[jojososaParticipant]

Im A Firm Believer That Dirk Is The Closest Thing To Larry Bird Minus The Rings & Race od course

YEAR	TEAM	G	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	OFF	DEF	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TO	PF	PPG
79-80	BOS	82	82	36.0	.474	.406	.836	2.60	7.80	10.40	4.5	1.74	.65	3.21	3.40	21.3
80-81	BOS	82	82	39.5	.478	.270	.863	2.30	8.60	10.90	5.5	1.96	.77	3.52	2.90	21.2
81-82	BOS	77	58	38.0	.503	.212	.863	2.60	8.30	10.90	5.8	1.86	.86	3.30	3.20	22.9
82-83	BOS	79	79	37.7	.504	.286	.840	2.40	8.60	11.00	5.8	1.87	.90	3.04	2.50	23.6
83-84	BOS	79	77	38.3	.492	.247	.888	2.30	7.80	10.10	6.6	1.82	.87	3.00	2.50	24.2
84-85	BOS	80	77	39.5	.522	.427	.882	2.10	8.50	10.50	6.6	1.61	1.23	3.10	2.60	28.7
85-86	BOS	82	81	38.0	.496	.423	.896	2.30	7.50	9.80	6.8	2.02	.62	3.24	2.20	25.8
86-87	BOS	74	73	40.6	.525	.400	.910	1.70	7.50	9.20	7.6	1.82	.95	3.24	2.50	28.1
87-88	BOS	76	75	39.0	.527	.414	.916	1.40	7.80	9.30	6.1	1.64	.75	2.80	2.10	29.9
88-89	BOS	6	6	31.5	.471	.000	.947	.20	6.00	6.20	4.8	1.00	.83	1.83	3.00	19.3
89-90	BOS	75	75	39.3	.473	.333	.930	1.20	8.30	9.50	7.5	1.41	.81	3.24	2.30	24.3
90-91	BOS	60	60	38.0	.454	.389	.891	.90	7.60	8.50	7.2	1.80	.97	3.12	2.00	19.4
91-92	BOS	45	45	36.9	.466	.406	.926	1.00	8.60	9.60	6.8	.93	.73	2.78	1.80	20.2
Career		897	870	38.4	.496	.376	.886	2.00	8.00	10.00	6.3	1.73	.84	3.14	2.50	24.3
Playoff		164	162	42.0	.472	.321	.890	2.20	8.10	10.30	6.5	1.80	.88	3.09	2.80	23.8
All-Star		10	9	28.7	.423	.231	.844	1.90	6.00	7.90	4.1	2.30	.30	3.10	2.80	13.4

 

 

 

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1998–99	Dallas	47	24	20.4	.405	.206	.773	3.4	1.0	.6	.6	8.2
1999–00	Dallas	82	81	35.8	.461	.379	.830	6.5	2.5	.8	.8	17.5
2000–01	Dallas	82	82	38.1	.474	.387	.838	9.2	2.1	1.0	1.2	21.8
2001–02	Dallas	76	76	38.0	.477	.397	.853	9.9	2.4	1.1	1.0	23.4
2002–03	Dallas	80	80	39.0	.463	.379	.881	9.9	3.0	1.4	1.0	25.1
2003–04	Dallas	77	77	37.9	.462	.341	.877	8.7	2.7	1.2	1.4	21.8
2004–05	Dallas	78	78	38.7	.459	.399	.869	9.7	3.1	1.2	1.5	26.1
2005–06	Dallas	81	81	38.1	.480	.406	.901	9.0	2.8	.7	1.0	26.6
2006–07	Dallas	78	78	36.2	.502	.416	.904	8.9	3.4	.7	.8	24.6
2007–08	Dallas	77	77	36.0	.479	.359	.879	8.6	3.5	.7	.9	23.6
2008–09	Dallas	81	81	37.7	.479	.359	.890	8.4	2.4	.8	.8	25.9
2009–10	Dallas	81	80	37.5	.481	.421	.915	7.7	2.7	.9	1.0	25.0
2010–11	Dallas	73	73	34.3	.517	.393	.892	7.0	2.6	.5	.6	23.0
Career		993	968	36.5	.476	.381	.877	8.4	2.7	.9	1.0	23.0
All-Star		9	2	17.0	.458	.227	.875	4.1	1.6	.8	.4	10.6

 

 

 

[RUDEBOY_Participant]

NO WAY!! Forget the Stats..

