Re: bird's breaks

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

>From: Mark Estepp <EsteppJM@appstate.edu>
>
>The whole "Bird did dumb things and got away with it, while AW gets nailed 
>for it" argument misses IMHO the most basic point:
>Bird put out 100% each and every time he set foot on the court.  In Bird's 
>game, something was always going to come out ok.  If he wasn't shooting 
>well, it might have been rebounds or assists that came to the surface.  LB 
>was respected because of that, and got breaks because of that.

Well, Larry was at the very least in the handful of the greatest players 
ever to play the game.  Why people insist on measuring Antoine by that 
insanely lofty standard is beyond me.  By that logic, we could crucify 
Robert Parish for not being Bill Russell.  After all, if he were, the 
Celtics never would have lost to anyone in the 80's.

And this notion of Bird's ability to control a game in any one of a dozen 
ways being what Antoine needs to do to prove himself?  How many superstars 
did it that way?  Not many.  How many games, not individual crucial 
posessions, but games, did Jordan dominate without scoring?  Magic was the 
opposite.  He rarely dominated by scoring, rather always looked to set up 
teammates.  Russell dominated with defense and rebounding.  Do you think he 
said, I just can't stop Wilt tonight, so I'll score 50?

Antoine's special because he can do so many things, that's agreed.  But, 
just because he doesn't do them all quite as well, or consistently, as Larry 
Bird is no indictment of him.  Better he should just be a one dimensional 
scorer, get his money anyway, and not have to listen to such things?  And 
this assertion that Antoine does not give 100% every time he steps on the 
court only makes me think that Joe's theories are not far off the mark.  You 
only need to watch him to know that he plays hard, and does many other 
things besides score, whether he is shooting well or not.  It's not as if 
you want him to take it easy on the boards if he's scoring well, do you?

Jim

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