Larry Bird vs. Kobe Bryant

[iDefend5]

Who do you have ranked higher in your top 10? Both of these guys are CLEARLY top 10 players of all-time, but who do you have ranked above who?

[cuad]

Bird > Kobe

[SuperPippen]

Every Celtics fan will say Bird. Every Lakers fan is going to say Kobe, and many of them will proceed to act as though Larry Bird was overrated and doesn't deserve to even be mentioned in the same breath as Kobe.


I wouldn't be upset with either player being ranked above the other, but I believe that, in his prime, Bird was an overall better ballplayer than Kobe was. He could just positively affect a game in more ways than Kobe could. Kobe is the better volume scorer and man-to-man defender. Bird has everything else.

[LABean]

Kobe, and it ain't close, at all.

[Faptastrophe]

^
A part of me just died.

Bird was better.

he played in a better era, beat better teams and was more clutch than Kobe in big games (Kobe is quite clutch as well).

Aside from the '09 Celtics, the best teams that Kobe had to overcome were the Blazers and Kings at the turn of the century (the nucleus of those teams never made a final) so Kobe only beat one great team in his five championships, and the greatness of that team is debatable.

Bird had to go through Moses and Dr. J; Worthy, Magic and Kareem; Hakeem and Ralph Sampson; some underrated Milwaukee teams (Moncrief, Pressey, Cummings, Sikma) etc... In short, he never had the privilege of facing a Iverson lead team, or a crap Nets team or a under-staffed Magic squad.

You could argue that Bird played with legends like McHale and Parish, but that point is moot since Kobe played with Shaq for three rings, and if you asked McHale or Parish, they'd defer to Bird in a second, while Shaq might not do the same to Kobe (lol).

Kobe Bryant is a great player, ranked somewhere between 7 and 14 all time depending on your leanings, but he is NOT Larry Bird.

Only fanboys and kids who never saw Bird play or lived through the Bird and Magic era would think that, anyone over the age of 30 would laugh in the face of this argument.

[talkingconch]

Bird is ranked higher right now, when Kobe's career is over some will say he'll be higher.

[LABean]

^
A part of me just died.

Would have been better if it wasn't just a part of you that died.

[midatlantic09]

Kobe. Bird is a bit overrated.

[SuperPippen]

Kobe, and it ain't close, at all.

You unoriginal troll of a twit. I would feel sorry for you if your antics weren't so mildly irritating.

[SuperPippen]

Kobe. Bird is a bit overrated.

The term "overrated" gets thrown around too easily these days. Just because you think that a certain player wasn't as good as many others think that he was, does not make him overrated.

[Dictator]

Kobe

[Faptastrophe]

Would have been better if it wasn't just a part of you that died.

Well, that's just low..

[LABean]

You unoriginal troll of a twit. I would feel sorry for you if your antics weren't so mildly irritating.

Thanks for not feeling sorry for me.

[rodman91]

Larry Bird,easily.

[PickernRoller]

Might as well just ask if the whole league is better than Kobe. You'll have a 100 post saying so.........ISH is a the birthplace of stupidity and so is this thread.