Ainge thinks Curry is a better shooter than Bird, best all-time


Is he a prisoner of the moment or is he right?

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge doubled down on a tweet from last May in an interview with WEEI.com earlier this week saying Warriors guard and reining league MVP Steph Curry is the greatest shooter of all time. Not Larry Legend.

Here is the original tweet.

And here is his comments to WEEI.com talking about Bird.
“I think Larry was as good a shooter as I’ve ever seen before Steph. And Ray Allen is up there, too,” Ainge said. “If anybody were to come in and tell me, ‘Larry Bird‘s the best shooter of all time,’ I wouldn’t have much argument. Same with Ray. I probably wouldn’t argue. It’s really close.

“The reason I think Steph is the best shooter of all time is simply the variety of shots he hits. Left-handed running hook shots, reverses, floaters, 3-point shots off the dribble, behind screens. It’s the variety and the degree of difficulty of the shots he hits.”

Looking at Curry, it's great company to be in and he is talented no question, but not G.O.A.T. status yet.

I do think, however, we can categorize these players.

For my money, Ray Allen is the greatest three point shooter of all time, Curry being the most dynamic shooter of all time (if he keeps it up) and finally Larry Bird is the G.O.A.T. of the big shot.

If I am drafting a team right now Larry Bird is the clear cut first choice being the best player out of the three.

Danny might be willing to take the leap and assume that Steph can keep up his MVP-like production, but I'm not sold. Lets see what happens over the course of his career before we start dethroning guys like Bird or Ray Allen. It's unfair to the legends and unfair pressure on the current player.

Plus, it's a different NBA today than it was back in Bird's time. If Larry played today, he would be even better than back in the 80's, which is scary to think about.

Photo Credit: Bleacher Report

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