Simply Amazing... (the best PASSER you will ever see...)

[SupaDave]

Oh no you didn't? (head snap)...

Can you really have one without the other?

This is what you call court awareness...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxBM3dTPc_k

[Mike Corey]

Sounds like you and Jason Evans need to buy one another this shirt (http://www.homageclothing.com/store/sports/east-vs-west).

[davekay1971]

I've always felt that if I had to pick one player in NBA history to build a team around, it would be Magic Johnson...

[Newton_14]

Can't we just love and respect them both? I always did. And I hated the Lakers. But Magic was simply great as was Bird. So there is no winner in this argument. Both were the greatest passers, players, winners... etc etc etc

[Welcome2DaSlopes]

1.Magic
2.Kidd
3.Stockton

[DukeDevilDeb]

I've always felt that if I had to pick one player in NBA history to build a team around, it would be Magic Johnson...

I watched the Larry Bird tapes; I watched the Magic Johnson tapes. No one will ever argue with the fact that these were two of the best basketball players ever.

But as great as Magic is, my fantasy team always starts with Larry Bird.

And why was Magic right when he said, "There will never, ever, ever be another Larry Bird?" The pure joy Bird got out of passing, enabling the other player to score the ball.. where is that now? Hurley had it, but never at the Bird level. LeBron doesn't have it; Kobe doesn't either.

At the same time, Bird evokes the magic (with a small m) of basketball without its ME FIRST attitude.

Will we ever see that again?

[Orange&BlackSheep]

1.Magic
2.Kidd
3.Stockton

1. Kidd
2. Magic
3. Maravich
4. Hurley

[MarkD83]

1. Kidd
2. Magic
3. Maravich
4. Hurley

1. Irving :D ( I hope)
2. Hurley
3. Williams
4. Amaker
5. Duhon
6. Scheyer
7. G. Hill

[Lord Ash]

Hm, the music in the OP was a bit dramatic... for Magic I prefer something a bit lighter, as the guy himself was always a warm fellow.

[Spret42]

Watch Courtship of Rivals and then never talk about who was better again. They were the two greatest basketball players of all time and ranking one over the other is just a disservice to them both.


And I agree on the music... it needed to be something like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kotK9FNEYU

[davekay1971]

Watch Courtship of Rivals and then never talk about who was better again. They were the two greatest basketball players of all time and ranking one over the other is just a disservice to them both.


And I agree on the music... it needed to be something like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kotK9FNEYU

Oh, I meant no disrespect at all to Bird with my post. Bird was every bid the magician that Magic was. Courtship of Rivals was a great piece, by the way. To watch those two guys play in their prime, particularly with their passing and the way they just knew the game, is always breathtaking. They both were basketball geniuses, and they made the game beautiful to watch.

Then that Tarhole came along and turned the NBA into a me-first, isolation offense, bore. Leave it to a tarhole to ruin the whole NBA :p

[slower]

Then that Tarhole came along and turned the NBA into a me-first, isolation offense, bore. Leave it to a tarhole to ruin the whole NBA :p

You forgot traveling, palming, pushing off...

[Spret42]

Then that Tarhole came along and turned the NBA into a me-first, isolation offense, bore. Leave it to a tarhole to ruin the whole NBA :p

Ha. This place needs a "rolls eyes" emoticon. :)

[Lord Ash]

Courtship of Rivals was WONDERFULLY done... my wife, who couldn't care any less about sports, was in tears at about three different spots during it. A beautifully crafted piece.

[rsvman]

1. Kidd
2. Magic
3. Maravich
4. Hurley

thanks for putting Maravich on your list. Often remembered as a prolific scorer, his amazing passing ability is sometimes forgotten. I came onto this thread to remind people of it, but you beat me to it.

[House G]

thanks for putting Maravich on your list. Often remembered as a prolific scorer, his amazing passing ability is sometimes forgotten. I came onto this thread to remind people of it, but you beat me to it.

You both beat me to it, but check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aDy8BqEuyE

[Dukefan4Life]

Bird has always been my basketball God..The hick from frenchlick could do it all! Best forward to play the game hands down :D

[dukemath]

As a kid in the mid to late 80's in LA I watched Magic and the Lakers all the time. Getting to see him play live at the Forum was special. Magic will always be my favorite player. To me he will always be the best because of how he made his teammates better. (I respect that about Bird too, but he was on that other team.) Although I still root for my home team, I don't enjoy the one-on-one style of the NBA. I liked to better when it was a team sport.

Thanks for the video. It was a great reminder of how fun the NBA was when I was a kid.

