Larry Bird vs. Dereck Lively II Season by Season Comparison

Side by side comparison of each NBA season of Dereck Lively II and Larry Bird, from their rookie seasons to their last year played, in chronological order with awards, stats, championships and playoff performance of their teams every year.

Who had the better rookie season? Who had best stats in their 10th season? Who won a championship first? These questions and many others, are answered here.

Larry Bird played 13 years in the NBA, 10 more than Dereck Lively II, who played 3. Larry Bird had the first of his seasons in 1979-80, while Dereck Lively II had his rookie season in 2023-24. With that starting point, here you can take a look at each of their seasons side by side and compare how their careers evolved in achievements, awards and championships won, the stats they recorded both in the Regular Season and the Playoffs and how their teams performed in the postseason.

Rookie Season
	Larry Bird	Dereck Lively II
Season	1979-80	2023-24
Team	Boston Celtics	Dallas Mavericks
Honors & Awards	All-NBA First Team	-
	Rookie of the Year	-
	All-Rookie First Team	-
	-	All-Rookie Second Team
	All-Star Game	-
Playoffs	Celtics Lost East Conf Finals	Mavericks Lost NBA Finals

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Rookie Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Larry Bird	82	36.0	21.3	2.6	7.8	10.4	4.5	1.7	0.6	3.2	3.4	8.5	17.8	.474	0.7	1.7	.406	3.7	4.4	.836
difference:	+27	+12.5	+12.5	+0.1	+3.4	+3.5	+3.4	+1.0	+0.8	-2.3	-0.8	+4.5	+12.4	+.273	+0.7	+1.7		+3.0	+2.9	+.330
Dereck Lively II	55	23.5	8.8	2.5	4.4	6.9	1.1	0.7	1.4	0.9	2.6	4.0	5.4	.747	0.0	0.0	-	0.7	1.5	.506
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Larry Bird	9	41.3	21.3	2.4	8.8	11.2	4.7	1.6	0.9	3.7	3.3	9.2	19.7	.469	0.4	1.7	.267	2.4	2.8	.880
difference:	+12	+19.3	+13.4	+0.3	+4.1	+3.8	+3.4	+1.2	+0.1	-2.7	-1.0	+6.2	+15.2	+.205	+0.4	+1.7		+0.7	+0.1	+.290
Dereck Lively II	21	22.0	7.9	2.7	4.7	7.4	1.3	0.4	1.0	1.0	2.3	3.0	4.5	.674	0.0	0.0	-	1.7	2.9	.590

Season 2
	Larry Bird	Dereck Lively II
Season	1980-81	2024-25
Team	Boston Celtics	Dallas Mavericks
Honors & Awards	All-NBA First Team	-
	All-Star Game	-
Playoffs	NBA Champion	Did Not Play

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2nd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Larry Bird	82	39.5	21.2	2.3	8.6	10.9	5.5	2.0	0.8	3.5	2.9	8.8	18.3	.478	0.2	0.9	.270	3.5	4.0	.863
difference:	+46	+16.4	+12.5	+0.6	+4.0	+3.4	+3.1	+1.4	+0.8	-2.4	-0.1	+5.1	+13.0	+.224	+0.2	+0.9		+2.2	+2.0	+.233
Dereck Lively II	36	23.1	8.7	2.9	4.6	7.5	2.4	0.6	1.6	1.1	2.8	3.7	5.3	.702	0.0	0.0	-	1.3	2.0	.630
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Larry Bird	17	44.1	21.9	2.9	11.1	14.0	6.1	2.3	1.0	3.6	3.1	8.6	18.4	.470	0.2	0.5	.375	4.5	5.0	.894
Dereck Lively II	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Season 3
	Larry Bird	Dereck Lively II
Season	1981-82	2025-26
Team	Boston Celtics	Dallas Mavericks
Honors & Awards	All-NBA First Team	-
	All-Defensive Second Team	-
	All-Star Game	-
	All-Star Game MVP	-
Playoffs	Celtics Lost East Conf Finals	Did Not Play

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3rd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Larry Bird	77	38.0	22.9	2.6	8.3	10.9	5.8	1.9	0.9	3.3	3.2	9.2	18.4	.503	0.1	0.7	.212	4.3	4.9	.863
difference:	+70	+21.6	+18.6	+0.6	+5.0	+5.6	+3.9	+1.3	+0.7	-1.9	-0.2	+7.6	+15.8	+.108	+0.1	+0.7		+3.2	+3.5	+.063
Dereck Lively II	7	16.4	4.3	2.0	3.3	5.3	1.9	0.6	1.6	1.4	3.0	1.6	2.6	.611	0.0	0.0	-	1.1	1.4	.800
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Larry Bird	12	40.8	17.8	2.8	9.8	12.5	5.6	1.9	1.4	3.2	3.6	7.3	17.2	.427	0.1	0.5	.167	3.1	3.8	.822
Dereck Lively II	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Additional Years
* Larry Bird played 10 seasons more than Dereck Lively II in the NBA. In that period—his seasons 4 to 13, from 1983 to 1992—Larry Bird played in 9 Playoffs and won two NBA Championships. In those 10 extra years over Dereck Lively II, Larry Bird got these achievements:
Honors & Awards	2 Finals MVP 3 Season MVP 6 All-NBA First Team 1 All-NBA Second Team 2 All-Defensive Second Team 9 All-Star Game