I mean, it’s a different league/philosophy now than when Bird was in

OP this is how you make ppl hate Knicks fans

LOL Michael Jordan was truly on another level. Games ended below 100 back then and he was scoring like ¹⁄₃ of the points.

Comparing PPG across different eras is kind of pointless. Add 10 ppg for past era players.

Brunson is a real playoff scorer.

Bird is a real playoff scorer and passer and rebounder, and early on a defender.

Why single team? Why 55+ games? A bit arbitrary, isn’t it?

I mean scoring is inflated nowadays, but besides that point, do Knicks fans really still think Brunson isn’t getting the flowers he deserves?

The legend didn’t need to score 40 to win

I feel like the “for a single team” caveat and the somewhat arbitrary 55+ games played are doing work to make this look more significantly than it is lol not to take away from Brunson of course, still an elite scorer

Comparing ppg from 80/90s to mid 2020s is an awful comparison… obv the game has changed and so has scoring. Not taking away from Jalen. He’s obviously a top 2 point guard in the game. Arguably 1.

I think Larry Legend went to 5 Finals with 3 wins as well.

“On his way…”

No, he is definitively one of the greatest playoff scorers to ever do it. Only player since MJ to drop 40+ in four straight playoff games. Most 4th quarter points in a 10 game stretch in the playoffs since tracking began in 1997. More playoff points in his career than Luka Doncic. Brunson’s career postseason scoring average, INCLUDING DALLAS, is 17th all-time, ahead of Kobe, Dirk, Tatum, Bird, Olajuwon, and Wilt Chamberlain.

Brunson scored 32.6 points per game in these Finals. That’s third all-time in career Finals scoring average, behind Rick Barry and Jordan. Individually, it’s the 22nd best scoring average in any NBA Finals, ahead of Jordan’s ‘96-97 and every single Finals of Kobe Bryant’s career.

In 1987 Larry Bird led the league in 3PA (3) And made 3P (1.2)

You dont see the difference?

Larry’s best was 27, 10 and 7.2 assists. In a far more grindy era. Don’t be silly.

Gotta adjust for pace and look at it on a per possession basis

What a dumb post

Doesn’t this need some kind of normalization? What % of the teams total points were each of them?

Bird had some rebounds blocks and steals that make him by far a better player.

Brunson is great but nobody thinks he is one of the best to ever do it, regular season or playoffs. Just like no one thinks Brunson is better than Bird, no matter what niche stats you pull up

I’ll care if he wins 2 more rings

Now do Jerry West Highest was 40 , 5 seasons over 30….

If they had 3’s his numbers would be ridiculous

Knicks fans….

Adjust this for pace you coward!

None of this shit is comparable—especially looking at PPG only. LOL. But hey, if you want people to tell you “yeah, you’re right Brunson is better than Bird” I guess this is one way to try to do it.

We went from “Is Jokic already better than Bird?” to “Is Brunson already better than Bird?”

Different eras

Whose idea was it to compare PPG across eras?

This is some all-time level slander… Bird would have wiped the court with Brunson and the Knicks.

Honestly given the eras this is more impressive for Larry Legend lol

Can’t really compare PPG across eras like that.

That being said, Brunson has without question been one of the greatest playoff scorers of all time in the last 5 years.

Yeah but what’s his trash talk average? 

Why would you compare him to bird and not his peers who he also matches/surpasses?

OP woke up today and decided he wanted to ragebait the entire city of Boston lol

I think this makes what Bird did more impressive. You’re averaging 27.5 a game in a slower era and with legit HOFers next to you - in fact I commend the whole team for putting their egos aside on this front.

Lmao, dumb as fuck post but Knicks fans are who they are

Kind of an odd person to compare Brunson to since they do completely different things in completely different roles in completely different era. Did I say odd? I guess I meant completely meaningless.

Brunson is playing in an incredibly easy era to score in. Brunson is on a fantastic playoff run and has been incredibly clutch but you’re comparing career long averages when Brunson is in his prime right now.

