said by fatness:I remember watching them in the NCAA tournament. My lasting memory of the game is that I wish their teams had been somewhat equal in ability, so that it was easier to compare the 2 of them. Bird's team sucked, Johnson's team was quite good, and it was a mismatch throwing too much responsibility on Bird. But they were both extremely good, entertaining and skillful.
Bird's team was undefeated and #1 ranked in the country. Michigan State was #3. Along with Bird, they had Carl Nicks who average 19 points a game and was later a first-round pick. In the national semi-finals, they beat a DePaul team that had Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings. Point is they would not be what I considered as sucked.
By the way, number 2 team that was UCLA which DePaul had beaten to get to the final 4. They had 4 players averaging 14 or more points a game (Greenwood, Hamilton, Holland, and Vandeweghe).
Number 4 team Notre Dame had Laimbeer, Tripucka, Woolridge, Hanzlik, and Tracy Jackson but lost to Michigan State in the regional finals.
Bird was drafted the year before by the Celtics but elected to play in college instead. After the NCAA finals, Magic was not even a sure-fire #1 overall pick for the upcoming NBA draft. People mocked his jumped shot so there were some who thought the Lakers were going to select Sidney Moncrief instead. Plus, the Lakers already had a solid point guard in Norm Nixon.