Your All-Time Starting 5

[wwharton]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

I'm with you, I'd dig some more stats to throw around with you if I wasnt at work for the next hour trying to wrap up the week. 3p% and such definitely favored Bird, off the top of my head. FG% did as well, figured I would settle with that.

I agree that we could look at years 1-8 for both to get a clearer picture. But at the end of the day I think we ccan both agree stats will never settle this argument, or any other argument. That's the beauty of basketball, the stats aren't everything. There's much, much more that is involved. It will definitely be interesting to see where Bron ends his career in this spectrum, but I can envision him being a part of the super friends has already dinged his intangible column almost to an irreperable state. He couldn't lead the Cavs (Which, I don't necessarily blame him, but that's neither here nor there), and retreated to somewhere he could rely on other "superstar" talents to help carry.

Ironically, wrapping up the next hour or so of the work week is exactly why I've made time for these debates, lol.

[Drewski]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

Ironically, wrapping up the next hour or so of the work week is exactly why I've made time for these debates, lol.

LoL, I hear you there. I've got a ton on the plate or I'd probably have thrown more statistics/comparisons for the sake of having them up but my minds ticking about this debate. Buddy here I work with jabbers NBA with me throughout the day and I have him thinking about the SF position in this list as well now.

[bkrich83]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

I'm with you, I'd dig some more stats to throw around with you if I wasnt at work for the next hour trying to wrap up the week. 3p% and such definitely favored Bird, off the top of my head. FG% did as well, figured I would settle with that.

I agree that we could look at years 1-8 for both to get a clearer picture. But at the end of the day I think we ccan both agree stats will never settle this argument, or any other argument. That's the beauty of basketball, the stats aren't everything. There's much, much more that is involved. It will definitely be interesting to see where Bron ends his career in this spectrum, but I can envision him being a part of the super friends has already dinged his intangible column almost to an irreperable state. He couldn't lead the Cavs (Which, I don't necessarily blame him, but that's neither here nor there), and retreated to somewhere he could rely on other "superstar" talents to help carry.

To be fair. The championship teams Bird played on were loaded with talent as well and had more depth than Lebrons teams have as well (both past and present).

[BunnyHardaway]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

My Favorite Starting 5:

PG: Gary Payton
SG: Penny Hardaway
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: Shawn Kemp
C: Shaquille O'Neal

Best Starting 5:

PG: Oscar Robertson
SG: Michael Jordan
SF: Larry Bird
PF: Karl Malone
C: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

[wwharton]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

To be fair. The championship teams Bird played on were loaded with talent as well and had more depth than Lebrons teams have as well (both past and present).

This is true but so did the competition. No offense to the current Miami Heat but they're in the finals because the other teams aren't that good (relatively speaking). This Heat team would've been lucky to get one win against Bird's Celtics, Magic's Lakers and maybe other teams of that time. That's part of the reason I hope they don't win this year since we already know they lack humility. A ring is a ring, but I think it won't be until next year or the year after that they'll have a team that will have a chance to be on par with the all time greats.

[Scott812313]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

PG-Magic
SG-MJ
SF-Kobe
PF-Duncan
C-Russell ( I would have Wilt here, but his scoring wouldn't really be needed with this team)

[bkrich83]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

This is true but so did the competition. No offense to the current Miami Heat but they're in the finals because the other teams aren't that good (relatively speaking). This Heat team would've been lucky to get one win against Bird's Celtics, Magic's Lakers and maybe other teams of that time. That's part of the reason I hope they don't win this year since we already know they lack humility. A ring is a ring, but I think it won't be until next year or the year after that they'll have a team that will have a chance to be on par with the all time greats.

Oh I agree. Quite simply expansion has really watered down the league. The Lakers had guys like Michael Cooper and Mychal Thompson off the bench. Or the Celts with guys like Bill Walton or he'll at one point Kevin McHale was a 6th man for them. If you compare the overall talent levels and depth it's not close.

I don't think the one and done's are doing the league any favors either.

[wwharton]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

Oh I agree. Quite simply expansion has really watered down the league. The Lakers had guys like Michael Cooper and Mychal Thompson off the bench. Or the Celts with guys like Bill Walton or he'll at one point Kevin McHale was a 6th man for them. If you compare the overall talent levels and depth it's not close.

I don't think the one and done's are doing the league any favors either.

I really wish I could've seen the Celtics with Len Bias. I think that team would've been sick.

The 1 and done's is a whole different discussion. I think both the NBA and college ball were better before players started routinely leaving so early. I guess it's better than the trend of high schoolers before but not much better. It's a shame the D league can't be a true minor league system (or that kids don't want to stay in college for at least 3 years, but I can't be mad at them for wanting to strike while the iron's hot... guess I'm mad at the iron).

