Re: Vescey on Heinsohn, Pierce

["Josh Ozersky" <jozersky@xxxxxxxxxx>]

This is an interesting question.  Larry was a dominant one-on-one
player, but there were always two or three guys in the league who
could shut him down -- Michael Cooper, Dennis Rodman, one
or two others.  Larry could basically score on anybody, and could
take quicker players like James Worthy down low, and drive on
bigger defenders.  Pierce can score on just about anybody too; he
has a much quicker first step than larry, and they are both great dribblers
with both hands in terms of their spin movies and other quick
thrusts into the lane.  Larry is a better outside shooter, period.
So I guess you could say they are about even as pure scorers, but
when you add in passing -- and that is certainly part of offense --
Larry is in a league of his own.  But I think what Tommy meant
was pure scoring ability, and Pierce probably does have the edge
that way.  Larry got a lot of his points off screens and picks; Pierce
you can just give the ball to within 15 of the basket, and figure
he will either score or get fouled.

Josh

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Forant" <dforant1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <Celtics@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 4:43 PM
Subject: Re: Vescey on Heinsohn, Pierce


> So what if I wanted to compare Babe Ruth with say.......oh well take your
> pick of the best baseball player today. Would you not be able to make a
> choice because of different era's, I for one (back to round ball) would
take
> Bird over Pierce any day and Magic Johnson over them all any day. Was
there
> ever a basketball player better at playing all positions than Magic? Or do
> the era's get into the way?
>
> DanF
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <Tammo29@xxxxxxx>
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> > I'm of the opinion that it's almost impossible to compare players of
> > different era's in just about any sport because of the many intangibles
> involved.
> > This may be true for basketball more than any other sport, although an
> argument
> > could be made for baseball as well.