Top 100 NBA Players: #8

Larry Bird

(Kalb: #6, Simmons: #5, BBR: #8)

Larry Bird was one of the most dominant players of the 1980's, and he put together one of the greatest 4-year runs of any player in NBA history, but back problems ended his career prematurely and prevented him from fulfilling him potential as possibly the greatest player of all time.

When Larry Bird and Magic Johnson arrived in the NBA in 1979, they were perhaps the most anticipated pair of rookies in history, and they did not disappoint. Nearly every season for the next decade ended with one of them hoisting the championship trophy, with three of those belonging to Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics. Bird was their best player from the day he entered the league until the day he walked away.

In just his second season in the NBA, he had arrived as one of the top 5 players in the NBA, and Boston finished the season with the league's top record. That season, Bird won his first NBA championship, but was not awarded the Finals MVP award because of a subpar performance in the Finals, although it's pretty obvious from looking at the overall playoff statistics of Bird and Cedric Maxwell, who won the award, that Bird was the team's best player:

Bird - 21.9 pts, 14.0 reb, 6.1 ast, 2.3 stl, 1.0 blk, .470 FG%, .375 3P%, .894 FT%
Maxwell - 16.1 pts, 7.4 reb, 2.7 ast, 0.7 stl, 0.9 blk, .580 FG%, .818 FT%

Bird was the better player of the two by far, but because of the perception that he wasn't playing as well as he normally did, he was not rewarded with the MVP he deserved. A couple of years later, Bird turned up his game to another level and ensured that he would not be denied any award he deserved again.

For the next four seasons, Bird was easily the best player in the league, piling up some of the most dominant seasons in history right in a row, and each of those four seasons ended in the NBA Finals, with two titles and two seasons as the runner-up. His stats over those four seasons are incredible, as you can see below:

Bird (1983-1987) - 26.6 pts, 9.9 reb, 6.9 ast, 1.8 stl, .509 FG%, .395 3P%, .894 FT%

Only four other players have ever had shooting percentages that high during a single season, including Steve Nash, and only one other player ever reached those heights in the three major categories for a full season, Oscar Robertson. Bird had one more great season left, in which he set career highs in scoring average, shooting percentage, and free throw percentage, but by that time a new, younger force had emerged as the league's top player, a young man named Michael Jordan.

The next season, Bird only played in the first six games before ending his season early to have surgery on both feet, and once he returned, back issues prevented him from ever regaining the form he had before the injuries. The Celtics never made it back to the Conference Finals during the final years of Bird's career, but with all he accomplished in a relatively short time, there is no way to argue that he doesn't belong in the discussion as one of the best players of all time.

Bird's career did not last as long as Duncan's, and he does not have as many championships either, but he did lead one more team to the Finals, and the level of play he reached during the prime of his career was far beyond anything Duncan was ever able to do, but another championship this season could push Duncan close enough that he could pass Bird at some point in the near future.