BBALLBREAKDOWN: Was Larry Bird Better Than LeBron James?

Gangstar8

Gangstar8

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IllmaticDelta said:
:sas2::whew:



only-players-with-back-to-back-40-point-games-in-the-2846452.png
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Lol posting stats of a stat padder does not mean shyt

whats his finals record looking like :sadbron:
 
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Originalman

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:snoop:you kats need to do better. This like the 3rd thread on this subject the last 12 months.

One kat on here already destroyed this myth even broke down how bird got shut down in a few finals and playoffs games scoring 8-10 points the whole game.

Coach Nick is a clown also and picks and chooses stats. The dude is like Fox News of basket and only comes up with these got topic videos to get viewership.
 
IllmaticDelta

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Originalman said:
:snoop:you kats need to do better. This like the 3rd thread on this subject the last 12 months.

One kat on here already destroyed this myth even broke down how bird got shut down in a few finals and playoffs games scoring 8-10 points the whole game.

Coach Nick is a clown also and picks and chooses stats. The dude is like Fox News of basket and only comes up with these got topic videos to get viewership.
Click to expand...


yup


Here's what I posted the last time this comparison came up:

First, here are some of Bird's failures:

1982 ECF: Averages 18-14-7 on 41% shooting and Boston loses to Philly in 7. Bird goes 20-9-11 on 7-18 shooting in losing Game 7 in a blowout.

1983 ECSF: Boston is swept out by a Bucks team whose best players are Moncrief, Johnson, Bridgeman, Lanier and Winters. Bird averages 19-12-6 on 44% shooting on the losing end of the sweep.

1987 Finals: Boston loses to LA in the Finals for the second time in three years. Bird goes 6-16 for a 16-9-5 line in the deciding Game 6 loss. Dennis Johnson had 33-10-5 and McHale had 20 and 10 in that game. Worthy had 22 points on 10-16 shooting in only 36 minutes before fouling out. (Worthy averaged 21-5-4 on 52% shooting for the series.)

1988 ECF: Averages 20-12-6 on 35% shooting as the Celtics go down in 6 to the Pistons. Bird goes 16-14-5 on 4-17 shooting in losing Game 6, while Boston was getting lit up by 6'5" SF Adrian Dantley.


Can you imagine the noise against Lebron if he was putting up 7-18, 6-16, and 4-17 performances in elimination game losses in the Finals and ECF? Can you imagine how much heat he would get if he was repeatedly averaging 20ppg or less over entire series? He did that ONCE and was lambasted for it, Bird did both those things at least four different times, while being worse than Lebron on the defensive end as well. (Even in winning Finals, Bird only averaged 15ppg on 42% shooting in 1981 and was 6-18 in the deciding Game 7 in 1984.)


Now, onto the big "victory" moments of Bird's career:

Bird's 1981 Finals, matched up against the Houston Rockets.

Houston was led in the series by Moses Malone, Robert Reid, and a way-past-his-prime Billy Paultz. They were 40-42 that season - that's right, a team with a losing record made the Finals.

Not only that, but Houston made the Finals by beating Kansas City in the WCF...another team with a 40-42 losing record.

The series went 6 games, with the teams trading wins until Boston took game 6. Bird only scored 8, 8, and 12 points in games 3-5, but played a strong all-around game to help lead them to victory.

Yep, that's right, Larry Bird scored in the single digits in back-to-back Finals games and only averaged 9 ppg over the middle three games.

But Boston could still win, because Houston sucked. No one on Houston's entire top-8 shot better than 41.5% for the series. Only three (Malone, Reid, and Paultz) averaged double-figures.

Finals MVP: Cedric Maxwell, 18-10-3 on 57% shooting
Bird: 15-15-7 with 2 steals on 42% shooting
Parish: 15-8-1 with 1 steal and 2 blocks on 51% shooting
Chris Ford and Tiny Archibald also averaged double-figures for Boston, Carr, Robey, Henderson, and McHale were strong off the bench.



Bird's 1984 Finals, matched up against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Two of the most stacked teams of all time faced off in a massively foul-plagued series (with Boston averaging nearly 40 free throws a game to only 24 by the Lakers).

Bird was 8-22, 9-24, 15-20, and 6-18 in the four Boston wins...one fantastic shooting game and three less memorable ones. He also utterly failed to slow down the Lakers stars - Worthy averaged 22ppg on 64% shooting for the series and Magic averaged 18 points, 8 boards, and 14 assists on 56% shooting. Boston was actually outscored by about 20 points over 7 games, but won two close ones and basically beat the Lakers inside, piling up nearly 20 offensive rebounds/game and going to the free throw line over 100 times more than the Lakers over the course of 7 games.

Bird wasn't the deciding factor in any of the most clutch moments in the series.

