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My glorious pookie bear and our king LeDaddy is top 2 and ain’t 2!

Larry won three consecutive regular season MVPs, and two Finals MVPs in a competitive era. He ain't overrated

As a Celtics fan, and therefore a Larry Bird enthusiast. While I think Bird is underrated(he is top 10 and second best SF all time behind Lebron). I almost never see his overall skill as a player talked about. This guy played like a skinny Nikola Jokic , excellent passing ability, a solid finishing game, great shooting for a player of his build , and solid defense. But everyone always goes “Haha white guy talk trash and shoot 3 real good” when that completely devalues his game

Watching Rusty for a few years now and hearing him be negative about Zach Lavine is great character development

I watched Larry Bird from college all the way through his pro career. Every bit of his legend is legit. He is only overrated to people who never saw him play. Passing, shooting, team defense, grit and general competitiveness. He was one of the best players I have ever seen, hands down.

I’ve become a Bill Russell fan so much over the past few years. The things that man went through playing in Boston during the 50’s and 60’s are unthinkable. And then to still succeed above your peers is insane.

We can’t be watching the same LeBron James. He may not be top 5 but i think you’re slighting him pretty heavily

I hate when people talk about Larry's overrated shooter, or that he didnt had any particular mindblowing skill. Completely ignoring he was an exceptional scorer, rebounder and passer, with the 2nd best shooting splits of all time, only behind Steve Nash. And he was a great defender too.

Umm actually Larry Bird is underrated as a basketball player.. during their primes Larry was considered the best basketball player in the world over magic.. the difference is Magic has the greatest what if scenario in history and his game would’ve lasted longer at a higher level than larry (we assume) .. it’s really the fact that there’s more people (including myself) that like the lakers over the celtics which has negatively affected bird and Russell’s rankings over the years..

Im sorry Kawhi is not top 10, availability is the best ability. Where is Zion ranked if availability doesn't matter? Kawhi legit hasn't played a meaningful stretch of basketball since 2019.

There's no evidence that suggests Kawhi or KD were better than LeBron last season to me. Maybe they will be better this upcoming season, but from what I just saw, Lebron's still better

I don't really know where you were going with that Larry Bird take. If you want to say he's overrated due to the way people talk about him like some kind of legend... that's true of most players in the top 10. I don't really think you can be overrated if you're for sure in the top 10 all time (which Bird undeniably is). He accomplished almost all you possibly can during his shortened career. The people I place above him (Jordan, Lebron, Kareem, and maybe Magic) all had good luck with injuries, or got to play with another top 10 player, so their number of rings was higher (e.g. Kareem and Magic); those are really the biggest knocks against him.

Hot take: Your opinion of how good Larry Bird was as a three point shooter depends on how much weight you put into having been one of the best at the skill at a point in time as much as anything else. Those who rank him in the top few tend to point to his splits and volume relative to his own time, whereas those who say he’s ranked too high tend to cite the fact that players in later generations took more threes than Bird did, and might argue that being just as good relative to a more recent field of shooters is more impressive because more threes are being taken to begin with.

The LeBron disrespect is crazy, really really crazy.

Your LeBron take is insane💀

The only way LeBron is rated that low is if you completely ignore his playmaking. He is still a better playmaker than 99.9% of Point Guards all time, and constantly elevates his teammates even if he doesn’t get an assist every time. Also, I love Luka, but his defense needs to not be 2017 James Harden defense if you want to convince me he’s better than LeBron. And I should probably also be really high. Luka’s defense is ass. 65 Million Year Old LeBron is *still* a better defender than Luka. I love you, Rusty, but this take is bad.

Digging the slickback hairstyle - looks good on you Rusty!

I think saying Bird can't compare to modern 3 pt shooters is a little off. In his day coaches dont want you to shoot threes, players dont even think threes a great so they're not even trying, if they did it too much they'd get benched. Bird has one of the most iconic 3 pt contest performances of all time if that means anything. if bird grew up in the 00's or 90's i think he would be competing for best shooter of all time with a high volume of threes attempted. of course we'll never know.

I always appreciate your selections because they feel like stuff people actually believe in and not just to be saying some shit.

SGA better than bron is ludicrous imo

"he was greater than he was better" lol love it

It took 20 seasons breaking the all time scoring record and 3 big injuries over the last 6 seasons for KD to overtake lebron And im just saying the real i still dont think hes done it, booker really won those playoff games hell of anyone on the lakers woukda droppes 40 woth lebron nuggets had no answer they wanted lebron to score 60 I would gladly take any veraion of lebron to lead my team over KD not even close, id take old lebron who will get 20 load managgames off and lead us in playoffs over KD 65 games amd flame out in playoffs

We don't actually know how good Leonard is in 2023 playing full season

Hot take: all time rankings are trash in general. It’s almost impossible to truly compare players from different eras. Hotter take: there is no GOAT. There is no such thing as a single greatest basketball player.

