Larry bird vs Michael jordan, who is better ?

Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the greatest player in the history of the NBA. Here’s Michael Jordan vs Larry Bird comparison.

Larry bird vs Michael jordan, who is better ?

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).

Larry bird vs Michael jordan 

Whenever a Jordan fan wants to discredit someone from another era, they like to bring up that the 1990s was the pinnacle of basketball and every other era is inferior by comparison.

Is that true though? When comparing eras, I like to only talk about players within that era’s position group. For example, when comparing the competition of Bird and Jordan I’m only talking about perimeter players because neither of them were guarding or being guarded by big men.

With that out of the way, the best perimeter player in the 90’s other than Jordan was either Reggie Miller or Scottie Pippen.

The idea that Pippen could be the best of that era is telling considering the fact that he was Jordan’s teammate. Other than those two you have guys like Isiah Thomas, Gary Payton, Magic Johnson, or Larry Bird himself, who all played in the ’90s but played their best basketball in the ’80s.

On Bird’s side, he has Thomas, Magic, Payton, Julius Erving, Dominique Wilkins, and James Worthy. All of those players are just as good, if not better than Miller or Pippen. It’s clear that Bird saw the strongest competition.

Michael Jordan has the edge in defense, athleticism, and scoring points. Larry Bird is the better rebounder, passer, and shooter from all over the court. The debate about who’s the better scorer isn’t as cut and dry as people think.

Unless you want to go off the number of points scored, (Jordan is 5th all-time despite the fact that he’s considered the greatest scorer) the greatest scorer debate has a lot of wiggle room.

Many point to the fact that Jordan was a 10-time scoring champion(the most all-time) as proof of his unparalleled greatness as a scorer. 

Who is better  ?

Larry Bird has become one of the most underrated legends in the history of the game.

The debate over who the greatest of all time has been dominated by Michael Jordan and LeBron James for so long that the idea that someone can be in that conversation sounds ridiculous.

However, Larry Bird was a better player than the guy everyone thinks has the crown.