Larry Bird knew Michael Jordan was on a path to GOATness.
But even Larry Legend admitted there were many nights when His Airness was far from the best player in the NBA.
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Jordan, Bird and Magic Johnson's pro careers overlapped in the late 1980s and 1990s but they were trending in different directions.
Bird and Magic dominated the '80s and revived the NBA by reigniting the once-dormant rivalry between the Boston Celtics and 'Showtime' Los Angeles Lakers, taking turns to win championship after championship.
But they were rapidly approaching the twilight of their careers as the '90s rolled around and an unstoppable force was ascending out of Chicago.
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The Hall of Fame trio eventually played together on the 1992 United States gold medal-winning Olympics 'Dream Team'.
The elder statesman had already passed the torch to MJ by that point as Bird admitted to Johnson, "Magic, you know, you and I were then, and Michael Jordan is now.".
'The Hick from French Lick' knew he was the past and MJ was the present but in his 1999 book, 'Bird Watching,' the Indiana native revealed that MJ was far from invincible on a nightly basis.
"As usual, Michael and I were cracking on Magic. At one point, Ahmad asked us who we thought was the best basketball player ever. After a lot of discussion, we all concluded that Michael was the best — not every night, though," the Celtics legend wrote.
Air Jordan was hardly infallible but Bird knew a generational talent when he saw one.
The three-time NBA champion, two-time Finals MVP and three-time MVP recognized that the relentless scoring Bull was unlike anything The Association had ever seen before and the league was about to be his.
"Michael Jordan was and is a completely different type of player from anyone I had seen before," Bird once said of Jordan.
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"He's literally on a different level. Magic and I do all our stuff on the floor. When I first saw Michael play, I recognized there was a different era coming in.
"Ten years down the road, you're going to see a lot of Michael Jordans out there. A lot of them will be taking the ball from one hand to the other and switching it around, going underneath, spinning around, and doing all this different stuff."
"Michael has the whole package. He can run, jump, block shots and play great defense. Most of all, he is a great competitor. It was great seeing a guy like Michael come to the league, but I don't want to see too many more like him, at least not while I'm still around."
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Bird got to witness a 23-year-old MJ's greatness first-hand when Mike dropped a playoff record 63 points in Game 2 of the Chicago Bulls' 1986 first-round series defeat against Boston.
"God disguised as Michael Jordan" was Bird's only explanation for Jordan's heroics.
But Bird was part of a far superior Celtics team boasting four other future Hall-of-Famers including Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson, Robert Parish and Bill Walton.
Bird, an effortless shooter and supreme trash talker, turned out to be the only player MJ couldn't beat in the postseason.
MJ was 0-6 against Larry the Legend in the playoffs, which meant that Bird was an MJ-esque 6-0 against Jordan when it mattered.
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Bird's Celtics swept Jordan's Bulls 3-0 in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in 1986.
A year later, the lopsided pattern was repeated.
The Big Green Machine won Games 1, 2 and 3 to coldly sweep MJ and his Bulls out of another postseason.
Jordan blanked 6-0 in the postseason against Bird. Bird won the overall personal series between the two 17-11.
He also had the final say.
Boston won 135-132 in double overtime on March 31, 1991, which was the final time that Bird and Jordan met on the court.
Jordan had 37 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in 51 minutes.
Bird was even better, scoring 34 points while grabbing 15 boards and recording eight assists in 52 minutes of winning time.
Bird eventually retired in 1992 and after that it was all MJ's world.
After overcoming the road block that was the Detroit Pistons, Jordan won three consecutive world titles between 1991-1993, before briefly retiring, unretiring, and winning three more rings between 1996-1998.
MJ retired for a second time in January 1999, returned for two more seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards, and walked away for good after that.
The six-time NBA champion and Finals MVP retired as the consensus best player who ever lived - a title not even Bird or Magic would argue against.
