Larry Bird is one of the all-time greats, but where does he rank?

Larry Bird is one of the all-time greats, but where does he rank?

Larry Bird maintains company with this.

“[He] is a guy whose apex was one of the five best apexes we’ve seen in NBA history,” Wright stated. “He entered the league a little older and exited a little sooner. But for the entire ten years that he was there, he was among the league’s finest players from the minute he took the floor.”

Indeed, Bird was a near-completed superstar when he joined the NBA.

After a few disappointing seasons, the 6-foot-9 forward was about to turn 23 and was eager to help the most illustrious team in the league return to the championship picture. The Celtics won 32 more games in 1979–80 than they did the year before under Bird’s leadership.

Bird finished fourth in the MVP race and easily defeated Magic Johnson for Rookie of the Year. To cap off his first playoff series, he scored 34 points, pulled down 10 rebounds, and disheveled seven assists against Moses Malone’s Rockets. In the conference finals, he scored another 30-10 and a 20-20, but Julius Erving’s more seasoned 76ers defeated Boston.