Bird or Durant

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Spooky this cac was advertised as one of the clutchest killers of All-Time

Going off the lore and old head romanticization you start to believe shyt

I read this…Very whiny

 

[Boonapalist]

I read this…Very whiny

He started from Bird’s career in high school. Damn this Bron stanley is vindictive

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

He started from Bird’s career in high school. Damn this Bron stanley is vindictive

Marsha Marsha Marsha type beat

 

[Art Barr]

if Bird never injuries his back shoveling snow he prolly plays until like 95..his numbers would be even better

It was not shoveling snow.
.bird was too cheap to pay a paving company to pave his driveway.
Allegedly bird went to scoop and shovel.
some crushed rock
Or bam. or bituminous aggregate. Or the black shyt used to pave roads.

Then was never physically the same.

All because bird was too cheap.


Art Barr

 

[Art Barr]

He was drafted by a world class organization with the history and knowledge on how to build a good team organically. Instead of KD being drafted by the Sonics who spent his entire rookie season playing him as a 6’10 shooting guard.

The sonics blew up what eould have been a super team.
to steal the sonics for okc. When they drafted kd tho.

Not the same thing...red auerbach wanted to rule the world.

The president of the thunder wanted to steal the sonics for Oklahoma.

Art Barr

 

[KidJSoul]

Quite literally after I reiterate to you that we're talking about KD's timeline in OKC, because that's what's relevant here to Bird's in Boston, again, when Bird hit his mid-30s he was a shell of his former self, so KD wins by default if we're comparing those two stages of their respective careers. Yet here you are bringing up what KD did in '22, '23 and '24, when it's not relevant.

Essentially, the only two examples here which are applicable are 2013 and 2016, one of which was because his running mate was injured and had to rely on role players to pick up the slack, and the second of which, he came up against one of the most dominant teams in the history of the game. Neither of which are exactly damning cases. OKC weren't going to make it out of that Grizzlies '13 series no matter what KD did, because Memphis had arguably the best perimeter defense in the league and an offense which was designed around their two bigs.

The 2016 WCF is one of the rare series' during that time where his inconsistency ultimately cost his team, but like it's been stated, the level that it would've taken to beaten GS in that series, is probably something that no player has reached. And what I mean by that is, the Warriors had no suspensions, no injuries and they were still relatively fresh after not being troubled in the previous two series'. Steph and Klay simply found another gear and it was too much for OKC to handle in the end. That series showed exactly why that GS team won 73 games.

Except during his time on the Thunder, it was rarely.

During the 80s, offenses were predominately post-orientated, so the inside-out structure most definitely took pressure off Bird. His weak handle and lack of finishing was the reason for his struggles, not because he didn't have a team that wasn't good enough to take pressure off him. Only the Lakers were comparable in talent and depth during that era.

KD only played with one elite guard during his team in OKC, otherwise, it was largely filled with role players or players who had yet to truly break out [Harden].

Bird had significantly more help in Boston than KD had in OKC.

Here's how disingenious you are:

- KD played with Harden in OKC for the last time in 2012, you know when Harden shytted the bed in the Finals and wasn't even remotely close to a MVP-level player?
- KD won with Steph, so what's your point?
- KD played with Harden (again) outside of his time in OKC (again, irrelevant), where Harden came back from injury during the Bucks '21 series and provided next to nothing, all the while KD had one of his greatest ever series' and was quite literally a big toe away from beating the Bucks (who ended up winning the championship). This is all without mentioning that Kyrie was injured, and it's a belief held by many that if he wasn't injured they would've won the title that year. Which again, this isn't really relevant to the discussion.
- Booker and Beal are not relevant to the timeline we're speaking about.

Excused based upon what, exactly?

KD still had more impact and produced at a higher level during the playoffs, consistently. It just so happened he came up against much greater competition than Bird did.

Okay yeah in KD's OKC stint he rarely cost them.

But you are still ignoring playmaking duties. There's a reason why KD has suddenly had much worse playoff exits post GSW than before - he's no longer playing with elite playmking guards.

Westbrook and even 6th man Harden could still run the offense and allow KD to be a pure bucket getter. And I don't even need to mention how much Curry and Draymond helped him out with that. So KD's OKC stint should be qualified.

The 80s were more post oriented, but you're acting like Bird was shooting wide open 3s. He was still hitting contented jumps hots while also being the main playmaker there for much of his tenure.

KD had more impact? Rookie Larry Bird took the celtics to game 7 of the ECF BEFORE Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson, Robert Parish, and Danny Ainge even got there. It was him, Cedric Maxwell, Nate Archibald off an Achilles (he was good though), and an older Dave Cowens who posted career lows in points and rebounds.The rest of the team had solid good role players but that wasn't an amazing team.

 

[murksiderock]

I don’t know how I’m comparing him with KD though. I find these different generation comparisons pretty hard.

I don't think it's that hard:

•Bird had the bigger, more explosive start to his career (intro)
•Bird peaked higher
•Bird the greater floor-raiser
•Bird a more accomplished #1

vs

•Durant longer prime (longevity)

This is before you get into the basketball skills debate. Durant better shooter and more versatile scorer, defense is a wash, Bird better playmaker...

I think it's pretty easily Bird...