The case against him would be to list ten superior players. That’s quite difficult to do. Here are the players who can easily be argued to be better than Bird. Michael Jordan LeBron James Kareem Abdul Jabar Wilt Chamberlain Bill Russell I’m not interested in arguing that all five are superior, but I believe there are some fairly straightforward justifications for each. That means I need to discover five more names. They should presumably come from this list.
Magic Johnson Oscar Robertson Tim Duncan Hakeem Olajuwon Shaquille O’Neal Kevin Durant Steph Curry Kobe Bryant I am not sure I would rank any of those players ahead of Bird. I doubt I’d be able to find five to put ahead of him. The issue is that you can’t discover a consistent set of priorities that accommodates five. If you emphasize scoring, there are a few players who can outscore Bird, but not all five. If you prioritize playmaking, there are only a few.
If you value defense, you might not find five on this list, and defense was Bird’s worst point. Bird was still better than many people believe, and certainly better than Magic, Steph, and Durant. I’ve never seen Oscar play, so I can’t comment on his defense other than to say that he’s not usually ranked higher than Bird in measures like defensive win shares. The rest were arguably better than Bird, but Shaq’s finest defense, like Bird’s, was only seen in his younger days. If you value intangibles such as leadership, competitiveness, and crunch-time performance, you won’t find five — perhaps none. Are you a ring-counter? You will not find five.
If you value intangibles such as leadership, competitiveness, and crunch-time performance, you won’t find five — perhaps none. Are you a ring-counter? You will not find five. The only way to get to five is to contradict yourself by making the argument for each player individually. For example, when compared to Bird, Magic was a greater creator, a more flexible offensive player, and perhaps the best team leader of all time. However, Bird was a more effective scorer and defender. So, if you placed Magic ahead of Bird, you shouldn’t put Kobe ahead of him since Bird was a greater creator, a more versatile offensive player, and a better team leader than Kobe, despite the fact that Kobe scored more and (some argue) guarded better.
These kinds of discrepancies make it extremely difficult to argue consistently that any group of five of these players were superior to Bird, regardless of how you define “better.” Bird was so outstanding in all elements of the game that I doubt you could create a criterion based on a weighted average of all relevant factors that would not place Bird in the top ten, no matter how the weights were chosen. This is not true for many of the other players who are virtually universally regarded as top ten. Durant, Wilt, Hakeem, and the Big O may be too weak in the team success area, given none have won more than two championships. Russell and Duncan did not score enough. Steph does not rebound, pass, or play.
Bird was so dominant in every area that it is difficult to justify leaving him out of the top seven, let alone the top ten.
