There are many older NBA players who feel like their era was the best in basketball history, but Larry Bird is not one of them.
The New Yorker published a story about the possibility of adding a four-point line in basketball, and they quoted a few of the best outside shooters in history, like Reggie Miller and Bird. Bird says that while he used to think his era was the best, he now feels the current era may be just as good, if not better.
“It’s funny how the game has changed,” Bird told The New Yorker. “And my thinking about it. I was really worried—back sixteen, seventeen years ago—that the little guy didn’t have a spot in the N.B.A. anymore: it was just going to be the big guards like Magic Johnson. But then players started shooting more threes and spacing the court, and everyone wants small guards now. Watching these kids play now, I’m like everybody else: Wow, man. They can really shoot! They have more freedom to get to the basket. The ball moves a little better. These kids are shooting from farther, with more accuracy. Now some teams shoot up around thirty threes a game. My era, you always think that’s the greatest era. But I’m not so sure anymore.”
There are plenty of players representing the old guard who staunchly insist that their era was the best. Ask Michael Jordan or Charles Barkley whose era of basketball was the best, and there won’t be much of a doubt about the answer you receive. A lot of that has to do with protecting their legacies, but the truth is the game evolves, and athletes are always getting bigger, faster, stronger and better. Plus, when you see guys like Stephen Curry be able to make 30-foot shots on a regular basis, you start to think that he’s the best shooter ever, which gives a lot of credence to the current era.
For Bird to simply be open enough to consider another era as potentially better than his shows a flexibility that probably makes him a successful executive.
