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Originally Posted by alby
There are actually a lot of old timers from Boston who agree with me. (All I've done for the past month has been reading their boards) Talent wise and legendary status, Mchale may not compare to Bird. But as far as the value each player meant for Boston, a lot of people argue that Mchale was the rock. It's really hard for me to make this claim because I only have about 30-40 Celtic games to base it off of (they are on my computer or on VHS). I was born in 84 so I didn't get to watch the glory teams of Boston much and if I did, I was too young to remember it. However, going off the games that I've seen--I really give props to Kevin Mchale. Talk about slow and unathletic, Mchale was even worse than Larry Legend in this respect. However, Mchale's footwork and positioning is probably the best I've ever seen in the history of the NBA. Larry could shoot lights out and he was never scared to take that final shot. He definitely deserves all the credit he gets, but I believe people downplay Mchale and his importance to all those great Boston teams of yesteryears.
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For us ole timers, we would NEVER agree that McHale was better than Bird. I cant imagine a single Celtic fan who followed Boston back then saying that. I am a big McHale fan, but McHale is a product of Bird. The same as Pippen was a product of MJ. Without MJ/Bird there is no Pippen/McHale hall of fame careers.
If you get a chance, please watch that video that Janet posted. It is a great indicator of what Bird brought to the game of basketball. And just in case you did not know. Bird was the biggest trash talker in the league at the time. He beat you mentally and physically.
Bird is the only player that I ever thought, that if he touched the ball he was going to score. Coined the phrase "Lay-up".... This is the term we used back then when he got the ball on the perimeter. The only way to stop him was to not let him touch the ball. I promise, a double team was not going to work. Back then, a double team on players like Magic/Bird/MJ was a death sentence, because they would pick you a part. And the role players that played with them, knew exactly where to be on a double/triple team. Role players on there team had very high basketball I.Q. because all they did was practice hard together for perfection. This to me, is the difference between then and now.