>>>>>>>Another one....
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq4yGWipyBk&feature=autoplay&list=PL963187D07F4AAE24&lf=results_main&playnext=2>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>You couldn't stop him. He was something else.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Like you, I was fortunate enough to see him in the old Boston Garden during his reign. He was just unbelievable. I have been to lots of sports events and have never heard anything louder than the roar in the old Garden when he would rush the puck up the ice. Deafening. It's not exaggerating to say he revolutionized the game.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Not necessarily for the better though. It's one thing to play like that and actually be Bobby Orr, but after Orr everybody wanted to score goals and the concept of a true defenseman pretty much went the way of high button shoes. I used to love to watch Allan Stanley, Dickie Moore, Doug Harvey, Red Kelly and guys like that play defense. It was an art. An art that largely disappeared after Orr changed the role of the defenseman. Like I said, the rest of them were not Bobby Orr.
>>>>>
>>>>>Yeah, fair point. He was one of a kind. The average defenseman -- if a guy good enough to make the NHL can ever be described as average -- trying to score goals is going to be a sieve back on his own end. Like you, I appreciate the defenders who stay home and lock up their end of the ice.
>>>>
>>>>I think it's probably a major part of the reason why back then, being a 20 goal scorer meant something, and now everybody and his mother is a 20 goal scorer.
>>>
>>>That's going pretty far back. Wayne Gretzky had his best days in the 1980s, which is going back a way. Granted, he was as much a special case as Orr, but he AVERAGED 200 points a season for about four years.
>>>
>>>Bill K. and I were discussing who was better, Orr or Gretzky. That's a choice I never want to make. What's wrong with just feeling fortunate to have seen both of them? Mantle or Mays, Russell or Wilt, Brown or Sayers, on and on. It's missing the point to decide one is "only" the second best ever.
>>>
>>>Well, here in Chicago we all know Michael Jordan was the best ever ;-)
>>
>>Now
that I can absolutely agree with.....except, of course, for Bird. ;)
>
>Nope. Bird was great, no question about it. When I was younger I was not bad at hoops, for an amateur, and stole his sideways way of shooting a jump shot. Which is exactly opposite the way they teach you. Instead of squaring up his chest to the basket he squared up his right shoulder. It sounds weird but it works. Still, he had some physical limitations. MJ had no physical limitations. When people remember the championship Bulls teams they tend to remember the explosive dunks of MJ and Scottie Pippen and their young disciple Horace Grant. What actually made that team go was their Doberman defense. Michael was incredible on the defensive end and Pippen was even better. He was explosive enough to double down and still get back to his man. Phil Jackson and Johnny Bach preached it until they finally broke through: defense wins championships. You can loaf on offense once in a while if you're tired, and we'll get someone in there for you, but you never ever loaf on defense.
>
>I found a great Bird video but it's way too profane.
Well hmmm. Limitations, huh? Bird couldn't soar like MJ, but so what? Dunks are worth 2 points no matter how many oohs and aahs come out of the crowd. Bird was an incredibly prolific scorer from anywhere on the floor and from any body position you can imagine, not to mention, with either hand. And speaking of defense, anybody remember Isaiah's toss-in? Bird was not only a prolific scorer, he made everybody around him far better then they could ever have hoped to be without him, and he was literally 'all over the floor'. Smartest BBall player that ever lived, and as, Wilkins [I think], said, "When you look into Larry Bird's eyes, you're looking into the eyes of an assassin."
I'd take Bird over just about anybody on a basketball floor and certainly in a close game down to the wire, there's nobody else I'd rather have with his hands on the ball.
Of course, I have to admit to also having been a Celtic fan since the days of Russell and Havlicek (and even maybe a year or two of Cousy). I fell off the Celtic wagon pretty much when Bird left.
