That’s Rik Smits you have on your image of Rick Robey

Every Bird fan knows he was drafted his junior year

before his back injury, Bird was actually athletic for a 6'9" forward. quicker and higher vertical than Luka now. the fact that he dominated the league while basically being crippled should tell you how good he was.

For Red Auerbach, drafting Bird was just the beginning of a few years of amazing moves. In 1980, he traded the Celtics 2 first round picks to Golden State, for Robert Parish and the Warriors first round pick, with which they would select Kevin McHale, while Golden State took Joe Barry Carroll with the 2nd overall pick. Then a year or two later, Red convinced Danny Ainge to give up on a career in Major League Baseball and leave the Blue Jays to come to the Celtics. And then in 1984 he traded Gerald Henderson for what would become the 2nd overall pick in the 1986 draft, which was Len Bias, and that was the end of Red’s luck.

I think technically, nobody was drafted before Bird because he was drafted the year before he graduated.

Hey!!! You are talking about Rick Robey but you’re showing pics of Rik Smits who the Pacers drafted a decade later!!!

For those who didn't knew, Larry Bird were not drafted in 1979 NBA draft. He was drafted in 1978 by Boston Celtics but didn't signed. He wanted to finish college first. So it means, he was instantly considered as candidate for rookie of the year in 1979 together with Magic Johnson

3:09 Ummm that’s Rik Smits 😂🤦‍♂️

That was Rik Smits in the photo claiming Rick Robey. You lose a lot of credibility in that. You should go and fix that.

As a Warrior's fan I remember Pervis Short having the unfortunate nickname 'Out of Service Pervis', was injured a lot. I didn't realize Warrior's could have drafted Larry Legend and it hurts double because Warriors could have drafted Kobe too

The other teams weren't stupid, it's just that nobody wanted to waste a draft pick on someone who wouldn't be playing the following season. Be real, older Celtics fans, we wanted to string up Red Auerbach for wasting a draft pick. And after the 79 NCAA title game, we thought he was going to be a bust and hoped he'd reenter the draft. How wrong we were.

It's wild that the Pacers didn't take the dude born and raised in Indiana, that also played college ball in state.

I went to knick games in 1980 and still say Richardson and Bernard King were every bit as good as the bigger names.

You showed Otis Birdsong instead of Micheal Ray Richardson.

You posted a picture of Rik Smits in stead of Rick Robey a couple of times. Rik Smits was drafted a some years later by the Indiana Pacers

Michael Ray Richardson was my dad’s roommate in college.😂

Every first round draft of every sport reads like a who's who of guys who didn't make the grade. There's no crystal ball.

Bird was picked by the Boston Celtics ONE YEAR before he actually came out to the NBA.

Michael Ray Richardson could have been in the goat conversation- glad he’s got his life together.

i dont think these picks were horrible, first, teams have needs second, the draft is a crapshoot. imagine needing a center, Hakeem just gets picked in front of you, but Sam Bowie was right there so you pick him and miss out on His Airness. had Bowie stayed healthy the pick would have been viewed as a "well they needed a big" instead of , they missed out on Jordan. (note this was a historically loaded draft with Dream, Jordan, Barkley and Stockton among other solid players)

Imagine doing this with Jokic

usually when you do lists like this, there are a few, usually several failures, flops, or injured potentials, where the point is they could have had Superstar X (the now obvious choice), instead they ended up with Bust # whatever....i'm sure each of these teams would have loved and obviously taken Bird, but there were really no bad choices, even the guy thrown out of the league, the rest were better than servicable, many were or could have been stars, even the banned player, who could realistically been even great, maybe even 2nd or 3rd best of the Draft Year...yes probably behind Magic, but still not a bad outcome and the fact many are inspirational stories, memorable stars and even champions and record holders....a remarkable feat, a remarkable draft

Footnote would be better than indelible mark to describe these players.

Red took a chance, under the rules of 1978, and took Larry a year early. So the teams passing had a different view of the situation. They knew he was good - but not history making. Also, the Sycamores had not gone deep in the tournament against top competition. So those were different times.

Sugar Ray Richardson... sigh... He could have been one of the best. Pity. I remember Magic saying he feared facing the Knicks coz he had to guard Sugar Ray.

WEll, in all fairness, the Celtics drafted Bird a year early and were able to wait on him.

Larry Bird was drafted the year before while remaining at Indiana State. He was the highest drafted player in history and will remain so.....

Larry Bird was drafted as a Junior! Why are you faulting those who supposedly passed up on Bird in the 1978 Draft? Another one of those shrewd moves by Red Auerbach knowing that during Bird’s Senior Season (when his Indiana State Sycamores were undefeated until the NCAA Final) Bird would be Property of the Boston Celtics.

They started being paid to play one season earlier.

No hall of famers there---the answer to that is not much

Total bs article. Larry Bird wasn't in this draft. Duh. It was for the.next year. Kids writing articles.

Dumb knicks weren't willing to wait a year.

Tom Brady was drafted in the sixth round and look how great he was? How many white athletes would have been great but didnt get drafted because they were white? Is Boston a racist city or just an intelegent city that knows good individual talent when it sees it in terms of Bird and Brady?