Red Auerbach explains why Larry Bird might be the number 1 NBA player of all time . 

Larry took a 29 win Celtics team his rookie year to 61 wins. Larry was THE BEST at elevating his team's game...besides being an MVP himself 3 times with runner up 4 more times. And he did all this without having a significant amount of touches unlike say a LeBron - the offense didn't get stifled through him. If Len Bias hadn't tragically died, the late eighties into 90's would have been all Celtics...not just because of Bias' almost MJ level talents, but the core Bird, McHale, DJ, Parish and even Walton a bit could have reduced just enough PT to last and dominate. C's may have closed out the '80's in titles. For my fantasy all time draft, I'm going Larry Bird #1 and I know my team will elevate over any other.

Larry Bird the real GOAT.

that last story about Bird validates even more more why he's called Larry Legend

I'm sorry to learn Wilt and Red had beef as they're both great men, and think it's awesome that Wilt and Larry, who are both in the GOAT conversation, respected each other a ton.

"That's how the great ones are". Yep.

Great video. On RU-vid you can hear Kareem say that Bird was the toughest NBA opponent he ever faced and that "he wore us out", Magic say that Bird was the only player he truly feared, Dr. J say that "Larry was a basketball genius" who "was made to play basketball", Michael Cooper say he'd rather guard Michael Jordan than guard Larry Bird, Jerry West say Bird "was the perfect basketball player" who "had no flaws in his game", Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and LeBron all say they had Bird in their all-time starting fives, and Red Auerbach say that Bird was the best combination "shooter-rebounder-passer" who ever played the game. And then you can study the statistics and learn that Bird also was a great defensive player. Don't listen to those who say Bird was a defensive liability. For example, his former teammate Cedric Maxwell says that he and McHale regularly took the other team's top front-line scorer and carried all the defensive burden for Bird. Exaggerated. If the other team's top frontline scorer was a center, Parish guarded him. If the other team's top frontline was a small forward, like Dr. J, Bird usually guarded him far more often than not. Maxwell originally was a small forward but after Larry joined the team, Max split the power forward position with McHale and ended up being matched against the likes of Barkley, Maurice Lucas and Karl Malone. But the others did help Bird out if he had a tough defensive assignment . . . in large part because it allowed him to freelance on defense and he became the most disruptive defender on the floor. Maxwell was a competent defender, but Bird made three all-NBA Defensive Teams and Maxwell made, well . . . zero all-NBA defensive teams. But did Bird actually deserve those all-defensive team awards? Well, he was a great TEAM defender, even though he lacked the quick lateral movement to be a great lockdown one-on-one defender. Yet he still led the NBA in defensive win shares four times and finished second twice. Defensive win-shares is the key way to show how well or poorly a player's team does defensively against the other team when he's on the floor REGARDLESS of what other teammates are on the floor with him. It accounts for all the intangibles a player brings defensively that do not get into the box score. If great Celtic defenders/shot blockers like Parish and Mchale are on the floor and Bird leaves to take a break, the defense would still be great but the statistics show it weakened. If Parish and McHale were both playing and Bird was out, and then BIrd returned onto the floor, the team defense got better. Defensive win shares only measure whether the defense is better or worse when that specific player is on the court or not over a season. The algorithm automatically accounts for the presence or lack of other defensive players on the team. Bird averaged 1.9 steals per game over his career. Comparatively, the greatest defensive small forwards of all time averaged the following in terms of steals: Pippen (2.0 steals pg), Dr. J (2.0 spg), Bobby Jones (1.5 spg), LeBron (1.5 spg), Iguodala (1.4 spg), Michael Cooper (1.2 spg), Shane Battier (0.9 spg), Bruce Bowen (0.8 spg), and Rodman (0.7 spg). Bird also also was one of the best defensive rebounders in league history and defensive rebounds limit the opposing team's shots on offense. Only Rodman matched or exceeded Bird as a rebounder (but he was a defensive and rebounding specialist who didn't score) and only Dr. J matched him as a scorer (but after leaving the ABA to join the NBA at age 26 couldn't rebound at close to Bird's level). Bird is well known to be one of the greatest all-around offensive players in NBA history. He could run the floor, post up, shoot midrange, shoot long range, and shoot free throws. During his prime he averaged 27-29 points per game and was one of the greatest passers in NBA history. As a passing forward, only LeBron is comparable (with the great Rick Barry a distant third). Taking into account both shooting and passing, Bird was the dominant all-around offensive player in the NBA from the early 1980s until injured in the late 1980s. His overall offensive impact was greater than Kareem's (at that point in his career), Gervin, English, Dantley, etc.). And yet . . . believe it or not . . . Bird is more highly rated career-wise in defensive win-shares than he is