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Magic or Larry ?
1970s
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Michael Jordan could score. Dennis Rodman could rebound. Pistol Pete could pass like no other. However, Magic and Larry could score, rebound, and pass all in one. Two of the greatest to ever play the game. It always bothered Magic that Larry was viewed as the better all around player (the rookie of the year voting wasn't even close), but Larry once said that Magic was the best player he ever saw. I never liked the Lakers "style", so I guess I'm a little biased. Who would you pick for your team if you had to draft either rookie in 1980 ?
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Magic
http://www.unisquare.com/store/brick/
Ralph
Great question, Tough question.
I was a huge Magic fan as I lived in Michigan. Bird won me over with this one steal in 1987.
I'll take Larry.
Both were GREAT. Slight edge to Magic. He could do everything.
Larry Legend
Larry. He did not go to Michigan State so he automatically my choice
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Magic.........better smile! :-)
You couldn't go wrong with either one, but as an owner my only concern is making money. I can do that by winning lots of games, and I can do that by having a team that people want to watch even when they don't win. It's hard to tell in a team sport like basketball how many wins any one player is worth, but I think Bird was probably responsible for more wins than Magic. Not by a lot, but enough to see a margin. On the other hand, Bird was not especially fun to watch; he was deathly serious most of the time and was so good that he tended to make really difficult plays look easy. I think Magic was clearly the more entertaining of the two, and drew fannies to seats and eyeballs to TVs to a greater degree than Bird. In the end, I'd take Magic.
So close. While I'd take Magic for pure entertainment, nobody gave more than Larry. He knocked a good 3 years off his career by playing hard no matter the stakes. He knew one way to play...All Out. It took me until about 85 to fully appreciate Larry, and he's since become one of my favorite players ever.
To this day, one of my favorite sporting moments was Magic and Larry giving each other a quick pound before Finals tip off, and I love the way they'll forever be linked....even on cardboard.
I went to the "Larry Bird link" provided by Coinstartled and then to some other videos from that. what the heck was wrong with Bill Laimbeer, did he have a mental problem?? I think he fought with anyone and everyone while he was playing.
I've dug deep in this discussion before. Larry Bird. Yes, they both could do it all...except it took Magic a long time to develop his outside shot and post game. Bird had it all from day one! Also, Magic could never come close to Bird's outside shooting accuracy, and that is one thing that really separates them.
No question Magic had the superior teammates and the easier road to the finals almost every year, so the total championship argument isn't really that accurate.
Bird did quite well in his own right in putting fans in the seats. A case could be made that Bird actually personified basketball; what a basketball player should do, how they should play, and how they should compete. He was anything but boring. He actually had flair...and it looked odd coming from him because he looked more like 'Big' bird than Larry Bird. He was as unique as they come. He created legions of basketball fans.
Bird was the quintessential basketball player that could excel at any skill on the floor, do it all from the moment he first stepped onto the floor in the league, and his competitive nature was second to none(including Jordan).
Laimbeer and the whole Piston team were all the dirtyest players EVER. If you ever get to see the 30/30 on them it will open your eyes. They couldn't beat Jordan and the Bulls fair so the instituted the Jordan rule!!!
some of the footage I saw would make Draymond Green blush!!!
Not called the Bad Boys for nothing. With Rodman on the court they could stop any team cold from scoring.
The Bad Boys stole your lunch money. Detroit where the strong survived and the weak were eaten. All shots were contested. A great time to be a Pistons Fan. They were great.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
they were very intimidating under the glass and made Teams work hard for any rebound, offensive or defensive.
They weren't great.......they were D-I-R-T-Y!!!! It's not just a coincidence that the "Flagrant Foul" was instated for the 1990-91 season....right after they won 2 Finals in a row. Had the Flagrant Foul been started before they wouldn't have won squat. The whole team would have been out of every game due to F2F's.
Dirtyest team EVER!!!!! PERIOD!!!!
What a wuss.
They played by and stretched the rules that were in place.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I loved this. It was awesome. Wiki page.
The Jordan Rules were a defensive basketball strategy employed by the Detroit Pistons against Michael Jordan in order to limit his effectiveness on offense. Devised by Isiah Thomas in 1988, the Pistons' strategy was "to play him tough, to physically challenge him and to vary its defenses so as to try to throw him off balance."[1] Sometimes the Pistons would overplay Jordan to keep the ball from him. Sometimes they would play him straight up, more often they would run a double-team at him as soon as he touched the ball to try to force him to give it up. And whenever he went to the basket, they made sure his path was contested. This strategy has also sometimes been employed against other prolific scoring guards.[2] The Jordan Rules were an instrumental aspect of the rivalry between the "Bad Boys" Pistons and Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This style of defense limited players including Jordan from entering the paint and was carried out by Dennis Rodman and Bill Laimbeer.
