The #9 Player of All-Time - Larry Bird

 Larry Joe Bird was born on December 7, 1956 in West Baden Springs, Indiana.

Bird would not reach the NBA until just before his 23 birthday, and his heel and then his back went on him by age 31, ending his time as an all-time great player.  Bird, therefore, really only had 9 great seasons.  But boy were they great.

Bird won 3 MVPs and his MVP placements in those 9 years are scary good:

4-2-2-2-1-1-1-3-2

Of the Top 9 players on my list, Bird falls only below LeBron and Jordan and Kareem for career MVP Award Shares (see chart at bottom).  Therefore, in his 9 great years, he put up some hellacious numbers.  For example, he is the only player to ever go 24-10-6 for a career.  From 1984 to 1987, Bird was at his peak and was a great peak performer.  

24-10-6.5

29-10-6.5

26-10-6.8

28-9-7.6. 

Those are just crazy numbers for a 4 year stretch.  

So, why not higher?  Longevity isn't great (compare Kareem, Duncan, LeBron, Russell, Wilt, even Shaq), his playoff advanced stats are not the great (he is top 5 in no playoff advanced stat - WS 12th, WS/48 27th, BPM 11th, VORP 6th).  And he only has 2 Finals MVPs (MJ 6, LeBron 4, Kareem, Magic, Shaq, Duncan 3 each).

For a guy with a 9-year crest/peak, you'd think he'd be higher in the per minute regular season stats of WS/48 (23rd) and BPM (7th).  To gain extra points for greatness over a shorter period of time, you'd like to see 5 MVPs and 5 FMVP and top 3 in WS/48 or BPM.  You aren't seeing that.  You'd like to see, for example, that he has a far higher playoff BPM and WS/48 and Net Rating than Kawhi Leonard.  You aren't seeing that -- https://stathead.com/tiny/yCdGe

So, truly a great player, but he just has too much against him to get above #9.

1.	LeBron James	8.813
2.	Michael Jordan*	8.115
3.	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar*	6.105
4.	Larry Bird*	5.612
5.	Magic Johnson*	5.104
6.	Bill Russell*	4.748
7.	Shaquille O'Neal*	4.380
8.		4.296
9.	Tim Duncan*	4.278
10.		4.202
11.	Wilt Chamberlain*	4.152