[The15thunter]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

Friggin Larry Bird.

• Bird's competitive nature often emerged in nearly constant trash-talking on the court. Some notable examples follow:
  
• During the three-point shooting contest on All-Star Weekend 1986, Bird entered the locker room, looked around without saying a word, then finally said, "I want all of you to know I am winning this thing. I'm just looking around to see who's gonna finish up second." He won the shooting contest.
  
• During one game on Christmas Day against the Indiana Pacers, before the game Bird told Chuck Person that he had a Christmas present waiting for him. During the game, when Person was on the bench, Bird shot a three-pointer on the baseline right in front of Person. Immediately after releasing the ball, Bird said to Person, "Merry ****in' Christmas!", and then the shot went in. This was no doubt inspired by Person (nicknamed the "Rifleman") stating prior to the game that "The Rifleman is Coming, and He's Going Bird Hunting."
  
• Reggie Miller recalled his encounter with Larry Bird's legendary trash talking ability in his book "I Love Being The Enemy". Reggie tried to disrupt Larry's concentration when he was shooting free throws late in a game. Larry glared at him, made the first free throw and said, "Rook, I am the best shooter in the league right now. In the league. Understand? And you're up here trying to tell me something?" Then Larry buried the second free throw.
  
• Late in a tied game against the Seattle SuperSonics, Bird told Supersonics forward Xavier McDaniel, who was guarding him, “I’m going to get [the ball] right here and I am going to shoot it in your face.” As McDaniel remembers it, he responded by saying, “I know, I’ll be waiting.” After a timeout, Bird made two baseline cuts, then posted in the exact spot he had indicated to McDaniel, paused, turned, and made it in his face. He finished up the sequence by telling McDaniel, “I didn’t mean to leave two seconds on the clock.”
  
• On November 9, 1984, Bird was ejected along with Julius Erving in the third quarter after an on court scuffle. At the point of both ejections, Bird had outscored Erving 42 to 6. During the game, Bird had continuously informed Erving of their tallies with every chance he got to score. Bird denies this stating that it was teammate "M.L. (Carr) talking trash from the bench" during that game.[32] Eventually a shoving match ensued, then swings taken by both players, and finally a bench-clearing brawl.

I remember all these.

From his wikipedia page.

the last one is the game where larry was torching dr. j over and over, literally vocally calling him out so he could score on him. it got so bad that barkley and moses malone end up holding bird's arms at halfcourt and dr. j hits him with a two-peice combo to the face.

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

Someone can embed these if they want:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77ZdzNuz454

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvo7__wwBU

[gator15]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

PG- Magic
SG- Jordan
SF- Bird
PF- Duncan
C- Shaq

[55]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

Just from players I have seen, with the respective version of them I would pick:

PG - Magic Johnson (1988-89 season: 22.5 PTS, 7.9 REB, 12.8 AST, 1.8 STL, 0.3 BLK, .509 FG%, .911 FT%)

SG - Michael Jordan (1988-89 season: 32.5 PTS, 8.0 REB, 8.0 AST, 2.9 STL, 0.8 BLK, .538 FG%, .850 FT%)

SF - Larry Bird (1984-85 season: 28.7 PTS, 10.5 REB, 6.6 AST, 1.6 STL, 1.2 BLK, .522 FG%, .882 FT%)

PF - Kevin Garnett (2003-04 season: 24.2 PTS, 13.9 REB, 5.0 AST, 1.5 STL, 2.2 BLK, .499 FG%, .791 FT%)

C - Hakeem Olajuwon (1992-93 season: 26.1 PTS, 13.0 REB, 3.5 AST, 1.8 STL, 4.2 BLK, .529 FG%, .779 FT%)

Every single one of those guys could score and didn't take bad shots as evidenced by their high field goal percentages. They also all hit free throws extremely well for their respective positions. All of them could play very good defense too. The only weak link at all would be three point shooting, but with a starting five of this caliber I highly doubt it would matter.

[Weeks]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

Someone can embed these if they want:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77ZdzNuz454

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvo7__wwBU

Share>Embed>Check mark "Use old embed code">Copy the code>Paste the code in the forum

<object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/77ZdzNuz454?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/77ZdzNuz454?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="349" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

[ex carrabba fan]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

Dr. J went to work! Wow

There was only one ref that game? Lol

[buckeye02]

Re: Your All-Time Starting 5

I'll take Bird over LeBron all day. I want someone who won't quit on his team.