If a young Bill, Wilt, KAJ, Shaq, Hakeem, TimD, KG and DRob were time travelled...

[Pointguard]

Maxwell was the one guarding King the most, McHale was coming off the bench and didn't guard him as much as Cornbread, he was 2nd in time spent guarding BK, let's say, though. Larry also had plenty of shots at him, King easily guarded Bird more than the other way around though, mostly because the Knicks had nobody better suited for it, in their starting line-up, so yea you have a point if you're trying to say that King had to "use more energy" (but, on the other hand, Bird also did more on the boards, playmaking and team d). Anyways, with that said, what you've said are just assumptions too, fact is that Bernard was still killing any defender on him and Bird was eating them alive (BK and so on), even beating King at his "own game", his maing thing, scoring, while being better all-around as you can't also forget that Bird grabbed 40 more rebounds than King in the series, and averaged a considerable higher number of assists, so it's not "just" the scoring even though Larry also was clearly above in that department.
And you just don't put your best offensive player on the opponent's best offensive player, for long stretches, when you have other players who can do it, plus can expend more energy on defense and/or do it better.. Always happened and will continue to happen, even with dudes like Jordan, Kareem, Lebron....

Also, speaking of team defense, Knicks had the best ranked defense in the 1983-84 regular season.

McHale guarded King most of the time and there are articles of McHale and King going at it - it was not Maxwell as you have conjured in your head. Maxwell was brought in to try to rough King up but King humiliated him and made him look like a fool - Maxwell was missing hard fouls! But Maxwell, the hitman, got off his pops to the eye and head before he left. McHale was more effective because of the long arms. McHale even said "we are going to stop this B" and it was front lines in the NY papers. King did have two 40 point games in that series.

This is Bird's first peak year and still he King was much more of phenomenal scorer. He had Bird by at least 80% points in FG% very close right at 70% points in TS% and EFG% and scored 3 more ppg for the regular season that year.

In the playoffs King still had 50% points higher in FG% along with 10% points TS and 40% points in EFG and despite it being Birds best point per game average in the playoffs, King still had him by seven full points per game. These are not small margins.

Bird was guarding truck Robinson who hung out under the basket so the rebounds are suppose to favor him. Plus he was just a better rebounder anyway. King tired at the end of the series because of his duties.

[fpliii]

In terms of skill in the post, really up there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBnwSeMiVaU

I usually say a player is "non-big" when he's neither a C nor a PF, Barkley was mostly a PF so I wouldn't call him a non-big, you're probably taking height into consideration yea.

AD is the best scorer in the post for non-bigs, easily, even considering bigs he's one of the very best in terms of post scoring.

Post players

High Repertoire
Hakeem, McHale, Kareem, Petite

Power
Shaq, Wilt, Mikan, - non bigs K Malone, Barkley

Not so much Gilmore

Plenty to do in the post
Duncan, KG

Asterisk
Walton, Yao, Sabonis

Non descript but lets gets some boards with it:
Hayes and Moses Malone


Non Centers
Worthy, King, Dantley, Jordan, Oscar, Baylor, Doc J, The Pearl, Frazier

[Orlando Magic]

Career? Kareem.
Peak or guy who I think can most likely bring me a title by himself for a 3-4 year stretch? Shaq.

[TheMan]

Career? Kareem.
Peak or guy who I think can most likely bring me a title by himself for a 3-4 year stretch? Shaq.

Maybe you should consider Hakeem instead. His best teammate was an over the hill Drexler. Shaq won his titles with Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade and missed with a player who I feel could've had a GOAT career if not for injuries, Penny Hardaway. I wouldn't call that winning by himself.

[SHAQisGOAT]

McHale guarded King most of the time and there are articles of McHale and King going at it - it was not Maxwell as you have conjured in your head. Maxwell was brought in to try to rough King up but King humiliated him and made him look like a fool - Maxwell was missing hard fouls! But Maxwell, the hitman, got off his pops to the eye and head before he left. McHale was more effective because of the long arms. McHale even said "we are going to stop this B" and it was front lines in the NY papers. King did have two 40 point games in that series.

This is Bird's first peak year and still he King was much more of phenomenal scorer. He had Bird by at least 80% points in FG% very close right at 70% points in TS% and EFG% and scored 3 more ppg for the regular season that year.

In the playoffs King still had 50% points higher in FG% along with 10% points TS and 40% points in EFG and despite it being Birds best point per game average in the playoffs, King still had him by seven full points per game. These are not small margins.

Bird was guarding truck Robinson who hung out under the basket so the rebounds are suppose to favor him. Plus he was just a better rebounder anyway. King tired at the end of the series because of his duties.

