn't athletic enough then either
I remember well when he was drafted (6th pick) Red Auerbach damn near apologized; it was widely considered that he would not have NBA success.
First 5 picks were: 1)Mychal Thompson
2)Phil Ford
3)Rick Robey
4)Michael Ray Richardson
5)Purvis Short
all of whom were journymen types at best.
For a long time after Bird, every few years there was a 'next Larry Bird,' a tall white forward who would get drafted way above his pay grade--Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner, Keith Van Horn, etc. Actually it's still going on--some compared Adam Morrison to Bird.
How will you all celebrate his birthday? I plan to play copious amounts of NBA Jam with Bird and McHale.