The Jordan Rules were most effective for the Pistons during their first three playoff meetings with the Bulls. Detroit beat Chicago four games to one in the 1988 Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Pistons and Bulls met each other in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals for the next 3 seasons. Detroit's defense defeated the Bulls in 6 in 1989 and in 7 in 1990. The Pistons won back-to-back championships after eliminating the Bulls. Finally, in 1991, the Bulls defeated the Pistons in the playoffs, neutralizing the Jordan Rules with their triangle offense, orchestrated by coach Phil Jackson and assistant Tex Winter. They swept the Pistons in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals. Soon after, the Bulls captured their 1st-ever NBA title, beating the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals 4 games to 1. The Pistons qualified for the playoffs again in 1992, 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2000, not advancing to the second round until 2002.
This strategy was later used by the New York Knicks from 1992 to 1998. However, the Knicks weren't as successful as Detroit in containing Jordan and the Bulls. Jordan faced New York in the NBA Playoffs in 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1996. The Bulls eliminated the Knicks and captured NBA titles in all four of those seasons.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, then Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly described the Jordan Rules as:[3]
“ If Michael was at the point, we forced him left and doubled him. If he was on the left wing, we went immediately to a double team from the top. If he was on the right wing, we went to a slow double team. He could hurt you equally from either wing—hell, he could hurt you from the hot-dog stand—but we just wanted to vary the look. And if he was on the box, we doubled with a big guy.
The other rule was, any time he went by you, you had to nail him. If he was coming off a screen, nail him. We didn't want to be dirty—I know some people thought we were—but we had to make contact and be very physical.
”
When doing an ESPN 30 for 30, Joe Dumars said that,
“ It goes, the DaVinci Code, the recipe to Coca-Cola, then the Jordan Rules
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
The Pistons beat the Bulls three years in a row the Conference Finals because they knew they didn't have to guard Scottie Pippen. They knew he couldn't beat them so they literally didn't guard him. They over guarded the only guy that could and wore him out within the rules of the day. I call that smart.
Mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Come on Mark. You can call it what you want, but it was DIRTY. Their whole intent was to injure Jordan so he couldn't play effectively. You are a Piston fan so you are not looking at it objectively.
You are a Bulls fan so you are not looking at it objectively. The Pistons intent was if you were going to foul make it a hard one. Them were the rules. BTW a lot of teams played that way during this era. The Pistons just did it better then anyone else.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
They beat the Bulls in the Conferece Finals three years in a row. It was the Bulls that couldn't beat the Pistons during that run.
During his career Laimbeer averaged 13.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and shot 50% from the field and couldn't jump an inch. The also averaged 33% form 3 point land and shot 83% from the line. He was a very valuable asset and a FIERCE competitor who would do anything to get under your skin.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
The key word there was "fair".
I like them both equally. They gave the NBA a huge shot in the arm in popularity when they entered the league.
Magic was unlike any point guard. 6'8" or 6'9" tall, running the team as a point guard, passing the ball at anytime/anyplace on the floor and scoring himself from anywhere. Amazing.
Bird playing the 3 or 4, not looking like a stud athlete and making everyone look like a fool with his solid fundamentals and creative flair.
I always liked playing hoops in high school, college and beyond in games where someone shows up for a game who does not look like they can play (and thus is laughed at by the regulars) only to take the floor and absolutely embarrass everyone. Does not matter if the person is short, flabby, slow, or even old. Knowing the fundamentals of the game and being able to "play" can demolish the competition.
Late to the party, but I'll say Bird, I think he was a little tougher.
I wore my Pistons T-shirt proudly back in the day, they were bad to the bone.
You are a good man!
I smell pigskin
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
They were the Dirtiest and cheatingest NBA team EVER!
It was a great time in the NBA and a great time to be a Bad Boy. We LOVED that the world was against us. Still do. Especially Bulls fans. Love that we are still in their heads.
Alas all good I mean bad things must of come to an end. I hated when Rodman left Detroit and eventually ended up on the Bulls. Chicago needed to be toughened up at the time and give Chicago credit they went out and got a piece they needed. That "thug" Rodman helped Chicago win their last three Championships.
M
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Yeah, I know, I heard you the first time.