Is Tom Brady or was Larry Bird more popular during their runs?

[stinkypete]

Eras are too different to compare. In the 1980s our culture revered its sports heroes. Fans of rival teams grudgingly respected those rivals. Today, our culture searches for fault in our sports heroes. Fans of rival teams vilify and demonize their rivals.

 

[mosslost]

Bird by far. Brady may be a better player in his sport but Bird was an "everyman" type of person. A beer drinking at the corner bar type guy. Brady is more Brie and wine. But that is from a man's perspective, women who are 1/2 the population will be 90% Brady.

True. In the 80s, I bumped into Larry Bird at the Natick Mall, and Danny Ainge and Robert Parish at the movies.

 

[fair catch fryar]

Bird... By a good margin...not saying it's justified, but no one ever questioned anything Bird did...Bird was the best player in the league in his prime...no one argued that Magic Johnson was better, Julius Erving was better, etc, like people/media did w Manning... There was never anyone in the local media clamoring for the Celtics to trade Bird in favor of starting Rick Robey...sports radio at the time was more cheer leading for the local teams and it was a Bird love in every show

Due to social media and the way that media is ultimately consumed now it is hard to gauge in my opinion. So much of Bird's private life was unknown as compared to Brady's. I would have to call it a draw.

 

[Art_Vandelay421]

I am going to assume you mean Russell, who I only remember from the very end of his career. Obviously 11/13 speaks loudly, but oddly there has always been debate about where he as an individual ranked among the NBA greats.

Just a quick tangent stat on Bill Russell - I heard this from Bob Ryan, the 21-0 Record. Russell, played in 21 games (pro, Olympic, college) where either you advanced or went home. His record is 21-0 in those games where the ultimate prize was on the line.

 

[Patjew]

I think Bird due to the nature of the sports (NBA has many more games and you can really see the guys do their jobs, in (short) shorts and no helmets, AND Bird comes across as more of an Everyman, AND like many others have said, the times were so different and Bird's C's seemed to be on national TV more than anyone, and TV was king.

I'm sure my opinion is based on the fact that I was born in 1973 and I didn't have much to do in the mid-80s other than watch my beloved Celtics. I remember getting home from school at 2 and couldn't wait until the game started at 7:30 on channel 56.

On a global level, Brady is much more well known than Brady was.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

I'm sure my opinion is based on the fact that I was born in 1973 and I didn't have much to do in the mid-80s other than watch my beloved Celtics. I remember getting home from school at 2 and couldn't wait until the game started at 7:30 on channel 56.

I'd wear headphones over only one ear so I could listen to the Cooz in one ear and Johnny in the other. Even wrote a program for my TRS-80 Color Computer that I'd have running during games where I could type in stuff like 33FGM or 32FTM or 00OR or the like so I could have individual scoring and FG% and FT% and rebounding stats available on the fly.

 

[PatriotSpy]

HUGE Bird/Celtics fan as a child. The 80's was the NBA's heyday and Larry was playing chess while everybody else was playing checkers. He was a mythical athlete like Brady is today. I would say it's even. Now if we're talking about most popular across the U.S. then it's Bird hands down. Brady has alot of haters around the NFL whereas Bird was respected universally for his game. Black guys respected him, White guys adored him. It truly was a Bird love fest.

I'm just glad I got to watch both.

 

[SalemPats]

tough one, Brady has had a longer career and kind of invoked a Boston vs the world, who knows good to have them both