Bird.
The reason is because.. well besides championships (which Kobe had a lot of help for namely a guy named Shaq), Bird beats or ties Kobe in nearly every relevant category.
Scoring? Tie. Kobe averages 1 more PPG not a big difference. Kobe had the higher peak scoring but that’s because he took more shots than Bird did on average. Skill wise, they are both very skilled scorers than score from nearly any way possible on the court.
Rebounding? Bird. Not even close. Bird averaged 10 RPG he played power forward for a good part of his early career and is quite good at boxing out opposing forwards and even centers.
Passing? Bird. Bird is the best passing forward not named Lebron James and some would say a more creative passer than Lebron as well. No contest.
Shooting? Bird. Bird is one of the early great 3PT shooters and can get the ball in from nearly anywhere on the court.
Defense? Tie. Kobe has more All-Def selections but that doesn’t make him a better defender. In terms of defensive value to the team Bird was as good a defender as any from his era, good eye for steals, good at disrupting other players because of his great basketball IQ and vision.
Clutch? Tie. Both Bird and Kobe are known as the go to guy to shots in the clutch, although I would say Bird has the edge when it comes to statistical makes, nobody can argue Bird wasn’t clutch because everyone feared him the same way they feared Kobe.
MVPs? Bird. He has 2 more than Kobe.
FMVPs? Tie. He has the same amount as Kobe
So really.. all Kobe has on him is the rings and longevity but Bird beats him in nearly every category that matters. Only casuals will say Kobe is 2nd greatest all time after Jordan etc because they are casuals that are fooled by the highlights, 81 points, ring count, ‘mamba mentality’ buzzwords etc real ballers know Bird is better.
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