Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Larry Bird
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at #3 and Larry Bird at #7.
Head-to-head FAQ
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The case for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The most decorated player ever by individual hardware, and the owner of the most unstoppable single weapon in basketball history. Abdul-Jabbar's six regular-season MVPs remain the record, his 38,387 points stood as the scoring record for 39 years, and his six championships span an almost implausible arc — Finals MVP as a second-year player in Milwaukee in 1971, Finals MVP again at age 38 in 1985. The skyhook gave him a shot that was never solved: he shot 55.9 percent for his career and remained an elite scorer past age 40, retiring with 19 All-Star selections and 17,440 rebounds. His dominance predates the NBA: three straight NCAA titles and three tournament Most Outstanding Player awards at UCLA, where the NCAA banned dunking in 1967 largely because of him — he answered by perfecting the skyhook. The knock is that he was the clear second star on several 1980s title teams, but a career that runs from beating Wilt Chamberlain to feeding off Magic Johnson, spanning 20 elite seasons, has no parallel for sustained excellence at the center position.
The case for Larry Bird
The greatest forward of his era and the most complete offensive skill set of the pre-analytics age. Bird won three straight MVPs from 1984 to 1986 — a feat otherwise achieved only by Russell and Chamberlain — and three championships with two Finals MVPs, anchoring Celtics teams that won 60-plus games five times. His career line of 24.3 points, 10.0 rebounds and 6.3 assists is the classic all-around forward profile, and he was decades ahead of the sport as a shooter: two 50-40-90 seasons, in 1986–87 and 1987–88, when the feat was nearly unheard of, plus the first three Three-Point Contest titles. The 1985–86 Celtics, with Bird at his apex, went 67–15 and are routinely listed among the half-dozen best teams ever assembled. His trash-talking clutch resume — the 1981 comeback against Philadelphia, the steal of Isiah Thomas's inbound pass in the 1987 Eastern finals — and his rivalry with Magic Johnson, meeting in three Finals, carried the league's renaissance. Chronic back injuries ended his prime early; at his best, only Jordan was clearly better.