in offensive win-shares. That is how good a defensive player he was. In terms of actually impacting each game, he made more of a difference defensively than he did offensively. Over his entire career. Let that soak in. But the measurable statistics and his focus on team defense/winning rather than being a one-on-one lockdown defender prevented him from every truly being considered a Defensive Player of the Year . . . but again, he was on three all-NBA Defensive teams. After Bird was injured and retired, Michael Jordan fully hit his own stride and became clearly both the greatest offensive player and greatest defensive player at the same time. As for rebounding comparisons, over his career Bird averaged 10 rebounds per game to LeBron's 7.5. Compare him to Charles Barkley, a power forward and one of the greatest rebounders in league history. Barkley averaged 11.7 rpg, not much over Bird's 10.0 rpg. But dig deeper into the numbers: Barkley averaged 4.0 offensive rpg to Bird's 2.0 offensive rpg and that is more than the difference in their total rebounding numbers. And why did Barkley get 2 more off boards per game? Because Barkley played almost exclusively under the offensive basket where all the offensive boards occurred while Bird played a combination inside-out game, often shooting from far out or drawing the opposing defense out to him so he could pass the ball to McHale or Parish in the low post. Bird was only under the offensive basket about 1/3rd of the time Barkley was. If Bird played more under the basket on offense, he surely would have averaged 1-2 more offensive rpg. On the other hand, Bird outrebounded Barkley on the defensive boards 8.0 rpg to 7.7 rpg. So really, they were much closer as rebounders than most realize. And Charles led the league one year with 14.6 total rpg. This great rebounding small forward Bird also led the league in free throw percentage four times. He also shot well over 40% from three-pt range before his injuries took over. Just more evidence of his inside-outside combination game. The only comparable tall stretch forwards who shot from long range and the free-throw line like Bird couldn't rebound with him (7-0 tall Nowitzki 7.5 rpg , 6-11 Durant 7.1 rpg, and 6-10 Stojaković 5-6 rpg. Bird shot like Nowitzki and rebounded almost like Barkley. He passed like Magic. And . . . yet led the league in defensive win shares four times. His senior year in college he was 1978-79 NCAA College Player. And during that final college season, his future NBA team Boston Celtics were the second-worst team in the entire league with a 29-53 record. In terms of playing efficiency, they ranked 19th of 22 teams in offensive rating and 19th of 22 in defensive rating. As a rookie the next year, Bird was the only notable change to the roster. He was 1979-80 NBA Rookie of the Year by a landslide over Magic Johnson. Only Bird and Magic received votes. Bird got 63 votes and Magic got 3 votes. The Celtics had what is still the largest single-season turnaround in NBA history (31 game swing) when they had the best record in the NBA at 61-21. How did they do it? Well, suddenly they ranked 2nd of 22 teams in offensive rating and 4th in defense. Bird made everyone else that much better as a rookie teammate and leader. They won their semifinal playoff series, but then fell to the talented, experienced Moses Malone-Dr J 7ers in the Eastern Conf Finals. As a rookie, Bird finished fourth in MVP voting and made first team all-NBA alongside Kareem and Dr. J. The next year the Celtics went 62-20, ranked 5th of 23 teams offensively and 4th of 23 defensively, beat the Bulls and 76ers in the playoffs and the Rockets in the NBA Finals to win a title in his sophomore pro year. He won three straight MVP awards -- only Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain have also done that -- no one else. Not Oscar, Kareem, West, Magic, Jordan -- not even him, Barkley, Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, LeBron, Steph, Durant, Harden, or Westbrook. The year AFTER he won this third and final MVP award, he averaged 28.1 points and 7.6 assists with 9.2 rpg and finished third in MVP voting. And the next year he finished second while averaging 29.9 ppg, 6.1 apg, and 9.3 rebounds. In fact, over his first 9 years, in MVP voting he finished 4th, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st, 3rd, and 2nd. In other words, he nearly won 9 straight MVP awards in his first 9 years. Then he missed an entire year due to back injuries and foot surgery), returned injured for his last three years (ages 33-35) and still managed to finish 10th, 9th and 14th in MVP voting. When his back was so injured he couldn't sit on the bench but had to lie on the floor between time in the game. He was physically tough, mentally tough and resilient. And while he intimidated other players through his intense play, he never allowed others to intimidate him either by their skill or threatened or actual violence. He would fight any player, no matter how big, or team, including the Bad Boy Pistons. In that regard, he was a hockey player in basketball uniform. And, of course, he went on the become a highly successful coach and front-office executive. Indeed, Larry Bird is the only person to be his state's High School Player of the Year, NCAA College Player of the Year, NBA Rookie of the Year, NBA MVP (three times), NBA title winner (three times), Finals MVP (twice), All-Star Game MVP, NBA Coach of the Year, and NBA Executive of the Year.