Game 2 was won by the Celtics by 3 in overtime. Gerald Henderson had a steal-and-score to send the game into overtime (followed by Magic dribbling out the last 15 seconds of the clock rather than attempting a game-winning shot), then Scott Wedman had the game-winning shot in overtime.

Game 4 was won by the Celtics by 4 in overtime. This was the "Tragic Johnson" game, where Magic blew the game in regulation by throwing the ball to Parish and allowing the game to be tied, then missing 2 free throws in overtime. The game also featured a brawl after McHale's closeline on Kurt Rambis which many credit with causing the Lakers to lose their composure and keeping them from putting the series away. Kareem was fouled out early in overtime with the Lakers ahead, many calling it a bad call. Bird made a big go-ahead jumper for Boston, but M.L. Carr sealed the game with a steal-and-score in the final minute.

In Game 7, Bird finished with 20-12-3 on 6-18 shooting. Boston only shot 39.5% in that game to 49% for the Lakers, but had 20 offensive rebounds (8 by Parish alone) and went 43-51 from the free throw line to claim the victory. Maxwell was 14-17 on free throws, DJ was 12-12, and Bird 8-8. Cedric Maxwell stole the ball from Magic with a minute left and the Celtics clinging to a 3-point-lead, and then DJ hit two free throws to seal the victory.

Finals MVP: Larry Bird, 27-14-4 with 2 steals and a block on 48% shooting
Robert Parish: 15-11-1 with 2 steals and 2 blocks on 44% shooting (Parish led the team with 30 offensive boards)
Kevin McHale: 13-6-1 with a block on 46% shooting
Cedric Maxwell: 13-6-3 with a steal on 45% shooting
Dennis Johnson: 18-4-5 with 2 steals on 40% shooting
Gerald Henderson: 12-3-4 with a steal on 48% shooting



Bird's 1986 Finals, matched up against the Houston Rockets.

A different team than the 1981 Rockets that Boston had faced, but still basically "a great center and little else". Houston was led by a 23-year-old Hakeem (long before he'd developed most of his dominant post moves), and surrounded him with Rodney McCray, Ralph Sampson, Robert Reid, and Lewis Loyd. Meanwhile, Boston was still stacked as hell.

Boston started Bird-Parish-McHale-Ainge-Johnson, with Bill Walton as the 6th Man of the Year.
Houston started young Hakeem-Sampson-Reid-McCray-Loyd, with Wiggins as the 6th man.

The series went to 6, but really Boston was the dominant team, outscoring Houston by nearly 40 over 6 games.

Finals MVP: Larry Bird, 24-9.5-9.7 and 3 steals/game on 48% shooting
McHale: 26-9-2 and 3 blocks/game on 57% shooting
Johnson: 17-6-5 and 2 steals/game on 42% shooting
Ainge: 15-4-6 and 3 steals/game on 56% shooting
Parish: 13-7-1 and 2 blocks/game on 42% shooting
Walton: 8-7-2 and 1 block/game on 62% shooting



Can you imagine how differently that whole record would look if it were compiled today? Bird was a great player, probably top-10 all-time. But he's no Lebron.
Click to expand...

http://www.thecoli.com/threads/expl...-than-larry-bird.449138/page-12#post-20190389
 
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Dirk gave Bron and the Heatles that work...can you imagine what Bird would have been doing in this era? Especially now that the 3 is so coveted?

:banderas:

I'll give him the edge on D, that's it, fukk all that stat padding bullshyt.

Sunalmighty said:
I can't see Bird getting shut down by Jason Terry and JJ Barrera. I can't see Bird disappear for 4 straight 4th quarters with a 2.2 ppg average in those quarters with the title on the line
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This.

SadimirPutin said:
The fact that the Lebron James -Larry Bird argument exists is fukking laughable
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I don't see how it's laughable though.

And while I know it's been done before, I've never seen anybody compare them with video like that, I figured it was worth a look just to see two of the GOATS get down. I think Lebron passes him just based on longevity and technicality (numbers) eventually but it's clear to me that Bird was a more skilled player and would have been on some other shyt in this era.
 
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David_TheMan

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No Larry wasn't better than LeBron.

On offense, Larry was the superior scorer and shooter.
3pt range and deadly, midrange deadly everywhere on the court. exceptional post game low or high.
Not as good a driver as LeBron, but superior over him in ever other scoring avenue.

Passing ability Larry had great court vision and passing ability, LeBron has equally the same court vision and his passing ability is greaer because of his increased athleticism that enables him to make passes Larry wasn't physically capable of

Defense LeBron is so much better that he overtakes Larry. Prime LeBron could play 1 - 4 extremely well, and I'll say lock them up, on top of that feel for passing lanes, athletic ability to recover and close out, read the offensive plays and disrupt, puts him on a defensive teir of wing players that Larry was never on.\.

So overall player LeBron is superior.
On offense Larry superior
On defense LeBron vastly superior.

Just my .02 though
 
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