Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the greatest player in the history of the NBA. Jordan is often credited with revolutionizing the league, not just with his play, but with the way he was able to bring in so many new eyeballs to the NBA and the sport of basketball as a whole. While it took Jordan some time before he became a champion, one NBA legend realized that he was better than everyone early on.
As part of the NBA 75 campaign, several NBA legends spoke recently about Michael Jordan. His friend and former rival Larry Bird noted that Jordan had so many different ways to defeat his opponents, whether it be physically, mentally, offensively, or defensively. Bird added that he knew that Jordan was better than everyone in the league very early on, while Bird was still in his playing days (0:17 onwards).
“Michael could beat you in a lot of different ways. He can beat you mentally, beat you physically, he can guard you, and he can score. I know in my time he was better than all of us.”
Bird was in the NBA for the early part of Michael Jordan’s career and was even his first playoff opponent with the Boston Celtics. Larry and the Celtics swept Jordan and the Bulls twice during Jordan’s early days. But MJ made history against the Celtics, scoring 63 points in a single playoff game, a record that has not been broken since. After that game, Larry Bird said it was God disguised as Michael Jordan playing that night.
Jordan had a lot of respect for Larry Bird. But he admitted after retiring that he would never have wanted to team up with him or Magic Johnson. Jordan was speaking about LeBron’s decision to join Miami and noted that he was too competitive with Larry and Magic to ever play with them. The only times Bird and MJ played as teammates were at All-Star Games, or at the 1992 Olympics with the Dream Team.