[roywhite]

Magic's size for his position is the final element that puts him on the top of the list of all time passers/PGs. He could see over the offense and he could get his own shot off against almost anybody inside.

How many other guys in basketball history could play all 5 positions like Magic?

[Dukefan4Life]

Best PG ever? i would say Magic followed by Stockton

[pfrduke]

Ha. This place needs a "rolls eyes" emoticon. :)

It has one: :rolleyes:

[darthur]

1. Kidd
2. Magic
3. Maravich
4. Hurley

A best-passing list without Steve Nash is a terrible, terrible thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksh_DhmSnis&feature=related

[Daniel tosh]

IMO you have to put Jason Williams as a King on the list,and although I'm too young to have watched him I've heard Bob Cousy was was a great passer also.Maybe some of you older guys can help us out on that one.

[_Gary]

While both guys were absolutely fantastic I always felt that Magic made easy passes look more difficult by way of extra "flash", while Bird made difficult passes look easy by way of not adding any extra "flash" to his passes.

I'm not saying Magic wasn't an incredible passer and all around player. He was. As one poster above said, the thing that made Magic so tough was his height. At 6'9" he really had an incredible advantage over other point guards. Heck, because of his size he had an advantage over pretty much every guard, and many forwards, in the league at that time! So he was going to dominate if for no other reason than his size. But what I always noticed was that many of Magic's assists were truly "Showtime" in that he'd be running the break in the middle with a teammate to either side and just one defender back and he'd jump up in the air and do the no look thing to a streaking, wide-open teammate and everyone would "ooh & aah" all over the place. I always felt like in situations like that he was making a very simple pass look hard or spectacular by spicing it up. That gave the illusion of incredible or difficult when it often wasn't.

Bird on the other hand rarely spiced up his passes. He'd make some very difficult passes from tough positions but he did so with such simplicity and lack of "oomph" that at times people downplayed how spectacular the pass was. In that sense I always felt like he and Magic were polar opposites, and for that reason I'll always feel like Bird was the better passer and player.

Just my two cents.

[Rudy]

A best-passing list without Steve Nash is a terrible, terrible thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksh_DhmSnis&feature=related
yeah, I saw a longer highlight reel of Nash in a bar tonight. He's a magician alright and he's at the top of his game now. Like the great ones, he anticipates where his teammates will be and threads passes to the spots.

[gep]

Bird on the other hand rarely spiced up his passes. He'd make some very difficult passes from tough positions but he did so with such simplicity and lack of "oomph" that at times people downplayed how spectacular the pass was. In that sense I always felt like he and Magic were polar opposites, and for that reason I'll always feel like Bird was the better passer and player.

Just my two cents.

Larry Bird was my favorite player from his Indiana State days... and the Celtics, from back in the late 60's, was also a favorite. So when the Celtics got Bird, I was ecstatic, to say the least... and watched almost every Celtics game on TV that was available at the time. But, time passes, I forget... the links brought back all of those memories of Bird. I agree with the post above regarding Magic and Bird... not to discount Magic at all, but Bird did it "quietly". (Magic is also a favorite of mine... in fact, I've got both Magic and Bird's autographed SI cover in my room. I think each made the other better.)

I always wondered, and again after watching the video in the links... Bird's teammates must have had to be SO alert... since Bird's passes seem to come in a split second when NO ONE else expected it. I was always amazed that the player catching the pass was actually ready for it.

[NSDukeFan]

I always wondered, and again after watching the video in the links... Bird's teammates must have had to be SO alert... since Bird's passes seem to come in a split second when NO ONE else expected it. I was always amazed that the player catching the pass was actually ready for it.

I am pretty sure if you get a ball in the nose a couple of times, you learn quite quickly to run with your hands up and ready to catch a pass.:)

[Big Pappa]

I am pretty sure if you get a ball in the nose a couple of times, you learn quite quickly to run with your hands up and ready to catch a pass.:)

That's called the Brett Favre Rule.

[Newton_14]

That's called the Brett Favre Rule.

Ha Ha. Or the Elway rule. Remember when the "smurfs" used to brag about the diamond imprint in their chest from the nose of the ball? It was have your hands up or get branded!

[Orange&BlackSheep]

1. Irving :D ( I hope)
2. Hurley
3. Williams
4. Amaker
5. Duhon
6. Scheyer
7. G. Hill

Someone needs to make me a highlight real of JayWill's passing prowess because as someone who watched all three of his years, I can't even conjure one memory of him that does not involve him driving or shooting.

In my mind, the gap between Hurley and the rest of this list is wider than any other "top Duke players in a category" list that I can think of.