a famous date in history by jtr · opinion - 7 December 2004, 11:48

Today is a famous date in history. All should remember this day, for on December 7, 1956 Larry Joe Bird was born. Larry Bird is simply the greatest basketball player of all time. Period.

Let me be clear on this. Michael Jordan was great. Magic Johnson was great. Oscar Robertson was great. Dr. J was great. Bill Russell was great. Wilt Chamberlain was great. Kareem Abdul Jabbar was great. Jerry West was great. Pete Maravich was great. Tim Duncan is great. Dirk Nowitzki is great. Lebron James is great. Jason Kidd is great. Kobe Bryant is great really good. Shaquille O’Neal is great overpowering. Jermaine O’Neal is great. Dwayne Wade is great. Ray Allen is great. Ben & Rasheed Wallace are great. Not one of them, however, is greater than Larry Bird.

* * *

  1. I agree Larry Bird was a great player. I followed the Celtics for as long as I can remember him playing for them. But, let me ask you this. How did you come to this conclusion you sound so confident about.
    — David M.    Dec 8, 07:02 AM    #
  2. Though I care almost nothing about pro basketball, I can agree with your assessment, T-J. In every attempt to measure a performance difference, he seldom failed to come out ahead.
    — Ed Hurst    Dec 8, 01:39 PM    #
  3. David, it is important to note that I said he is the greatest basketball player of all time, not the greatest athlete of all time. Many confuse the two. (I am not implying you are.) While basketball is essentially a game of agility, having tremendous athletic ability and agility does not guarantee a player will be good. For example, Shaquille O’Neal is the most dominating player (physically) in the NBA today, mostly due to his superior size and strength. Very little of his dominance has to do with what is known as basketball skills (positioning, court awareness, shooting, dribbling, passing). When comparing Larry Bird to the above list of great players on the issue of athleticism or agility, Larry Bird loses to each one. Nonetheless, he is still a better basketball player. Having played college basketball (albeit at a tiny Bible college), I know that to be a good basketball player requires hard work, practice, court vision, a strong (severe?) competitive disposition, and an ability to make one’s teammates better. (It is on this last issue that Kobe Bryant fails miserably. For this reason he will never live up to the potential his natural athleticism and his internal drive offer.) In Larry’s autobiography he described his feelings while practicing (usually long after his teammates had left). He was always concerned that somewhere there was a player who would take another practice free throw or run another lap or practice ball handling drills for a few minutes longer than he and as a result would one day outplay him and his team would lose because of his lack of commitment. Even as a professional Larry practiced longer and harder than the rest of the league. Larry was not the strongest player. He was not the fastest. (Indeed, he may have been one of the slowest!) He was not the most agile. He was not the tallest. He was not the quickest (though he was quick – just not fast). He was, however, the hardest working man in the NBA. This work ethic led to an amazing commitment to practice (as I mentioned earlier). Larry is one of the all-time greatest passers the NBA has ever seen. He just knew where his teammate was or was going to be. His work ethic and commitment to practice stemmed largely from his refusal to lose. This competitive nature is what led Magic Johnson – one of the all-time greatest – to write, “Of all the people I play against, the only one I truly fear
    is Larry Bird.” Larry’s hard work, practice, ability (and willingness) to pass the ball, and his competitiveness inspired his teammates to practice harder and to play harder and to pass more and to work together as a team and to strive harder to win. In short, Larry Bird made his teammates better. He did all of these things – in combination – better than any other basketball player in history. This makes Larry Bird the greatest basketball player of all time.
    — jtr    Dec 8, 06:44 PM    #
  4. Nice to see someone else sharing my opinion of Larry Bird. I have always thought of Bird and Magic as 1a and 1b.

    As for greatest athlete of all time, I have to go with Paula Newby Fraiser. No man or women has ever dominated their particular sport like she did for so long. A close second would have to be Edwin Moses.
    — Mark    Dec 8, 11:58 PM    #
  5. Mark, I must admit I had never heard of Paula Newby Fraser. So I googled for her. I know little of triathlons but I know enough to know that 22 wins in triathlon competitions is mind-boggling.

    I have a question. I found information about her at this website. It indicates she finished eleventh in the 1988 Ironman and yet her performance is called the “greatest performance in endurance sports his-tory [sic]”. How is a finish in which ten other people have better times the greatest performance in history? Surely I am missing something…
    — john-thomas    Dec 9, 09:06 AM    #
  6. JTR, the way I asked the question didn’t sound so good, sorry about that.

    But now I see why you said he was the greatest. Actually I got more info than I thought I would.
    — David M.    Dec 9, 08:48 PM    #
  7. Because that was an overall finish, including both men and women. Compare it to the Boston Marathon of today where the first women finishers are well behind the men. For example the men’s winning time this year was 2:10. Compare that with the winning women’s time of 2:24 and then compare that time to the men’s masters of 2:18 and you start to see just how good Paula was. Now keep in mind that she also biked 112+ miles and swam 2.5mi all at a pace that kept all but 9 men behind her.

    Mindboggling especially for someone like me who has been actively competiting for well over 15yrs.
    — Mark    Dec 11, 03:24 PM    #