Spike Lee: Larry Bird Most Overated Player in NBA History.

ESPN | 3/21/04 | CWB

[TruBluKentuckian]

"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar invented the SLAM DUNK! Magic Johnson perferced it."

Have to disagree with that.

The "slam dunk" had been around for a long long time before Jabbar ever stepped on a court. Wilt Chamberlain, in the late 50's, used to run and jump from the free throw line and dunk his FREE THROWS! Of course, they soon outlawed that. Elgin Baylor used the dunk as a weapon in the 50's too. If anybody ever saw Connie Hawkins in his prime during the 60's you know that he was the best dunker ever and the precursor to the Michael Jordan/Julius Erving type of artistic dunkers. Magic Johnson was a very average dunker and really didn't dunk all that much.

[Skooz]

LOL! Wilt rewrote the rule book.

My favorite "dunker" of all time is James Worthy. His entire body would freeze as he sailed toward the basket. Nothing fancy, no wacky moves, just simply unstoppable.

[Richard Kimball]

And ol' Spike oughta know. He's the Most Overrated Director in history.

Robert Altman is far more overrated than Spike Lee. As to BB players, My limited knowledge makes me think that Wilt the Stilt was probably the best (100 points in a game), Jordan very close. Bird, Magic, Russell, were way up there, as was Jabbar. Tim Duncan is a class act, and already has two titles.

[TruBluKentuckian]

A lot of people will disagree with me, but I've always believed that Wilt was the greatest player ever, and maybe the greatest pure athlete ever. Despite being a life long Kentucky Wildcat fan (filled with pain today) Wilt Chamberlain is the reason I fell in love with basketball.

[Willie Green]

Spike Lee: Larry Bird Most Overated Player in NBA History.

Hogwash, Spike.

Bill Walton wasn't worth a crap and you KNOW it.

[John Lenin]

High School Playing Highlights:

• Averaged 30 ppg and 17 rpg during his senior year
  
• In one particular game, scored 54 points with 38 rebounds
  

College:

• Indiana University (1974-75)
• Indiana State (1975-79)
  

College Playing Highlights:

• Played three years at Indiana State (1976-79)
• The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1979)
  
• Naismith Award winner (1979)
  
• John R. Wooden Award winner (1979)
  
• The Sporting News All-America First Team (1978, 1979)
  
• Led Indiana State to the 1979 NCAA championship game against Michigan State
  
• Led Indiana State to an 81-13 record, including a 50-1 record at home
  
• Holds 30 Indiana State records, including most points (2,850), steals (240) and rebounds (1,247)
  
• Graduated as the NCAA's fifth all-time leading scorer (30.3 ppg)
  
• U.S. Team member, World University Games (1977)

Pro:

• NBA Boston Celtics (1979-92)

Pro Playing Highlights:

• NBA Rookie of the Year (1980)
  
• NBA Most Valuable Player (1984-86)
  
• All-NBA First Team (1980-88)
  
• All-NBA Second Team (1990)
  
• NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1982-84)
  
• Twelve-time NBA All-Star (1980-88, 1990-92)
  
• NBA All-Star Game MVP (1982)
  
• Long Distance Shootout Winner (1986-88)
  
• NBA Finals MVP (1984, 1986)
  
• Scored 21,791 points (24.3 ppg) in 897 professional games, including a career-high 28.1 ppg in 1987
  
• Scored a career and team-high 60 points against the Atlanta Hawks in New Orleans on March 25, 1985
  
• Led the NBA in free throw shooting (1984, 1986, 1990)
  
• NBA championships with the Boston Celtics (1981, 1984, 1986)
  
• In a 12-year time span, Bird teamed with Kevin McHale and Robert Parish to form
  one of the greatest frontlines in professional basketball history
• The trio compiled a 690-276 record, won nine Atlantic Division titles and five
  Eastern Conference championships
  
• NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
  

[dogbyte12]

Actually, the "slam dunk" had been around for awhile. The reason some people credit it to Kareem, is simply because the term was coined first by the Lakers announcer Chick Hearn.

He came up with the phrase while Kareem played with the Lakers, and it caught on. Kareem certainly wasn't the first to do it, but props out to Chick Hearn, who just passed last year, who was one of the best sports announcers that exist. L.A. was way too blessed to have both Chick Hearn on basketball and Vin Scully doing baseball at the same time.

[Skooz]

Wilt's the reason I am a Laker fan. I turned on the NBA Finals in 1972 (at age 12) and saw him playing against Jabbar and the Bucks. Been a Laker fan ever since.

[Publius6961]

HATE SPEECH! HATE SPEECH!

[cincinnati65]

Can any of you believe all the ruckus on ALL the national sports talk shows about this today? I heard that several members of the media were camped out on Larry Bird's front lawn to get his opinion of Spike's comments. I can't believe the number of hours that have been spent analyzing Spike's comments....parsing every word.

Yeah, I know.....I didn't hear any of it, either.

[freedomtrail]

Spike can't get over the fact that when the Celtics won the 86' championship there were five white guys on the floor. All Celtics. Walton,Bird,Ainge,McHale,and Shitching.

[cwb]

If anyone's interested, Hannity is finally talking about this comment that Spike made. He played the commercial a few minutes ago...and will talk about it some more in a little bit. Gee...it only took a week for the conservative "media" to get to it.

[cwb]

Correction: He'll discuss it later tonight on his show since he's obviously done for today.

[wtc911]

Clockers was a good film in spite of Lee, not because of him. The script was by Richard Price, from his own novel. When Lee directs his own script there's no balance or clear arc and never a solid ending. This is because there's no one to edit from his words to his camera. Clockers was a studio film with studio producers and production manager to keep thing on target. Even with this it cost (just production, not P&A) nearly twice as much as it took in. Factor in the P&A and it's a disaster.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

When a negro says this kind of stuff, he gets a nod and a wink from the press. But let a white man say something similar and it's, "Katie bar the door!" Does this make anyone else sick?

[drew]

As a Laker fan, I absolutely HATED Larry Bird, and it was only until late in his career and after he retired that I came to have a grudging respect for him. With the fading of the Laker/Celtic wars I now have total respect for him and see that he was incredible, an immensely talented player who pretty much carried the Celtics on his (unfortunately ailing) back, just like Magic did with the Lakers. Lee is an idiot, he's always hated Bird and the Celtics, and not in the rival manner that Laker fans hated him, mainly because the Knicks sucked for so many years when the Celtics ruled the Eastern Conference. He has characters in TWO of his movies saying nasty things about Bird. He's a four-eyed midget who is crappy at sports who couldn't handle that the white hick Bird was so badass. Lee is a racist asshat. Too bad, because I admire a lot of his work.

[drew]

That game was unbelievable, Magic was a rookie for chrissakes! I don't know that that could be duplicated in today's game.

[M. Peach]

"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar invented the SLAM DUNK! Magic Johnson perferced it."

Actually, it was George Mikan who invented it, and Chamberlain enhanced it, I don't know if it will ever be perfected...

[NotchJohnson]

Well he kicked Isaah Thomas arse.

[guitfiddlist]

Does Spike Lee want to bring up the whole subject of over-rating - and Affirmative Action.

Bring it on...