[Tigers_eye]

UUU! Dhurr,
I beg to differ.
Nowadays, NBA superstar players are better athelete but thats about it. They have very little skills compared to the old great ones. Terrible shooters. And for heart, they have one that only pumps blood to their body. Thats about it. Dunking the ball behind the back, under the leg, spinning 360 gets you no where if you can't win a game. How can you not give credit to Jerry West? Ask Wilt and you will find how much of a Mr. Clutch he was (you can't ask cause he passed away). Wilt didn't win anything until he played with Jerry.

As for bird, without bird there wouldn't be any Magic. Unless you see some of his games you wouldn't know how much clutch he was. Magic (during his career) would pick bird when the game was on the line over anyone to take the last shot. That should be enough for you to understand what Bird was to Magic. Just so that you know Bird and Magic are the only two players who could play all 5 positions. Center, power forward, small forward, shooting guard, and point. NBA hasn't seen anyone like that yet. May be Garnette (4 positions) comes close but he can't play point all game long. Bird wasn't only hype because he was white, he was more black inside than some of the blacks he played with. Get over the race issue once for all.

These great players not would only kick butts of Garnette, Carter, Kobe, Wade, TD etc. but they would take them to school in any shooting competition. Hands down they were better ball hander, fundamentally sound, better free throw shooter, and mostly better clutch players. Bob Cousy would take no prisoners. No wonder they are considered as the great ones.