“I had to have him there for some reason,” he said. 3 ... and still wouldn’t  gamble.“That would have been a helluva thing, the Pacers getting Bird as a local guy,” said longtime NBA columnist and analyst Peter Vecsey. From Russell and John Havlicek to Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain, some of the greatest players in league annals had participated, with only one side collecting rings.Bird acknowledged he was as intrigued about playing in the same game as Abdul-Jabbar as he was with seeing his old nemesis Johnson. They played below the rim and lacked dazzling athletic ability. Until they did, beyond all expectations, starting almost immediately as rookies.“I thought that first year was what made their NBA careers,” said Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who was a senior at Proviso East High just outside Chicago during Bird’s and Johnson’s debut NBA season.“Bird wins the Rookie of the Year that year. When Magic got out there, he changed the dynamic of the team. 1 pick, but traded it to Portland in a deal that dropped them to No. In Bird it had a Great White Hope. As SI noted, “CBS has been properly criticized for treating its telecasts as little more than a bridge between a refrigerator race and a golf tournament.” In reality, though, the only people actually complaining were members of the Arizona clergy, one of whom wrote a letter to the Suns asking the team to issue a public statement of regret and a vow that such scheduling would never happen again. They should have been in no position to draft the Michigan State phenom -- except for a compensation package of draft picks they got from the New Orleans after the Jazz signed veteran guard Gail Goodrich in July 1976.New Orleans’ 26-56 record was the league’s worst by the spring of ’79 -- remember, the franchise was about to move to Salt Lake City -- so the Lakers went into the traditional coin flip in those pre-lottery days. In the summer of 1976, the Jazz signed free agent guard Gail Goodrich from the Lakers. They edged out Chicago, who settled for David Greenwood at No. That meant they were in a coin flip with the worst team in the West, the Bulls.
The young Lakers guard had averaged 18.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists.While the order of finish wasn’t a surprise, but the final tally was: Bird 63, Johnson 3. Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals is a 2010 television documentary film broadcast on HBO. For the 10th time in 11 seasons, the toss came up tails. Bird went missing from two, and there was one more in February 1989 when both were sidelined.Johnson averaged 19.4, 6.8 rebounds and 11.5 assists while winning 11 of their 18 regular-season contests. And then they really picked up the pace in the playoffs. Then took the rubber match in 1987.Overall, after the two rookie meetings, they faced each other 35 more times -- 16 in the regular season, 19 games in the Finals. 6.

NBA.com is part of Turner Sports Digital, part of the Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network. It was Boston’s 37th game of the season and the Lakers’ 40th; they began the night at 28-8 and 26-13, respectively.A decade earlier, the rivalry between the two franchises was raw, with Boston winning all seven of their Finals showdowns between 1959 and 1969. Back when Rod Thorn -- NBA lifer as a player, coach, and team and league executive -- was working as the Chicago Bulls general manager, he was famously shrewd enough to have Michael Jordan drop into his team’s lap at No. 2 (but could have selected Sidney Moncrief, Bill Laimbeer or Bill Cartwright, a big man the Bulls eventually needed to win alongside Michael Jordan).That’s how Bird went East to Boston and Johnson went West to L.A., each quickly becoming identified with those markets and their teams’ style of play.“If you don’t believe in conspiracy theories, it was absolutely the best places for both guys” said former Bucks and Celtics guard Quinn Buckner, a longtime Pacers commentator. Under the rules of the day, he had the option of signing with the team who drafted him, or he could return to Indiana State. Attendance jumped 42% from 1979 to ’89, easily the biggest gain among the big four sports. The mere idea that the other guy might be gaining an edge or widening his lead goaded each to get better, dream bigger, chase harder. The NBA was a vastly different place back then, in quantity, in quality and in the minds of the sports public. Yet they had similar court vision, competitiveness and an ability to slow down the game, in ways that elevated not just themselves but their teammates’ performances.Bird, nearly three years older than Johnson, had gone through the Draft before he even finished college. The Lakers won 11 of the 19 Finals games for a 2-1 edge in rings.One team or the other won eight of nine Finals from 1980 through 1988. They more or less stalked each other. “When the new schedule would come out each year, I’d grab it and circle the Boston games,” Magic told Bird did the same.

Dave Cowens had 22 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists to lead the Celtics. There was very little talk between the two—not that there ever was.