Culture of Hoops

Reggie Miller Picks Larry Bird Over LeBron James

Image courtesy of Keith Allison/Flickr.

Image courtesy of Keith Allison/Flickr.

Here come the grumpy old men again.

Reggie Miller was asked on The Dan Patrick Show who he would take in a hypothetical draft at age 30, Larry Bird or LeBron James. Pretend you didn’t read the spoiler in the title, and check out this clip for his full comments.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFgEit4aSmc[/youtube]

Here’s a quick comparison of their stats at age 30.

LeBron James: 25.3 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 7.4 APG, 0.7 BPG, 1.6 SPG, 48.8 FG%, 35.4 3P%, 71.0 FT%

Larry Bird: 28.1 PPG, 9.2 RPG, 7.6 APG, 0.9 BPG, 1.8 SPG, 52.5 FG%, 40.0 3P%, 91.0 FT%

The direct comparison isn’t fair to either player: James played four more seasons than Bird by age 30, and Bird played in a far more physical era without the rule changes that help offenses in today’s era.

Also, don’t forget that Larry Bird coached Reggie Miller in his sole coaching stint so there’s potential bias at play.

My vote goes to Bird too, but that is a mammoth conversation for another time.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

To Top