Former rivals Bird, Magic now co-authors

[duncan228]

Former rivals Bird, Magic now co-authors (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=txbirdmagicbook&prov=st&type=lgns)
By Rachel Cohen

Larry Bird doesn’t understand what all the fuss was about. So what if LeBron James didn’t shake hands with the Orlando Magic after his Cleveland Cavaliers lost in the Eastern Conference finals?

“When basketball is over you live the rest of your life, and you’ll have plenty of time for that,” Bird said of players being friends with their opponents.

His greatest rival - and now one of his greatest friends - agreed.

“We never shook each others’ hands,” Magic Johnson said.

The two Hall of Famers - their names forever linked - have now written a book together. “When the Game Was Ours,” written with Jackie MacMullan, is due out Wednesday.

They said they were tired of other players, coaches and reporters writing about what the two were supposedly thinking during their many showdowns.

“What better way to do it than to do it together?” Johnson said Monday on a conference call with Bird. “We’ve been through so many great moments - most of the time against each other - special moments, and just being friends as well.

“I think it’s a unique situation that two guys who were all about winning and all about playing the game the right way - who had a chance to change the game at the time and take the game to another level - are able to write a book together.”

They said they talk only a few times a year, but when they do, they could talk for hours.

The two first bonded while shooting a Converse commercial together in Bird’s hometown of French Lick, Ind. They learned how much they had in common - two Midwestern kids from strong families of modest means.

Not that the encounter softened their rivalry.

“I disliked the guy,” Johnson said. “I hated the guy - because I knew he could beat me.”

[duncan228]

Magic and Bird: The Past On the Present (http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/10285/magic-and-bird-the-past-on-the-present)
By J.A. Adande

Despite the tone the title of their new book, “When the Game Was Ours” might indicate, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are not a couple of grumpy old men who think the NBA might as well have folded after they retired.

In a promotional conference call Monday, Bird said, “It seems like they’re stronger and bigger than we were, they hit the weight room. You have your great players and your mediocre players. It really hasn’t changed. I just think the NBA’s awesome and I think it’s going to continue to get better.”

Johnson said, “The league is in good hands. I’m so happy that we’ve moved away from those scoring point guards, that we’ve got point guards that distribute the basketball.”

One difference stands out: the new rules that limit hand-checking.

“You know how many points Larry Bird would average without people putting their hands on him?” Johnson said. “What Michael [Jordan] could do without what the Pistons used to do with Michael back then? Larry Bird, he was unstoppable with all of that. Just think of what he would be with some of the rule changes they‘ve got now. We would still be talking about the records he held.”

They sure aren’t going to bemoan any lack of civility between opponents. Not when the book (which was co-written by Jackie MacMullan) contains page after page detailing how much the Lakers and Celtics despised each other in the 1980s. So they didn’t harp on LeBron James walking off the court without shaking hands after the Orlando Magic beat his Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs.

“I can remember when I played, I wouldn’t shake anybody’s hands after a loss,” Bird said.

Said Johnson: “The Celtics and Lakers, we never shook anybody’s hands.”

[duncan228]

Magic: 'I Still Want Isiah To Be Successful' (http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/The_Baseline/entry/view/41465)
By Sean Deveney

Magic Johnson knew there would be a strong reaction to his unflattering comments about fellow Hall of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas, who was once Johnson’s best friend. The new book, When the Game Was Ours (http://www.amazon.com/When-Game-Ours-Larry-Bird/dp/0547225474), co-authored by Johnson, Larry Bird and writer Jackie MacMullan, blasts Thomas, saying that Johnson was partly responsible for keeping Thomas off the 1992 Olympic Dream Team and that Thomas’ personality had “ticked off more than half of the NBA.” Thomas responded by saying he was hurt that Johnson would so publicly air their dirty laundry.

So why, exactly, did Johnson go public with the dissolution of his friendship with Thomas? In a call with reporters to discuss the book, Johnson didn't really say, other than offering a cryptic reference to all things needing to be revealed in time.

Johnson said: “It was that time. We had an incredible relationship, we used to do everything together back in the day, and then that kind of faded. It was a tough period. It was probably when we played those two championships (1988 and ’89) that really made that happen. It just really went in opposite directions from then. Even today, though, I still want Isiah to be successful and I am sure he still wants me to be successful, even if we are not what we used to be as far as friendship goes. Sometimes, what happened with the Olympics and things like that just has to be revealed.”

That probably means something like this: We were doing a book and this was some of the juicy stuff. Did you really think I wouldn’t get into it? Frankly, that’s a sensible enough reason. Thomas said he thought Johnson should have called him before revealing the collapse of their friendship, but why? It was 17 years ago, and if Johnson is doing a book, he has every right to explain things from his perspective without getting Thomas’ approval. Thomas can do the same in his book.