I’m old enuff to have seen Bird play in the 80’s…Dirk does has some crafty moves like Bird…

 Bird was 1 of a kind..his court vision and knowledge of the game was on par with very few…

[ItsVictorOladipoParticipant]

Nope. I think Dirk is a great player no doubt, but Bird is in my mind one of the 7 or 8 greatest players ever (along with MJ, Kareem, Wilt, Magic, Kobe, Big O and Russell). Bird wasn’t just a dead eye shooter, a terrific scorer and a very good rebounder. He was also the best passing forward of all time until Lebron came along as well as a significantly better defender than Nowitzki.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

But I agree with Rudeboy, Larry Bird is in a class by himself. Honestly, it is hard to qualify him as playing a position, he played both forward spots and at times was basically a Point Forward. The guy averaged 10 boards and 6 assists for his career, which is unreal. At a time when people freak out about double doubles, this guy not only averaged one for his career, but no one who has averaged one for their career with rebounds came close to his assists totals. The only forward that is averaging more than Bird is LeBron James, and I am sure we are all painfully aware he does not average 10 boards per game.

Nonetheless, if you are going to say, "the closest thing to Larry Bird", Nowitzki may indeed be in this category. But, while Dirk is possibly just as great and amazing a scorer as was Larry Legend, Larry is better in nearly every other facet of the game. He was a visionary with a basketball, an incredible team defender, fearless leader and honestly, when I look back at some of the passes he made, his make my jaw drop maybe even more so than Magic.

Dirk has indeed scored more points than Larry in his NBA career, though Larry averaged more per game, with better shooting percentages. Larry also was a much better rebounder, and much more effective on the offensive glass, and their defense is miles apart. So, if you are saying that Dirk Nowitzki might have been the closest thing to Larry Bird since Larry Bird, you may indeed be right. Still, Larry Bird was so much better than Dirk Nowitzki in so many different areas, that they are really not that close. Other than being tall white guys who shoot the ball incredibly well, Larry was a very different player than Dirk. Dirk might have even been tougher to defend one on one, but Larry brought so much more to the game that this match-up is his in a landslide.

[HitsterParticipant]

I agree that Bird was a way better passer than Dirk has ever been and as a scorer Bird had the edge. Dirk perhaps has a better 3 point range than Bird had but Bird’s all round game has to give him the edge and Bird played over 100 fewer NBA regular season games than Dirk so Bird did hell of a lot in his career.

Dirk is a great player, a likely one and in for the HOF but Bird was one of the top 10 best ever IMO. I saw clips of Bird playing when I was younger and whilst I haven’t seen as much of him as I have of Dirk, I think I saw enough to make a sound judgement.

[JoeWolf1]

 I was gonna post, but I think mikeyv pretty much summed it up.

[ItsVictorOladipoParticipant]

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[ItsVictorOladipoParticipant]

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ziM3HHFk1BM&quot; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[aamir543Participant]

The way I see it, there are all time great players like Dirk, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, and then there are all time-beyond-elite player, such as Bird, Magic, Shaq, and Kobe. Then there are The elite-of-the-elite-of-the-greats, which includes Wilt, and MJ, and possibly Kareem and Bill. As far as closest thing to Bird, I have never seen him play, (heck, I only got to see MJ on the wizards for his funeral days, and Icant remember much cause I ws only 6!) but from looking at stats, and hearing people talk aobut how he was a point foward, maybe he was simailar to Lebron, save for the fact that lebron is not even close to Larry as far as shooting goes. But they are pretty even as far as assists goes, and Larry was an amazing rebounder, better than Lebron. In fact, there should be no excuse for Lebron not getting at least 10 boards a game. He is frickin 6-8, 270, with a world class verrtical. But it is all about desire.

[Da1potParticipant]

Dirk reminds me more of Bob McAdoo, as a very sweet shooting big man who had a very advanced offensive arsenal in the post and in the perimeter and was neraly impossible to guard. McAdoo is someone who is commonly overlooked as one of the greatest ever and he was the original sweet shooting big man in the NBA. There was just no three point line back then and even though McAdoo was "only" 6"10, he was one of the tallest players in the ABA/NBA back then because there weren’t as many tall players in the league.

[Author]

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