I agree that Bird was way better than the players in the 80s. But again, go watch games from the 80s. It’s truly awful.
Modern athletes are better than older athletes. That’s a fact across all sports. Watching Larry Bird score Beatles wannabes does not mean he would be able to keep up against the modern NBA. You put any modern NBA team’s best defender on Bird and he would have no idea what to do with the size and length.