Does any player have a case over Bird for most skilled ever?

[The-Legend-24]

Kobe's the most skilled player ever, everybody else is fighting for 2nd.

[SHAQisGOAT]

Others are up there with him and have a case but if you wanna name THE most skilled ever the best case belongs to Larry Bird, clear as day when you look at everything.

Add that to the fact that he was really tall, brought off-the-charts intangibles, and was an above average athlete, let's not kid ourselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX8ipponmSc

[bizil]

This.

I wouldn't put long distance shooting over handling the ball - which is a way more used skill. I wouldn't put anybody over Bird, Lebron, Kobe, Magic, West and Oscar. Lebron is in the mix because it is a different skill set to guard quick pointguards and powerforwards effectively. Oscar and West were guarding post up players as well. The differences are a matter of small tweeking. Bird is the most interesting because of how he used skill to totally put himself on the level of more gifted players.

I agree! The differences in a certain class of players is a matter of small differences. I also agree that great ball handling to get where u need to go has to be a huge difference as well. And the versatility King James brings on both sides of the floor makes him HANDS DOWN the most versatile player of all time. And Bron happens to be a freak athlete who has the 3rd best PPG average of all time. When u think about that, Bron has an EASY CASE to be the most skilled of all time too. So i agree with u, the perimeter guys u named all have a case to be most skilled of all time, MJ, Bird, Bron, Kobe, Magic, West, and Oscar are frankly the Magnificent Seven of perimeter players. All seven has a case in certain instances at the most skilled ever!

Even with THE LOGO to this day, name another pure shooter who is as skilled on both sides of the rock as West? U can't! Even though Kobe is so similar to MJ, Kobe explored the three ball way more than MJ did. And Kobe also was of the And 1 generation and took on that ball handling swagger of the generation. Basically, Kobe explored the boundaries of shooting and handles more than MJ did. Big O from a numbers standpoint looks to be the most skilled of all time in terms of triple double seasons racked up. Magic was a 6'9 phenom who's the greatest floor general of all time bar none. But could dominate scoring when he wanted and of course could play four and even at times all five positions. And with MJ, he was flat out the GOAT to me period in terms of skills on both sides on the ball. MJ was so efficient and was the first freak athlete to be FLAWLESS in terms of technical skills. It was as if he was he combined Dr.J and Thompson type athletic ability with Gervin's scoring skillset, and West's all around domination (great scorer, great passer, great defender, great rebounder for a SG) of the position. And for the big three stats of scoring, passing, and rebounding, Bird has the most impressive career averages for a perimeter player of all time at 24 PPG, 10 rpg, and 6 dimes.