Which rivalry was better? Bird vs Magic or Kobe vs LeBron?

I'd say Bird vs Magic due to the grittier, more physical brand of basketball that was played. Also remember that the league had many fewer teams than today, therefore it wasn't as watered down as the current NBA. This meant that night in and night out, they were both facing harder, deeper teams and never had the chance to face an "easy" team like the Nets. They could never have that chance to give 75% effort and take it easy for the night. Bird and Magic also were relatively the same age AND were rivals even in college. Kobe came into the league in 1996, Lebron in 2003. That's a seven year difference in age (considering they both came out of high school) and they also had no college experience and no chance to face each other prior to the NBA because of their age difference. Kobe also played on bad teams while Lebron was on good ones and Lebron played on bad teams while Kobe was on good ones. For these reasons, the Bird vs Magic rivalry is far superior to the Kobe vs Lebron rivalry. And when speaking of the latter, it is not a fair statement to call it a "rivalry", again mainly due to the age difference and the lack of talent on one of the teams. It is more fair to say there was a rivalry between Kobe and Paul Pierce.

Considering they only played each other twice a year and never played each other in the playoffs, I wouldn't call Kobe and LeBron a rivalry.

Bird and Magic.

Kobe and Lebron never met in the playoffs. Bird and Magic met several times in the playoffs/finals

B v M