Larry Bird vs Hakeem Olajuwon

[97 bulls]

Chris Mullin is literally my homeboy, but this is delusional.

Did the read the whole conversation?????? Lazaruss stated hed take a Boston team with Bird and Parrish over a Boston team with Olajuwan and without Bird. That would make either Parrish or Olajuwan or Mchale redundant. So my point was to replace Parish with Olajuwan, and Bird with Mullin.

I picked Mullin because hes great, but not on Birds level just like Parish while being great, wasn't on Olajuwans level. Its crazy to think a squad with Ainge, Johnson, Mullin, Mchale, and Olajuwan wouldn't be able to win multiple championships in the 80s

[KevinNYC]

prolly cause nobody remembers Moses and I don't think there's a lot of footage either. Some highlights around, mostly Sixers stuff. He was so great man, and he was somethin' at Houston too. That man was tops.

Dude was FEROCIOUS GOOD!!

30-30s just bang! Smashing on all-time greats too when he did those. We're not talking about Kevin Love doing that to a chump defender like A'mare on the Knicks.

But you know people don't even remember Andrew Toney man.... that dude..... so great of a player but just totally forgot. Everybody just remembers Dr. J they don't even know how stacked that Sixers squad was and what the team really was all about.

They had to be somethin' else to get through both Bird Celtics and the Showtime Lakers.
And that's what they were too.

I think if you just look at highlights, you think Hakeem is better than Moses, he is definitely prettier, but Moses was just a beast. Early 80's Sixer-Celtic basketball was amazing.

[97 bulls]

Which allowed him to be a disruptive force. Here's Hubie Brown on Bird after Larry dropped 37 points on 16-22 shooting. What's he talk about? Bird's defense.



The things that Bird was good at on defense were the things that Maxwell or McHale could not do. He was not a lockdown defender on the wing, but, particularly before the back injuries, he was a great defensive player. He just did it differently. His career defensive rating is higher than Pippen's.

His defensive rating is high because he guarded the weaker offensive forward. Damn why is this so hard to understand? Carlos Boozer also has a high defensive rating, for the same reason. Its funny how circumstances are totally thrown out the window when it comes to certain players/teams.

I could say Dennis Rodman is a better scorer than Bird based on their career FG%s. But everyone knows its not that simple.

[KevinNYC]

Did the read the whole conversation?????? Lazaruss stated hed take a Boston team with Bird and Parrish over a Boston team with Olajuwan and without Bird. That would make either Parrish or Olajuwan or Mchale redundant. So my point was to replace Parish with Olajuwan, and Bird with Mullin.

I picked Mullin because hes great, but not on Birds level just like Parish while being great, wasn't on Olajuwans level. Its crazy to think a squad with Ainge, Johnson, Mullin, Mchale, and Olajuwan wouldn't be able to win multiple championships in the 80s

I did, but all you said was

So you don't think a suitable SF replacement for Bird like say Chris Mullin would've won multiple championships in the 80s?

so it wasn't clear at all. But since you are talking about Mullin AND Olajuwon, I retract delusional.

[chocolatethunder]

Both those Rockets teams were teams where all the pieces fit together well and were a sum much better than the parts.

That's why it's called a team. You can gather a bunch of names together that sound good and look good on paper but can't deliver the goods. Or you can build a team by realizing which players complement the others and perform seemingly better than you should. I prefer the team.

[KevinNYC]

His defensive rating is high because he guarded the weaker offensive forward. Damn why is this so hard to understand? Carlos Boozer also has a high defensive rating, for the same reason. Its funny how circumstances are totally thrown out the window when it comes to certain players/teams.

I could say Dennis Rodman is a better scorer than Bird based on their career FG%s. But everyone knows its not that simple.

No, his defensive rating is high because that stat values STOPs, defensive rebounds, steals and blocks and Bird was very good at those over his career.

[KevinNYC]

That's why it's called a team. You can gather a bunch of names together that sound good and look good on paper but can't deliver the goods. Or you can build a team by realizing which players complement the others and perform seemingly better than you should. I prefer the team.

Also Thorpe, Horry, Smith, Maxwell, and my man Sam Cassell were all pretty fearless players.

[La Frescobaldi]

Also Thorpe, Horry, Smith, Maxwell, and my man Sam Cassell were all pretty fearless players.

People tend to just slosh past Horry but that guy was a player who knew when it really counted

[chocolatethunder]

Also Thorpe, Horry, Smith, Maxwell, and my man Sam Cassell were all pretty fearless players.

Yea as I've said several times in this god awful thread haha.