Charles Barkley, the best scorer averaging the most points on the dream team coached by Chuck Daily who as per Barkley told him that he is the 2nd best basketball player in the world after Michael Jordan to which his reply was Jordan has a lot of help from his Bulls teammates.
When asked about his views on Larry Bird, he opened by saying Bird used to trash talk to everyone in the NBA as various other players have mentioned in their interviews.
Barkley being upfront praised Bird for his scoring ability but when it comes to overall performance, he gave himself an edge over the Celtics legend saying,” I am a better rebounder, I am probably a better defender.” Barkley mentions he can carry a team to the championship if he had teammates like Bird had in the championship runs with the Celtics.
NBA Championships:
Barkley who is often trolled for not winning a championship with the enormous amount of talent he had and the kind of basketball he played in his prime, has mentioned several times before that winning a championship requires collective team effort where even the greatest of great require help from the role players that he never had. Larry Bird on the other hand has three NBA championships and two NBA Finals MVPs along with it on his resume.
Both played the position of power forward, though Barkley on the podcast, mentioned Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs as the greatest power forward of all time for his scoring ability and the impact he had on the Spurs and their championship runs.
Charles Barkley and Larry Bird Draft Pick:
Charles Barkley known as Chuck is often considered the best power forward in the game playing at 6ft 4 inches and is the NBA’s leading rebounder among players shorter than 6’6”.
Larry Bird was 6ft 9 inches and was the No.6 pick in the 1978 draft, Chuck on the other hand was picked No.5 overall in the 1984 draft.
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Stats Comparison:
Bird has 12 NBA All-Star Selections to Chuck’s eleven.
Bird has been a part of 9 All-NBA First Team whereas Chuck has been a part of the team 5 times.
Chuck has averaged 11.7 rebounds per game, and 3.9 assists while scoring 22.1 PPG over 1073 games during his career. Bird though played only 897 games has 24.3 PPG,10 rebounds per game and 6.3 assists per game.
While Larry Bird has a clear advantage and looks like a better player on the stat sheet, Chuck has played more games and that can impact a player’s point per game stat, especially in those days when the scoring in NBA was not dominated from behind the three-point line rather inside the paint. Chuck was averaging 23.4 PPG when playing with the Phoenix Suns as opposed to 16.5 PPG during his last 4 seasons with the Rockets so naturally, his scoring average fell.
Two of the most dynamic power forward in the history of the NBA and who played in the same era are mentioned here, it’s up to you to decide which one will you pick as the better power forward?
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