I’ll say this about Larry Bird, he made Robert Parrish a Hall of Famer. Parrish was basically Joe Barry Carrol before he got to Boston. He was lazy, lackadaisical, and looked like he didn’t love the game. Golden State couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. Larry changed all of that. If not for Larry Bird, Robert Parrish is a journeyman at best.

Red on some mafia shit in the beginning lol

Bird is the GOAT .

Larry Bird is the only player to average, for his career, at least 20 points a game (24.3), 5 assists (6.3), and at least 10 boards a game (10.0). There have been players that averaged more points, or assists, or abounds but nobody was the all-around player Bird was. Add to that that Larry was so clutch.

Bird had an extreme confidence in his abilities even when he sucked for 3 qts and then is the last shot and he wants the rock, tells the opposite team the play to win the game and then he makes it. I mean if I sucked for 3 and a half qts and is a tight game well I tell somebody else to make the shot. But this dude made it

G.O.A.T= Larry Bird

Bird could have lost a hand doing garden work and if it was the finals he'd have told the doctor to stitch it up so he could help the team and not sucked on the floor. Probably get 10 points 15 assists and a dozen rebounds and 2 or three blocks.

Bill Laimbeer GOAT unquestionably

It's always interesting how much shade Red throws Wilt. I'd also rate Jerry West as greater than Magic Johnson, but I think his other 5 are on the money as among the greatest + Wilt and now a modern addition, LeBron.

Notice how Red did not include Wilt in his top 5, he is in mine.

If someone leaves wilt out of goat discussion, then i won't believe his pick.

Magic will always outshine Bird, but Bird gets my respect

Mikan Russell Jordan Wilt Kareem Bird Duncan Oscar West LeBron

Red is very biased against Wilt and always leaves him out in the discussion of best players/centers/etc - sad because it just hurts his own credibility

There is no "might". Larry Joe Bird is the GOAT!

That interview was in 1991. Jordan had won one ring at that point? Maybe you can take an interview from 1950, where someone says George Mikan may be the best NBA player of all time, to try to argue against Jordan being the GOAT. Your ignorance about Jordan is apparent.

*number 1 white player....

Bird can't be the GOAT because he needed McHale and Parish to beat Jordan in double overtime at the Boston Garden in Game 2 of the '86 playoffs.

*LeBron Jamessssssss!!!!!!!*

"Verbal abuse is no cause for physical retaliation." !! Yes, shame that Democrat justices no longer think that. Someone should force these "words are violence" people to watch Red Auerbach...

Red hates Wilt. We got that.