Anyone who has seen snippets of basketball videos would have seen a guy wearing 30 on his back and hitting a basket from an absolutely astonishing distance. Doing it once or twice or occasionally is certainly commendable. Making a habit of shooting threes and actually managing to do it, is brilliant.

But to do it for years, to do it in every game and win games with it in clutch moments, has certainly made Stephen Curry an absolute legend. And Larry Bird was one of the first people who knew his potential.

Years before it was established for everyone to know, Larry Bird recognized Steph Curry had the potential to become the best deep shooter in the NBA. On the Dan Patrick show, Bird talked about a few of the best shooters to ever play in the league. Among them, Steph was also mentioned.

Firstly when Dan asked, “Do you see Steph Curry? Can you say after four or five years that he is the best shooter we have ever seen?” To this Bird answered, “No I don’t know about that.” 

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Then Dan asked if he would categorize shooters and call Steph the best deep shooter at the time. Larry Bird replied, “Yeah I’d say he’s, he’s right there.” They both added a few names who were tremendous shooters. Then Bird added, “Deep shooters, Curry’s about one of the best.”

Larry Bird and Dan Patrick name other great shooters in the NBA before Stephen Curry

Dan Patrick and Larry Bird listed a few names who were in the conversation of the best shooters the NBA has ever seen. Now Steph Curry obviously has left no doubts in people’s minds that he is indeed one of the best shooters in history. But apart from him, there were many players who are among the very best.

One name that pops into mind is obviously Ray Allen, whose record Steph broke in December. Steph is now the player with the most three-pointers and leads by a large margin.

Dan and Bird also talked about Reggie Miller who was certainly better than probably everybody else when it came to scoring threes. Reggie Miller stands at 3rd in the list for most threes in history after Steph and Ray. Other names mentioned were Chris Mullen, Joey Hassett, Conor Henry, Dave Ellis, and Mark Price.

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Dan asked Larry if he was in that conversation. Larry did not waste a second to reply that yes he was. Dan broke into laughter with the quickness of his reply. And Larry Bird said that he wasn’t saying he was the best but he was certainly in the conversation. Classic Larry Bird!