Michael Jordan and Larry Bird starred in some intense duels during their time together in the NBA. Although His Airness struggled a lot to win against Bird and his Boston Celtics, he put up incredible individual performances to make life a living hell for the C’s during the 80s.
MJ was really an admirer of Bird, as he was the one who made him become the GOAT along with Magic Johnson. Jordan didn’t have a positive record against Larry Legend, which is why he was relieved when Larry announced his retirement from the beautiful game.
Even many years after he stopped going at it with Larry, both as a player and head coach, Jordan had nothing but respect for Larry, and no matter how many great small forwards came after him, MJ placed Bird above all of them.
Michael Jordan Named Larry Bird The Greatest Small Forward In NBA History
Not even LeBron James, who is now considered a top 2 player of all time, could convince MJ that he was better than Larry. In the book “When The Game Was Ours,” Jordan explained how high he was on Bird and how impressive he was in comparison to the rest of the players who played before and after him.
The GOAT even goes on to say that not even LeBron James could be compared to Larry, explaining how great No. 33 was in Jordan’s eyes (via The Sportsrush).
Michael Jordan: “Larry was a debate. He still is. People ask me all the time who my all-time five top players are, and when I start saying Larry, they interrupt me. They say, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. He can’t play with LeBron James!’ I tell them, ‘You guys don’t get it. Larry is far better than any small forward who played the game, and to be honest, I’m still not sure if he is a small forward or a power forward.”
The LeBron James vs. Larry Bird debate has been around for a while now. While many believe that James surpassed Bird many years ago as the greatest small forward of all time, Jordan wasn’t that convinced. Even Bird had huge praise for LeBron, naming him the reason why some of his teammates were posting good performances.
Now, the debate might be over, but it would be interesting to see what Jordan thinks of it right now, after LeBron made a lot of history in Miami, Cleveland, and Los Angeles.
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