LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

No...

 

Bird might actually be a better passer than Lebron. If anything, they’re equal. Both were great in their respective eras, but if we had a Time Machine, Bron is worse in the 80s (still great though) and Bird is 6’8 Steph with Kobe’s mentality in the modern nba. You know those games were luka is on fire and absolutely unstoppable? That would be routine for Bird.
Bron is clearly the better defender though, and that means a lot. I think Bron would mentally crumble if time traveled to the 80s.

 

You spelled underrated wrong. How old are you out of curiosity? I don’t mean to be dismissive of younger fans, because they can be knowledgeable about nba history. I’m just curious.

 

As much as he was a rival and wore green, I have all the respect in the world for Larry Bird. He was an amazing player, an ultimate competitor and one of the most creative players I've ever seen.

He was an incredibly talented shooter, passer and had an amazing understanding of the game.

We can debate all day who was better between him and LeBron, but just like LeBron, Larry Bird was a player that defined an era.

Of course, Bird suffered a ton with longevity because of his back problems, but the guy really made a very good team into one of the two main faces of the 80s.

 

But Bird had three times the basketball intelligence and was three times the shooter.

 

If he played in this era, I actually think Bird would be a better scorer than Lebron. Today’s garbage defense and the green light to shoot 10-15 threes a game? Holy hell, Larry world be scary.

 

If this is ever in your mentality, the 80s would not have been kind to you.

 

Bird was a great passer, but this is silly.

This is also silly. Bron would likely be better in the 80's, his combo of skill and size is unmatched. Either way is speculative, so I'm fine with not bringing it up, but there's no evidence to say he would be worse.

This is an even worse speculation, and where Bird is truly overrated. He's not that great a 3 pt shooter. He sucked as a 3 pt shooter for half his career. Like sucked sucked. 5 bad seasons, including 4 truly terrible ones, worse than Westbrook level bad. But he has some good seasons on very low volume, plus some contests, and then some people think he's a great NBA 3-pt shooter. He wasn't. Sure, the era didn't feature a lot of 3 pt shot attempts. You know what? That just makes it stupid basketball. Would he be a great 3 pt shooter in the modern era? Maybe, with modern training and shot attempts, but also - maybe not. Lots of guys who shoot well at low volume can't do it well when defended at high volume.

My guess is that some people will take offense to this and write some woulda coulda shouldas, and that in their opinion, Bird would have done xyz. But there's no evidence for this, and if anything, contrary counterfactuals of other players. Was Bird better than those other players? Sure, but you can't just assume that he would magically be awesome at high volume when he never showed that, and wasn't even good for half his career.

All the lols. Just pure haterade.

 

And Shaq was always in foul trouble, or missed a ton of free throws, at the end of games and had to rely on Kobe to bring home the series.

 

I don’t think some here realize that before Bird and Magic took their rivalry to the NBA, it literally was on the verge of collapsing. It was nearly out of money and nobody was interested.

 

I think most people realize that, and that's one of the reasons that Bird is overrated. He gets too much credit basketball wise for the marketing of Magic vs Bird and saving the NBA. But it doesn't make him a top 8 GOAT basketball-wise, maybe not even top 10.

 

Only so much room at the very very top of arbitrary lists. With his mental makeup and smarts with how he played the game PLUS those basketball skills you feel are overrated …. Larry could fall to top 15 or wherever who’s making the argument against …. and still be one of the very greatest and most feared players of all time.

 

That's why I like Memphis and Kings matchups. They're inexperienced and don't know what they don't know.

 

I was going to respond point by point until I read this. Lol, how old are you?

 

the number of 50 and 60 win teams Kobe went through in the playoffs is super impressive

Jordan's teams never beat prime C Bags and Bird

I'll leave the pointless debates to others, but lots of great players from great eras. When this game is played at the highest level, it's among the most entertaining things you can find to watch.

 

You know you've lost the argument when you have to resort to ad hominem attacks on age. Even though I'm old enough to have watched plenty of Bird. Just not old enough to have a faulty memory and not recognize reality. But here, I'll spell it out with evidence.

21.2%
24.7%
27.0%
28.6%

Those are entire seasons of Larry Bird 3-pt shooting, 77+ games each.

For his good seasons, he averages 1.0 3PM on 2.4 3PA. He has never made more than 1.3 3PM in a season. You can blame the era if you want, but he's not actually a great 3pt shooter when he sucked worse than Westbrook for half his career and never even made 1.4 3's per game.

 

I saw the 3pt contest though

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cok2vKfjAMm/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

Asking about your she wasn’t an ad hominem, it’s a relevant question. Actually seeing someone play vs just looking up old stats holds tremendous value to one’s ability to accurately access a player. For example, Westbrook’s stats imply he’s one of the best pgs of all time, but watching him play tells a different story. Kobe is the opposite. He’s actually a much better shooter than his percentages show. He just had a habit of taking stubborn contested shots.

I’m not sure why Bird had 4 seasons of poor 3pt%. It was early in his career and then he was basically a 40+% shooter. I’m not sure why you’d suggest that low volume helped his percentages. That’s true for spot up guys with good 3pt% like a Bruce Bowen. But that’s clearly not Birds game. Volume and rhythm should improve his shooting %.

My initial post wasn’t even about totally of career of bird vs Lebron. I said prime vs prime. Take those years where bird WAS a deadly shooter/scorer.

We can argue the other points about passing skills and if Lebron would have been better in the 80’s, but if you honestly think bird isn’t one of the best shooters in history, I’m not going to waste my time.