I think Devin Booker is going to be the facilitator and main ball handler after enough games go by

In the 1987-1988 season the Celtics took the most amount of 3-point attempts per game - 8.6 attempts. Larry Bird shot 3.1 of those attemps, meaning 36% of all the teams 3-point shots were taken by Bird, in a season where he averaged 41% from behind the arc. I'd say shooting above 40% while taking more than a third of your team's 3s is pretty great.

LeBron James is still a top-five player based off his basketball IQ alone. People are saying that he's washed because his three-point percentage went down but knowing LeBron I fully expect for him to bounce back next year. Yes he is showing signs of aging when it comes to things like his injuries and his stamina but he will combat this by shooting a better percentage from three next year which will open things up for him not to mention that he was still dominant in the playoffs on the boards and defensively while injured.

SGA over Lebron?!

I actually personally do have Lebron in like that fifth spot, Giannis and Jokic are def better but after that who’s actually for sure better ?🤷‍♂️

I definitely don’t think Shaq was a better overall basketball player than Kobe, kobe was more skilled offensively and a bit better of an overall defender while shaq was more efficient and obviously better at paint defense but that’s really all he has on Kobe peak for peak in my opinion. But I agree with the rest.

YEA KD AND AD ARE NOT BETTER THAN LEBRON. THAT SHIT IS DELUSIONAL. HES BETTER THAN THE MVP BUT NOT TOP 5 LOL

Love the truth about Lavine 😂 ‘no he’s not’ haha

I don’t think ad is better than bron

So many bad takes in one video 😂😂😂

😂😂😂😂 @ the Bird take.... "a bland white guy. Drinks beer in front of the tv. Puts gravel in the driveway, He's like your uncle" Rusty is usually insightful now Rusty is beginning to launch a stand-up career

Bruce Brown going to Indiana wont hurt denver that much

1st guy cooking bill was great but idc about the plumber era with 4 teams or wtv Edit: my guy didn’t bird have like 50 in that left handed game that’s impressive idc what shots he was taking. Also bird > magic

Lebron averaged 29/8/7 this year & led a team to the WCF. How on earth is putting him in the top 5 “delusional”?? I’m not even a Lebron fan but goddamn that’s a bad take. Also he’s WAY better than AD

You telling me if the Lakers won the chip AD would be the finals MVP 😂

Gotta be on performance enhancing drugs to do this for so long at this level

The suns didn’t have Chris Paul for games 2-6 so I don’t really see the argument about the Beal Paul gap because Denver played that series without Chris Paul for the majority of it

I thought this said ten months ago 😭 I was a little confused on why the topics we're newer but I never noticed

Thats so not fair they didnt even have three pointers the year larry bird was drafted his coaches literally told him not to shoot him how could you blame him from that you can watch the 3 point contests and know he was the best shooter

Only player I say is definitely better than Lebron are Curry Jokic & Giannis … maybe Luka … but other than that I can see a case for top 5 … I’d probably have him around 9 tho

Zach Lavine is a better shooter and playmaker than JB, saying that all Zach does is score and say that JB is somehow this all around threat is delusional.

Jesus. When you compare players in different eras, you don't compare based on stats, you compare on how much that player dominated his era.

Larry Bird was at least for 3 years the undisputed best player in a League with Magic, Kareem, Julius Erving, a young but already amazing Michael Jordan, Isaiah Thomas, Moses Malone, a young but already great Hakeem, Dominique Wilkins and many other top guys. This is what you call a legend.

