[Five-ofan]

Using this because no use to waste another post since i triple posted. I agree great is overused as is superstar. I think that there are 5-7 great players or superstars. Bird was not better defensively. he played with a center his whole career in parrish and a team that was a good defensive team in general He was better at using his legendary anticipation to play passing lanes, but he wasnt really any better defensively than dirk has become. He was a better passer and i dont think dirk will catch him there but i think that dirk will have several seasons where he averages 5 dimes. THeir rebounding is similar i would give the nod to dirk because there r less to go around now but bird got more so its ok. As scoring goes they are close but i think that it needs to be remembered that dirk is only 26 and will get better. Btw there is no shame in not being as good as Larry Bird. There is a reason that his nickname is Larry Legend. I agree about the foil thing as well you make alot of good points.
P.s. I am a homer but i dont think that this involves homerism. Many people in the mavs area are anti homers. they try so hard to not be homers that they go the other way. This is also influenced by the Eternally Self Promoting Network and its continual mavs hate.