I love your steadfast commitment to Larry Legend 🥰

Wilt Chamberlain: “He is blessed with knowing where to put his body. He puts his body on the right side of the floor to defend. He has great anticipation.” Court vision and anticipation were his keys.

He played the passing lanes really well. He would sucker the other teams into passing into the low post or hit someone on the break and break up that play.

I myself think that athleticism is overrated. I say this bcuz Larry proved over & over again that he could more than make up for this perceived “weakness” with his BRAIN which, coupled with his extraordinary work ethic, helped him prevail over “better athletes.” I also believe that Larry was perfectly happy to be thought of as slow or weak since it only made it easier to take his opponents by surprise.

I still remember the Bird-Magic battles after all these years later. Unbelievable.

He would time his steals for key moments in the game, which could arguably resulted in LESS steals, but more impactful ones. The “dagger steal,” similar to the dagger three. For example, “they keep throwing this one lazy pass and I could steal it any time I want, but I’ll wait and let them think it’s a safe pass until it can make a big difference with around 4:00 to go in the game.” He would turn his back to the opposing ball carrier, watching them over his shoulder. The impression you can imagine a lot of opposing ball carriers would have is “his back is to me which means he can’t see me, which means this pass is safe,” and then Larry would leap out from that “back to the ball” position just as the pass is thrown, and snag it. Even on that famous steal in game 5, he could have got right on top of Laimbeer and prevented the pass. But instead he stayed away, hidden from Isaiah’s view, letting the pass seem viable, and waited for the pass to be thrown before leaping to intercept.

I grew up watching Larry legend playing live and he was a very good defender. He had good size and his basketball I.Q. really set him apart in my humble opinion. He was athletic, can't play with the greats like he did and not be. Granted, not like M.J. but darn, no one is like that lol!! He gave Magic and many other greats a run for their money and then some. He knew where to be on the floor at just the right time.

Any player whose career began before about 1985 had the additional problem of not all NBA games were being recorded yet. However they were being recorded more and more, which means every player’s surviving highlights are predominantly from the tail end of their careers. Bird, Wilt, Cousy, Dr J, and on and on and on, the bulk of their available highlights are from when they were fading as pro athletes.

Bu, thank you for being on KZfaq & keeping Bird Haters honest. I have watched EVERY player in the NBA since the 1960's. Yes, I am old, but I know my basketball. In short, Bird Haters will use a microscope to TRY to find ANY POSSIBLE HOLE in Bird's game. Why? Cause it makes their OWN FAVORITE PLAYER look better than they TRULY are. I will make this short, simple, & DIRECT for the UNEDUCATED & PREJUDICE fan. There is NO HOLE in Larry Legend's game. Many NBA greats/experienced analysts will agree with me. The Bird Haters can continue to try to find "whatever" to criticize his game. Frankly, I am sick of ALL THEIR BS. Thank you.

Larry was an excellent team defender. He understood passing lanes like no other. He boxed out and got rebound position...always. His awareness of where his team mates and opponents were on the court, also made him a hard defender to fool. Watching today's boring NBA makes me appreciate Larry's all in style of play. I was a James Worthy and Michael Jordan guy. I hated Larry Bird...he was always in the way! If I was going to play in the NBA and could pick one team mate from any Era, I would pick Larry...sorry Mike....Larry Bird liked it when everyone on the team was involved. He would make me a better player. For a man who could shoot from anywhere on the court, he sure loved to pass the ball. Except in the final few minutes. Larry's time.

I'm an old guy and watched Bird live and he had an intangible quality, the toughest MF 'er on the floor. He was the kind of player every other baller wants on their team. Not racist but he was the greatest white player ever in the NBA and the brothers in his day knew that as a fact.

There were people at the time who said Bird's defense was weak (the insufferable Hubie Brown comes to mind). They were also wrong.

I can’t be the only one that remembers the series of commercials of Bird and Jordan playing HORSE for a Big Mac

Thanks for this reaction/analysis. I appreciate that you can see, understand and explain the bigger and deeper picture. ☘️ Larry Legend!

Kevin Garnet said that the one thing Bird did not do was play defense. Uhhhh.... WRONG!!

2:52 Right between Seikalys legs 🤣 Bird also did that to Olajuwon and Sikma. And a guy from Golden St if I remember correctly. He might’ve done it a dozen other times that didn’t get on video.

I have to admire Larry cause despite playing against so many great players in his era he was fearless against them..

All the super star HALL OF FAME TALENT IN HIS ERA........ AHHH MVP 1984+1985+1986 ONLY OTHER 2 WITH 3 BACK TO BACK, WILT AND RUSSELL !!!!!

Athleticism😂😂 was definitely needed in the brutal game of contact basketball back in the day…. Today’s basketball has two things neither of which requires athleticism…. one they play no damn defense and two they played the damn game of horse

Great video and long overdue!!! See page 84 of the November 9th issue from 1981 of sports illustrated for a photo of Bird blocking Kareem's skyhook. It can be found on the old SI archives.

Nice video. I like how it was measured. So many reaction videos are either shocked, or opposed. I really liked your thoughts.

