Sorry but larry gets passing and clutch and possibly leadership.
I still have a hard time not saying LeBron is the best sf ever though
Yeah, sometimes you have to reluctantly admit someone is better than the other guy. I had to face the same thing with first Brady over Manning. Then with him continuing to win super bowls with monster seasons, I had to move him past Montana.
Lebron hasn’t passed Jordan for me, but I can acknowledge that he may be #2, or at least #3 of all time, since Kareem doesn’t seem to get proper credit for his dominance.
I do think most modern people can’t put Larry in proper context of the game, because we only can remember the broken down version of him that couldn’t move and had to lay on the ground to finish games.
He would absolutely dominate today. He’d be like a taller, more mentally strong Luka. Much better rebounder and passer, with a clutch killer instinct. Even made 3 all defensive teams, so he’s tiers above Luka.
He wasn’t unathletic, just not the uber athletic 1% type. But his game processing and basketball IQ might be the best of all time, he understood angles and could exploit any weakness in your defense.
If Bird never destroyed his back, he may very well have won a couple more MVPs than the 3 he won, more than 3 titles, and been considered a clear cut top 3 of all time.
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It always cracks me up with guys like Dr J and Nique along with a whole host of other very athletic players, consistently saying Bird is the guy they least wanted to play against that he is somehow unathletic.
I think it’s just because typically with truly dominant players, they have a physical (Shaq) or athletic (Jordan) ability that separates them in addition to talent.
Bird didn’t have an athletic aspect that stood out. Dude could just ball.
But yeah, it is interesting that the people that played in the 80s all acknowledge his greatness.
I think the key to Larry Bird’s version of athleticism was his late growth spurt. When he went to Indiana(for a month?) he was around 6’6" to 6’7". So he developed perimeter skills, anticipating himself as a wing in college. A few years later, he resurfaced at Indiana State a 6’9" monster. So he saw the game quicker but had the body of a 6’9" power forward.
As far as I can tell, he moved his feet just fine before the back injury. We saw his body go through a lot of changes in his career. I remember in '87-88(age 30-31) he showed up with reduced body fat, averaged about 30 a night, and dunked on a few people. It was more or less downhill from there.