Johnson did repeatedly say he has been pulling for Thomas — he recommended Thomas for the job running the Knicks — and is still pulling for him now as coach of Florida International. But he did point out that Thomas was a colossal failure with the Knicks.

“I don’t know what really happened in terms of the Knicks and it is hard for me to comment because I wasn’t there in terms of the day to day to see what happened,” Johnson said. “I know that he was not happy and of course Knicks fans were not happy and management was not happy because you want to win. The Knicks have had a long drought of not being successful. Isiah is a proud man, so that did not sit well with him, I am sure.

“That’s why this college coaching job for him, he really wants to prove to people that he can coach and be successful. I hope that happens for him because I know how much he loves the game. But, at the same time, he just didn’t get it done in New York. And so, things have to happen. You have an opportunity to get it done in New York, and it doesn’t happen. It’s too bad because I was cheering for him.”

As for a reconciliation with Thomas, Johnson was ambivalent. “We haven’t talked,” he said. “If that day comes, we will sit down and talk. If that day doesn’t come, then it doesn’t come.”

[mogrovejo]

I've already ordered it. Mostly because Jackie MacMullan is my favourite basketball writer.

A propos, it's fortunate the over-emotional kids who populate these boards weren't around when a cheap SOB like Bird was playing. If they get all fired up and aggravated by every vanilla guy around, Bird would drive them nuts.

[duncan228]

There Won't be Another Bird vs. Magic, but We Can Still Dream (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=tsn-therewontbeanotherbi&prov=tsn&type=lgns)
SportingNews

—> —>Two decades after the heyday of one of the greatest rivalries in sports (that would be the Lakers and Celtics), the principal players in that rivalry are still a little surprised that so many people still care. They shouldn't be. Back when Magic Johnson really was magic, back when Larry Bird had a tight perm and tighter shorts, that was when the NBA was at its peak. There were two coasts involved, two very different cities and two players in whom fans saw a little bit of themselves—the big-city flair of Magic, the small-town ethic of Larry. Doesn't matter how accurate the perception was. It made for great theater.

"I am still amazed that, after all these years, people still bring up games that I played in years ago," Bird said in a press conference about the new book, When the Game Was Ours, which he and Johnson co-authored with Jackie MacMullan. "This has always just been a dream to me, to play the game I love and know that people remember it and enjoy talking about it."

It's the kind of rivalry that was pure luck for the league, the matching of college rivals with two legendary teams that happened to be championship caliber. It was two greats, driven to be greater by each other. "I hated the guy because I knew he could be beat me," Johnson said. "I knew that if I made mistakes, if I didn't play my ‘A' game, I knew that Larry Bird and the Celtics were going to beat me. I knew how great he was. I knew he was working hard in the gym every single offseason for hours to get better. I knew I had to work that hard in that gym. I was happy to have each other because I know that we made each other better."

The book has stoked memories of back when the game was truly theirs, but it also has gotten some wondering when the league might find a similar player-to-player dynamic as that shared by Bird and Johnson. That's a tough proposition, though, for a few reasons. The league was incredibly fortunate to get Bird and Magic into the situations they were in to begin with. And with top players going to Europe or spending just one year in college, average fans have a hard time identifying with players entering the league the way they once did. So, it may be that we'll never see another Bird-Magic combo.

But we can at least hope that some of these matchups develop into true rivalries:

Celtics vs. Lakers II. The 2008 Finals were a nice revival of the history between the two teams, but it won't mean much unless it happens again. The only way for a Western Conference team to truly become the rival of a team in the East is for the teams to face off in June, and to do so more than once. As they stand now, the Celtics and Lakers have limited championship windows, so if they don't meet in 2010, the rivalry revival will be short-lived. "If Larry and I didn't meet in the Finals, we wouldn't be where we are today," Johnson said. "But because we met so many times—and not only met in the Finals but each won when we got there—that created the buzz around us as well. Then people really looked forward to seeing us."

Dwyane Wade vs. LeBron. Not Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, mind you. It should be Wade, the same kind of ball-dominating, big-shot-making, athletic wing player that James is. Let's face it, Bryant is more than six years older than James, and whatever rivalry they've cooked up in recent years isn't going to last for the long haul—whereas James and Wade entered the league the same year. What would be ideal for the league is to have Wade's team become a great rival of James' team. And, yes, that is intentionally vague. It could mean that Miami and Cleveland become rivals, as things stand. But, boy, wouldn't it be interesting if that meant LeBron in New York and Wade in Chicago? That would be compelling.

The Knicks vs. Anybody. Even with the gruesome, unwatchable approach to the game that the Knicks took in the 1990s, their rivalry with the Heat had potential to be memorable, in a UFC kind of way. That just goes to show that any team celebrated by hometown New York fans, part of the biggest sports market in the world, has a chance to make a rivalry splash across the country. As Johnson said, "Where would baseball be without the Yankees and Red Sox?" It is a great question, and one that the Knicks—and the NBA—would do well to answer.