Curious, once PHX makes the KD trade…what better is out there than Beal? They had really no assets beside 2nds, and then their 2030 swap IMO is valuable but teams don’t seem to value those things enough, (very far out picks/swaps) so ya. They were kinda stuck after the KD trade, CP3 wasn’t good enough and they had no real assets beside the 2030 swap and some 2nds. Trading Ayton wasn’t viable, at best you’re getting like THJr, Kleber, JaVale…and you’re not getting P10 too. Maybe DAL re-routes that SAC 1st (P24) or they move down again for some pick that’s likely to be in the 20s in the future. So THJr/Kleber/JaVale & a pick in the 20s in that draft, or a future lotto protected 1st that’ll likely end up in the 20s. Maybe you could then flip CP3 + late 1st + 2030 swap for another solid role player? Idk who that even is, but as much as ppl hate on Ayton, when he’s engaged he’s a legit good starting C. JaVale is cooked, Kleber is pretty old, (he’d be helpful but it’d be a huge downgrade + injury issues) and while THJr would be helpful bc they need more 3P shooting, they’d still need to pull off a magic trick and turn CP3 and some mediocre assets in to a good player. Idk why they didn’t keep Torrey Craig, but beside a couple, they did p well on the minimum market. Beal Booker KD Ayton with Goodwin, Okogie, Yuta, Keita, EG, Eubanks, etc. they are far from just having no shot to win it all. They’ll need luck obviously, health plus a cpl guys like Yuta/Diop being able to hit corner 3s and defend, but they’re very likely to rack up a lot of reg season wins. If they have those 4 healthy, and another 3-4 reliable guys for the playoffs, they have the ceiling to do it. Much higher % than anything else they could’ve done post KD trade. Like yea DEN is amazing, but they lost two of their 7-8 playoff guys without replacing them. They’re THIN. If any of Murray/AG/MPJr aren’t healthy in the playoffs, so much changes. To be clear I’m just trying to look at it without bias. I’m not a PHX fan, no horse in this race what so ever. I would’ve done a trillion things differently as PHX, dating back to passing on Haliburton…messing up the Crowder thing, not obtaining a legit backup PG, (or a combo guard that could create/shoot) when CP3 was clearly not looking good and Payne/Shamet aren’t good, the entire KD trade, (doing it, and giving up everything not nailed down including giving BKN the resources to save almost $100M, then not getting a decent role player or two back) the list goes on. But to say they have 0 shot against DEN is obviously hyperbole, but I truly think you’re not realizing how already locked in they were. They weren’t getting better than Beal + mins in any other way, trust me I’ve spent way too much time on it. Just not happening. Again I disagree with the KD trade, mostly bc of how hastily it was done and they cut corners. But once you do that, the Beal trade raises your ceiling the most out of anything they could’ve done. I mean yea I get it book odds don’t directly correlate to actual % chance of winning, but it’s not completely off the map either. They’re +650 to win it all, behind only DEN (+475) and BOS (+500) with MIL (+850) being 4th. Those 4 teams are all between 51.5-54.5 over under wins also. Their reg season seed O/U is 3.5 with heavy juice on the under (as in favored to be 1-3 vs 4 or worse) as well. If DEN suffers an injury to one of their T4 guys and PHX is healthy, they’ll be favored to come out of the West. That means something. If the threshold for going all in was being favored to win it all, or favored to make the finals, (and often favored means like 15-20% to win it all) then only 2 teams should have their chips in the middle. I’ll just say it one more time. Once you make the KD trade, which I wouldn’t have done if that was the price, you make the Beal move. They gave up v little for Beal truly. Legit one valuable swap, 2nds, and CP3’s expiring along w Shamet etc. Jordan Goodwin might be decent! Love the content as always. I just think you’re overvaluing their remaining assets and what they could’ve done with them vs getting Beal. Unless you think Poole would’ve been a better option or something. ✌️

Larry would kill in this era because he could just score whenever he wanted and the 3 isn’t “a bad shot” anymore

Kareem hater? To some extent I can get that. Lots of times he didn’t even run down the court, it was like he didn’t really try. Except during the playoffs

Rusty I really enjoy your content. However, your Lebron take was off. In the playoffs Lebron was more reliable than AD, im not putting AD over him, maybe if he played more consistently. Definitely not SGA, the iq and the defense both go to Lebron and both are able to score on the same level.

The only way you can say Larry Bird is overrated or not an elite shooter is if you look at stats on a page and ignore context. The 3 point line was introduced the same year he was drafted which means he had to learn how to shoot 3 pointers on the job and didn't have the luxury of decades worth of it existing like modern day players do and still was not only the first person to ever have a 50/40/90 season but he had 2 of them. He did that shit twice before anyone else had done it once. So the only logical conclusion is that if the 3 point line had existed before Bird was drafted he would have came out of the gates an elite shooter. An efficient 3 level scorer that had to learn the 3rd level as it was introduced who could also play make at an elite level at 6'9" with high level defense and overall high IQ, won 3 MVPs, and 3 titles. Yeah he is so overrated. Get out of here, I wasn't even alive to watch him play but I can come to that conclusion just by looking at it deeper than just raw stats.

I've heard many people say that Josh Giddey could perhaps be the handsome Australian Larry Bird of the modern era

Well Larry did also win championships and MVPs, that also helped his image.

Healthy Kawhi and healthy Lebron are comparable, but it seems you penalize Lebron for playing subpar games vs Kawhi not playing at all.

5:00 u forgot curry lmao

They talk bout bird like he’s kevin Durant

Nah I gotta disagree on the Larry left hand game. Not only finishing with left but also shooting with his left hand. That’s pretty impressive. But I guess you have godly standard or something

yo this guy looks kinda like pat riley with his hair slicked back ;)

Bird was really a mix of Luka and Jokic with better defense than either of them

What u said about Larry is exactly the problem with the casual fans opinion of MJ. All auro no context.

