kflo

how was magic certainly better? how was hakeem? how was oscar?

in their primes when their teams played, noone would have said la certainly has the advantage.

kflo

which underscores why it was a ridiculous comment, and not misrepresented. it was pointless to say, and not close to the truth.

kflo

as for why he was so great, he WAS gifted. yes, he worked on his game (if not his body) pretty hard, which of course contributed to his greatness (although he apparently had some affection for beer as well). but he simply had basketball gifts that made the game come naturally to him. he had QUICKNESS with the ball, that allowed him to get separation from anyone to get a decent look. and of course he had the shot. he was 6'9. he had power. he could handle. and he had as good court vision and passing reflexes as anyone ever. he was one of the very best ever for many of the same reasons most of the other top 10'ers were. he had supreme ability along with desire to be great.

Diable

As for Magic and Hakeem I won't argue over that,but many people think that Oscar Robinson was the Greatest of all time and if you look at it objectively he very well may have been.The only tremendous advantage MJ has over him is the bling bling.

Kidd's Nets

bird could be one of the most intelligent players ever... he knew his limitations.. he worked on his strengths... he worked on the fundamentals of the game and his greatest weapon was his DESIRE

kflo

i think this does a disservice to his TALENT, which i think is why he sometimes gets shortchanged in comparison to others (like magic). it's was bird's natural INSTINCTS and SKILLS that made him the player he was. obviously he was a gifted shooter who worked tirelessly at his shot, and improving his arsenal (no harder than magic). he was gifted with both hands. he had a tremendous first step and quickness to separate from defenders (not speed, mind you, but shifty quickness to create space). he was 6'9 and was pretty strong and solid. and he had natural passing instincts and court vision few have ever had. many players have desire. what separated bird from the rest was in large part god-given. he did the work from there. probably not much more than other top players.

ralaw

I'm with kflo on this one, you don't become one of the 5 greatest players ever simply by working hard and having desire, as it takes a great deal of "God given" ability (talent) to achieve that status as well. I find it to be disrespectful to Bird to pass his overall ability off as he simply "he worked hard" because it undermines the natural player that he was even when he was leading Indiana State to the Final Four. I think the real issue here is people confuse athleticism with talent, and in my opinion the two don't always go hand-in-hand. From just a talent perspective, Bird is near the top of the list of all-time.

Brandname

Ugh. Needless to say, I am definitely not an Isiah Thomas fan. In fact, I can't stand him at all.

Anyway, Larry Bird was great because he had a combination of all these great features. He wasn't terribly athletic by basketball standards, but by normal person standards he was amazingly athletic.

But what made him stand out was his anticipation. More than anything else, he could anticipate everything better than anyone I've seen. Truth be told, I'm not sure Magic was necessarily a better passer than Larry. He just made that the focus of his game, while Bird focused more on scoring. I think they actually are the two best passers in the history of the game. I don't really care for Maravich in this category because, although he made some much flashier passes, I just can't put him in the same class because he put entertainment before winning. (Which isn't necessarily horrible, it's just not quite what I look for when judging greatness). Plus, I feel that Maravich was a very selfish player in college. Which also turns me off a bit.

His combination of pure shooting, anticipation, passing, and rebounder are what made him one of the most unique players in league history. It's also why I consider him to be a bigger threat in his prime than Magic. He was one of the best shooters in the game and one of the best passers in the game at the same time, so he could kill a team in a lot of different ways.

Minstrel

Bird was great because he was incredibly skilled, had good enough athleticism and had the sort of instinctive pattern-matching that all the best at a given profession have, allowing him to seem to play the game at a different speed or play several moves ahead.

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Gilgamesh

Yes.

Bird was a cerebral player.

Combine that with his desire/will to win and that is what made Bird great.

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JPSeraph

Most of it's already been said.

I don't rate Bird for athleticism by NBA standards (except for some lumbering bigs, most any NBA player would seem quite athletic in comparison to the typical gym-goer). I think much of his "quickness" came down to anticipation, concentration, and a greater reliance on his mental gifts than a more athletically gifted player like Jordan (who IMO demonstrated similar mental gifts whilst hobbling around in a Wizards uniform).

He was a great passer (I like the poster who said he might be on par with Magic in this category), but unlike Magic couldn't consistently bring the ball up the floor against pressure from smaller quicker guards.

I'm not sure Bird was a pure shooter so much as one of the greatest players ever at putting the ball in the basket from anywhere on the floor using just about any method he could devise.

It has already been said that he mastered the fundamentals: footwork, balance, rebounding position, defensive position, etc. But Bird also was a master of the mental competition: of talking trash, psyching out his opponent, and making everyone on the floor (teammates included) believe that he could do whatever the hell he wanted whenever he wanted.

The MVPs and championships really don't do Larry Legend justice. As a Jordan fan who used to fear Bird in the late 80's and, in my foolish youth, one of many who believed he was overrated, I now really miss seeing a dominate mid-sized player who isn't cloned after Jordan and relies primarily on superior skills and