[B]Why are you making stuff up, really? Maxwell was the one guarding King the most, not that McHale didn't guard him a lot but he was 2nd in that department, right after Cornbread. Maxwell was brought in? If anything it was McHale who was brought in, because Max was starting. Conjured in my head? I've watched a full 3 games from the series not long ago. I'd even upload those full games on youtube just to prove my point if they didn't take it down, but here, watch some highlights if you want:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEVdHo2OYs4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX45kgRREbQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrHCrwU6InU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWr5JLVZV-E

Not enough, want an article too?

Even before the first forearm shiver was fired in anger, Boston's M.L. Carr, a little-used sub who's chiefly renowned for his strong-arm stuff, publicly predicted, "Bernard has scored his last 40 points. We've got somebody who can stop him." That somebody was 6'8" forward Cedric Maxwell. Stopping King promised to be no mean feat because in the Knicks' five-game playoff series with Detroit, the 6'7" King had averaged a remarkable 42.6 points a game, including 44 in the decisive game. But Maxwell was unmoved by this feat, and the day before the series began he said, "He ain't getting 40 on us. We're going to stop the bitch."

[QUOTE]Maxwell later insisted he had only been kidding, but when King scored 26 points in Game 1 and then was held to 13 in Game 2

[Pointguard]

Why are you making stuff up, really? Maxwell was the one guarding King the most, not that McHale didn't guard him a lot but he was 2nd in that department, right after Cornbread. Maxwell was brought in? If anything it was McHale who was brought in, because Max was starting. Conjured in my head? I've watched a full 3 games from the series not long ago. I'd even upload those full games on youtube just to prove my point if they didn't take it down, but here, watch some highlights if you want:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEVdHo2OYs4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX45kgRREbQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrHCrwU6InU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWr5JLVZV-E

Not enough, want an article too?





So McHale even said "we're going to stop this bitch"? Typical Kevin McHale

Anyways, like I've said, King was still pretty much murking whoever.

Who was talking about the regular-season though? So you're saying peak King was a better scorer than Larry Bird? Most likely yea, peak King is one of the GOAT scorers, at the very top in that regard. Bird was still MUCH better in rebounding, passing/playmaking and even had him by a comfortable margin in overall D, plus he was close in scoring and was more versatile doing it. Bird was top10 in points and rebounds, leading non-guards in assists, 2nd in PER, 2nd in WS, 1st in DWS and 2nd in DRtg, getting MVP, making all-defensive... But you wanna boil it down to scoring, go ahead..
Oh and, again, when their teams went against each other in the playoffs, Bird outscored him while being more efficient, grabbed much more boards, made much more assists, outplayed him in game7 and won the series. That's prime Bird for ya. So yea keep mentioning other "things" and making shit up.

One, you brought up scoring.
You brought up TS%.
You brought up FG%.
And that is all I addressed.

Those are things I know Bernard King was great at. At a level few would ever achieve including Bird. Few players that ever played were better than Bird overall and I say that frequently, I don't have a tier over Bird in overall offense. But a lot of people here have these one size fits all for everybody. Bird simply wasn't on the same level as King that year in scoring efficiency and productivity. Its not the end of the world or some crazy assertion. King was off the hook in those categories. King would shoot 59% and 57% fg with over 15 attempts per game. He was a high efficiency scorer and he did it from all over. When healthy he had one of the most impressive shots in the game ever.

Just like Jordan wasn't the best everything, nobody is. I had an argument on here with someone saying Jordan was more efficient in his movement than BK was. King rarely did pump fakes and frequently took one or two dribbles and shoot in complete flow. He moved the ball as quick as anybody ever.

My memory is still pretty good but the NY papers did put McHale on the front cover. It definitely sounds like that jerk Maxwell, tho. The difference of what King averaged at the Garden where Maxwell was allowed to do everything short of kidnap King is huge. King averaged 37 at home and only 23 at Boston. The refs were flat out scared in Boston but I'm glad the league isn't that ridiculous anymore. You did see the series and you don't talk about how Parrish took King out, early in that last game. Boston was dirty and had a totally crazy ref/arena advantage.

Bird flat out said, “I didn’t guard Bernard. I knew I had no chance guarding Bernard.” and Bird was second team all defense. In the NY Times I recall Bird saying "Bernard was the best SF in the league" - it had to have been at this time in question. Dominique said he was the one he dreaded playing against and I think he only saw injured King?

Of course I'm not saying he was the best, but he was the best pure scorer for a minute there.