[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

You're right. It was the yr after he retired.

Regardless, that doesn't look like a very successful run and he had Parrish, mchale and dj not to mention a young Reggie Lewis at the end.

How can his career be viewed as any more successful than Kobe's?

You do realize that Bird only played six games in 1989 and missed the playoffs right? You do remember that he had injured his back and was nowhere near the same player right? Those last four years, he played six, 75, 60, and 45 games. That's 186 of a possible 328. You do realize that the back was so bad that he missed the first round against Indiana in 1992 then missed the first three games against Cleveland in the second round and in the four games he played, he came off the bench in the first two (17 and 20 minutes) right?

From Wikipedia:

In 1988, Bird had the best statistical season of his career, but the Celtics failed to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in five years, losing to the Pistons in six games during the Eastern Conference Finals. Bird started the 1988–89 season with Boston, but ended his season after six games to have bone spurs surgically removed from both of his heels. He returned to the Celtics in 1989, but debilitating back problems and an aging Celtic roster prevented him from regaining his mid-1980s form. Nonetheless, through the final years of his career, Bird maintained his status as one of the premier players in the game. He averaged over 20 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists a game in his last three seasons with the Celtics, and shot better than 45% from the field in each. Bird led the Celtics to playoff appearances in each of those three seasons.
Bird's body, however, continued to break down. He had been bothered by back problems for years, and his back became progressively worse. After leading the Celtics to a 29–5 start to the 1990–91 season, he missed 22 games due to a compressed nerve root in his back, a condition that would eventually lead to his retirement. He had off-season surgery to remove a disc from his back, but his back problems continued and he missed 37 games during the 1991–92 season. His past glory would be briefly rekindled, however, in a game that season in which he scored 49 points in a double-overtime victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. During the 1992 Eastern Conference semi-finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bird missed four of the seven games in the series due to those recurring back problems.