Most of those other guys were also offering a lot more than just a lot of points on a lot of shots.

Think about how much scoring has changed in the nba the past 10-15 years. Now you want to compare 40 years ago?

Naive post.

Lmao ok

I’d rather have bird thanks

Jalen “GET A BUCKET” Brunson. Guys a fucking dog.

Delete this

You can appreciate Brunson without putting down Larry Legend

What a nothing burger ass take. You must be one of the bandwagon Knicks fans our fan base acquired since the team got good.

You can’t compare points to points, it’s has to be averages versus total points. 27.5 out of 125 is a lot different than 33 out of 90…

This sub becomes more and more rage bait by the day. Are there even mods here? 😂

Holy copium. Someone check in on OP. The meds might have ran out

Bird’s 27.5 in the 80s would be like 35 in today’s game

God, I hope he retires a Knick! Would really hate to see what happened to Ewing happen to him!

One of the things I like about Jalen Brunson is how resilient of a scorer he is. Whether he’s efficient or not, he finds a finds to maximize a possession. Even if struggles like he did the first 2-3 games of the Finals, he finds way and ends up having a performance like he did in the clincher game that sealed his Finals MVP. More young and up coming players should look up to Brunson

Give Larry that many 3s and frees. He’d average 50

I really hate comparing points per game across generations. Kobe or Jordan scoring 35 points out of 92 is more impressive than someone going similar out of 115 or 120 today (that’s not even factoring in degree of difficulty shots with majority mid range and fewer threes etc)

I’m not saying it’s the case for Larry Bird. I haven’t looked at the average team points for those years. I know 80s was higher scoring than 90s and 2000s but probably lower scoring than now.

Lowkey diabolical that Luka misses this list by 5 games because of a knife-to-the-back trade.  Otherwise, he is second only to Jordan.

Watch Larry Bird highlights and tell me a single person who is passing like that today. It’s basically only jokic

Bird was and obviously one of the best ever. He was never as cute as jb though so who really wins?

There is no argument against Brunson being one of the greatest playoff scorers ever. People can cry about it, but the numbers don’t lie.

Bill Simmons in shambles

Why exclude luka. 50 games with mavs at 31ppg.

Okay, we need to settle down with the Brunson - Bird comparisons… lol

Back when people didn’t average over 30ppg basically ever

Sorry buddy but scoring has gone up a ton since then due to rule changes and basketball philosophy changes. Especially the hand checking and the clock only resetting to 14 on offensive rebounds. Not comparable 

This is more cherry-picked than a cherry orchard.

Hes my king i bow to lord Brunson

Another example of why comparing stats from different era’s is misleading

Adjusted for pace or v league average would be a lot more interesting.

Ok

Eras scoring and pace change. Who would’ve thought.

Now show every other stat + his defensive ability.

As a Knick fan, JB is a got darn saint in this household!! But I’m not sure I can put him in Bird category.

I mean he put up like 60 shots a game 

Perhaps it might be better to try and account for potential scoring inflation by looking his points as a percentage of the amount of points the team scored rather than raw numbers.

That way you can adjust for game flows that would be high or low scoring and analyze the contributions. 30pts in a game where the score is 120 is different than 30pts in game that’s in the 90 point range.

Scoring is up OP.

Scoring is inflated now and Brunson is not the passer, rebounder, or defender that Bird was. 

Now show the amount of points their teams averaged those playoffs too lol

I can’t wait for the season to start, Knicks fans have been miserable this entire offseason. Even us Cs fans weren’t this obnoxious and I know we were insufferable.

Let’s conveniently erase his lower scoring playoff series by defining it as “single team.”

Im not discounting how good Brunson is, but this stat is so ridiculously cherrypicked to be in his favor. Very few all time greats switched teams in their prime, and if they did, they probably played there a few years post prime. A better way to show how good Brunson actually is would be to allow any 4 year span, or span of 55 games. That would give a much more reasonable comparison.