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join:2010-04-11
Ephrata, PA

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Bird and Magic

»espn.go.com/espn/story/_ ··· rd-magic

Great arcticle to read. I was born in 1985 so I didn't get to see them play. I just remember my first basketball card was Magic Johnson. I loved Magic and I'm still a Lakers fan because of that. Any other board readers remember watching them back then? How was that like?

fatness
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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.

Retired6
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join:2002-11-09
Earth

Retired6

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said by fatness:

I remember watching them in the NCAA tournament.

Same here. Those were the days !
towerdave
join:2002-01-16
O Fallon, IL

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Bird and Magic literally saved the NBA, and then Jordan took it to the next level. Lakers and Celtics in the NBA Finals was must watch TV. I loved watching "Showtime" basketball and hated the Celtics back then.

TD

btB
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btB to fatness

Anon

to fatness
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.

fatness
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fatness

OK, they didn't suck, you're right about that. If you watched the game, though, it was clear that Michigan State had the better team overall. In other words, it was hard to compare Bird and Johnson during the game one had a much better supporting cast than the other.
quote:
"We just followed Larry," said Carl Nicks, who had played as a freshman at ISU, spent a year at Gulf Coast (Fla.) Community College, then transferred back to become a star guard.
quote:
"I had control of my teammates," Bird agreed. "I think I kind of intimidated them a little bit."
quote:
Bird had an instinctive, almost mystical, grasp of basketball. After watching Michigan State beat the Russian national team in a preseason exhibition, he told his teammates the Spartans were the best team in the country. He predicted they would win the national championship.
quote:
Indiana State shot poorly, fell behind and never caught up that March night. Magic and Michigan State were triumphant. Bird was held to 19 points.
»www.indystar.com/article ··· sketball

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Ephrata, PA

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I was watching an interview and the day before Bird's team met Magic's team in the tunnel to go shoot around. Magic wanted to go over and say hi but Bird and his team didn't want any of that. I thought that was great. But it also made the Spartans want to go out and beat them even more.
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Also, I hate how everyone is buddy buddies now in the NBA.

btB
@rr.com

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Anon

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Bird's former Celtic teammates probably said the same thing about him as well. Some of those teams had lots of talent.

I re-watched the game last night. There were 2 primary reasons why Indiana State lost. One was that Michigan State sandwiched/double-teamed Bird the whole game so he had a tough time getting open shots. When you put all your eggs in one basket, that can happen. Second reason was Indiana State just missed way too many free throws including a few front-ends of a one-and-one. They made Shaq and Wilt look like great free throwers. Not sure what the final count was but late in the game, they were under 40%.

Bird was a scorer and deadly shooter. Johnson was more the type who could hit the outside shot but that was because his man was double-teaming somebody else. Johnson did score by driving and screaming for a foul when the shot did not go in. Bird was not going to go end to end like Johnson. Bird was a good passer for somebody who shoots so well, but he was not a point guard. Johnson almost always bigger than other point guards which obviously helped him distribute the ball. Both were very good at rebounding, but not the best individual defenders. Although they were stars, neither were not high-flyers. You were not going throw lob passes to them when they were near the basket.

fatness
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fatness

said by btB :

I re-watched the game last night. There were 2 primary reasons why Indiana State lost. One was that Michigan State sandwiched/double-teamed Bird the whole game so he had a tough time getting open shots. When you put all your eggs in one basket, that can happen.

That's pretty much what I meant about Bird's team --- Michigan State knew they just had to stop 1 guy to win. His teammates weren't enough help.

I enjoyed watching each of them play as pros. The thing that Johnson did that most impressed me was play center during a critical game in the NBA finals.

For those who don't remember: »www.nba.com/encyclopedia ··· ter.html