And his era MUCH MORE PHYSICAL..... AND WHAT OTHER PLAYER REGULARLY TOLD THE OPPOSING TEAM WHAT PLAY HE WAS GOING TO RUN BEFORE HAND.....AHHH NO ONE !!!!

being athletic is good but if you are athletic but in the wrong spot it won't mean much. A lot of players back in the day played both ends of the court. He knew where he was and where he needed to be on the court. By no means is he the greatest defender but he was better than most people think. The man deserves his props, he was one of the greatest to ever play.

Yeah this was before my time also. Some people say Luka doncic is the next Larry Bird. Luka does not say this. Luca is weak on defense right? 💯🙏

I think - many young/younger fans, when they consider looking back into history and watching video of the olden days of basketball are/were influenced by the "known _fact"_ the Jordan is the GOAT. So, they go back to watch footage of him tearing up the court, (preferably higher quality footage 😏) but Jordan didn’t really start his victories until after Bird had had the double Achilles surgery and was in his epic battle with his own back. Therefore, these young/younger viewers first, and possibly only, visuals of Bird are of a player who has less spring in his step and isn't really _flashing_ down the court. Thus means that they are perfectly primed to accept the "Bird is unathletic, slow, can't jump" narrative. I've even seen instances where the attitude is that if the video quality is poor so are the players and it's stupid to waste their time even watching any of it. Sad. But, there are some smart cookies who don't settle for that bias and nonsense and get to experience the pleasure of discovering the Legendary Bird. That is fun to see.

Biggest problem with most people perception of Larry Legend is they never watch him in his prime. What he lacked in speed, he made up with hustle. He was nearly perfect in all aspects of basketball. And by 1985 he sustained a back injury from shoveling crust rock making a driveway for his mom that made movement very hard for the rest of his career. He was a great basketball player, take his stats from middle school, high school and college, and you will see really how great he really was. He was something to watch. The goat. IDK, about that, but he could really play. He was great his hole career. He could dominate a game without scoring a basket. Something u can't say about MJ or Kobe

I was blessed that my father had seasons tickets near the Garden floor. I got to see BIRD play every year from ages 6 through 15 (about 85 times) The narrative of him not being athletic, is WRONG. Because he didn't have a glaring weakness in his game, the narrative was, he wasn't athletic. Just because someone isn't as athletic as other top players (who he embarrassed on a nightly basis) doesn't mean he wasnt athletic. It's just the narrative they want you to believe. Think about it…. If BIRD wasn't athletic, the players he was abusing every night must have really sucked! But we all know they didn't, as many think it was the Golden era of BB. A few FACTS, it's interesting to me that with all these analysis, I never see a video about BIRDS, 50/50 balls? I saw him dive on the floor in one season more then any player in the NBA today, and in many players entire carriers. He had that level of intensity and heart that can't be measured. In addition, he got the ball 90 percent of the time in those battles. Fact. I saw BIRD take a rebound down in traffic, turn around and throw a left handed pass 75 ft to a sprinting Danny Ainge…. The pass was pin point accurate: LEFTY! Not only could no one do that in his era, but no one would even have the balls to throw a pass like that today. FACT. BIRD was in the conversation as being the toughest player in the league. In addition, if you have the highest IQ in the league, and arguably history, of course he knew where the opposition was going to throw the ball, and he had the instinct to deflect it. FACT. I once witnessed BIRD shooting pre game free throws LEFTY, while he was doing an interview. He wasn't really paying attention as he knew several little kids, including myself were watching. I witnessed him hit 37 in a row before the interview was over. FACT. BIRD was more athletic then Luka or Joker and played much better defense. Its hard for me not to rub it in to much, but can you imagine BIRD playing today with the offensive rules? Firstly, no hand checking, secondly, the refs don't even call palming anymore, thirdly, the Euro step (adult travelling) the flopping, and the overall focus of the league to almost detest great defense. (This in my opinion is why the Refs are so inconsitant, many times they don't wanna call something but do, and vice verse. And lastly, you add in about 10 more offensive possessions a game, as the game is now faster, and allow BIRD to take 6 to 10 more 3’s and what do you think happens? ANSWER, you would be making even more videos about him😀 PS. Glad u didn't drink the coolade!

Athleticism isn't everything. Fast hands and intelligence are paramount

Rodnock said Larry Bird would have to play in Europe 🇪🇺 but rodknock would still play in the good old United States of America 🇺🇸 🤔 in the WNBA. Right!!!!!!!😮

Bird had NO holes in his game. Period 🎉😮😅

No one playing NBA level B ball is unathletic. Certainly No starters are unathletic. And to claim Bird isn't athletic is just ridiculous. It's just B.S. talk by people who want to begrudge him something for some reason.

First of all nobody makes it to the NBA or stays there without being athletic. If you watch hi lights of Larry before his back injury you’ll see he was very athletic and he may have had the best hand eye coordination of anyone who ever played basketball.

People are obsessed with "hesi tweens" and think that's what wins basketball games.

He is a goat, so he's got great defense going.

Larry fk up his back,shoveling snow,kobe much smarter

LMFAO Yeah ok

Love bird 🐦