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Originally Posted by dalakhani
I watched Bird plenty of times. That whole "hands" thing was created by the Boston media because Bird was the great white hope and there couldnt be any flaws in this basketball genius.
Bird was a great player, one of the all time greats for sure and no one would argue that. But defensively?
He was a liability. Anyone knows that "hands" can't make you a good defender. You dont defend with your hands, you defend with your feet. He was too slow to guard the other team's 3 and they put cornbread and then later 7 foot kevin mchale on the other team's small forward because Bird would get lit up every time he was on the perimeter.
With the Three point line moved in and the game being much faster today, Bird would be really difficult to hide.
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Wrong, oh so wrong.
Yes feet. Of course feet. But
hands can clearly make up partially for foot speed.
Bird would make steals on players that would try to set him
up before the dribble by poking the ball loose. I saw this happen
so many times.
I never said Bird was a great defender.
But he was adequate because of anticipation and
hand speed to make up for lack of foot speed.
What players do you know of that have quick feet for defense
but lack quick hands for poking prodding and getting a hand in the
face off a shot? If you do know of them, they are NOT good defenders.
And I thought we were discussing "intangibles"?
What are those?
Please.