No matter how you look at it objectively even as the biggest Bron fan of your a gm there's at least 5 guys your picking before him

Bro I completely turned it off and unsubscribed when that boy said SGA was better than bron

True people hype up Bird but I finish with both hands all the time lol

Larry Bird smokes lebron

LeBron is still Top 5. Jokic, Giannis, Kawhi then LeBron

if a player cant be on the court (even due to injury) , they cant make an impact on the game, if they cant have an impact on the game, they're not a top player.

LeBron about to prove this man wrong

The argument that LeBron isn't good because his age doesn't make sense. Look at his stats. He's better than Anthony Davis. Literally in the of the night awards on Lakers Nation, LeBron was getting nearly every one. Look at his numbers. Look at his advanced stats. His age isn't an argument.

AD over bron is crazy after these recent playofffs

My ignorant take is that larry bird had a top 5 peak in nba history

I dont get how people still rate kawhi, he's done nothing but lose since 2020 doesn't get a ton of points is a damn great defender but not that much better than other great players. He just feels like Jaylen Brown with hype to me.

lebron can have an mvp season and no one will be suprised. I wll take lebron over Luka AD and KD. and steph and joel wtf lol. KAWHI??? only 2 players def better than bron are Jokic and Giannis. Bro really said SGA and Taytum

I don’t believe Lebron is top 5 but saying Tatum and KD are definitively better is mod 😭

Saying SGA is better then lebron is wild

You can't be better, if youre not healthy

KD over Bron is nasty work 💀💀

Who the fuck is ‘bill russle’

Definitely an argument that a healthy Bron is still top 5

Bird underated by you youngans. We know Bird was the all around best player skill wise before MJ became that.

Top 2 and he ain’t two.

My hot take is Stephen Curry is closer to Magic Johnson the LeBron is to Michael Jordan that means Magic is obviously means he's better then Curry

Your wrong about bird and John Stockton for that matter. I grew up on 90's basketball but it's becoming "hip" to act like all the 80's had were crackheads and post men playing and the narrative is lazy tbh. Bird skill wise is exactly what we see in jokic but maybe a step faster and yes maybe even better shooter (3x 3point contest winner)

LeBron James at this point in terms of people who you can put over him is: Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Steph Curry, Or Maybe KD Though I think LeBron has always been better than him😂 so NO

When you said sga I was confused because shai hasnt don’t nothing and kawhi when healthy is not better than lebron we say that in 2020 he lost a a nuggets team that lebron almost swept so

7:00 im telling u, it's his white fans lol

There is nothing "bland" about Larry Bird

Hell no Anthony Davis is better then lebron btw especially considering he was better playing on one leg then AD

i compared Larry the last 5-6 years as a Mix of KD/Jokic I have Larry relative high on the Alltime Schooting cause for his Time. He was not the best but he was the Greatest 3Pt Shooter Until the Mid 90s. He gets lowered cause of what you said. Steph isnt the best 3pt Shooter of his Generation but he is the Greatest even the Greatest of Alltime

bro LeBron is EASILY still top 5

I honestly used to argue that Lebron isn’t top 5 but I actually would put him at 5, I think only Giannis and Jokic are for sure better and I would probably put Steph/Luka above him but after that I don’t know who’s for sure better

I stops watching with the LeBron take.. how is this guy not a top five rn… 💀💀

Lebron is 5 .. maybe 6 but I have him 5 ..

If we look at the last playoffs , Lebron is def top5. Jokic, Murray, Jimmy, Tatum,Lebron. I think thats a fair top5. Also Giannis flopped in the first round

Steph over Russell is rediculous

You are too smart for your own good! Why are people still leaving out Isaih Thomas, Dr. J, Moses Malone, John Havlicek, and Jerry West who accomplished more as leaders than Kobe and some lasted longer in their peaks. Oh yeah, because recency bias is a thing. Kobe is definitely top 15 and can only climb top 10 when the truth comes out with evidence that LBJ used PEDs. Kobe then goes in. MJ, Kareem, Russell, Magic, Bird, Wilt, Shaq, Duncan, Olanuwon, then Kobe. Kobe is currently in 11 to 15 with IT, Dr. j, Moses, and Havlicek. The question is where to put Curry on the 11 to 15 currently.

Deaaron fox is better than Ja Morant

Sga better than lebron is where you lost me lolz

U only named 3 ppl DEFINITELY better than LeBron. Luka, Giannis, joker. Saying Kawhii, tatum, AD, and SGA are better is NASTY work and really dilutes your credibility. KD and Embiid are debateable. But you went way too far saying those 4 lol