Bird's Rookie Year: Bird Attracts First Sellout at the Forum

December 30, 1979

One guy says there is no rivalry. The other says it's a great rivalry. One guy says they're friends who get tough when the game starts. The other guy says they really don't know each other very well, but that he respects the other as a great player. Sometimes it's difficult to know exactly what to make of this Larry Bird-Magic Johnson business.

This much we do know: Magic's teams are 2-0 against Bird's team after Friday night's 123-105 Laker triumph over the Celtics.

Did the Celtics attract the first sellout crowd of the season to the Forum, or did Larry Bird? Likewise, are the Lakers drawing big crowds to enemy arenas (LA and Boston are 1-2 in road attendance), or is Magic Johnson? Who knows? Who cares? Perhaps people should stop analyzing and start enjoying. The fact is that two exciting young stars have entered the NBA during the same season, and the entire league is better off for their presence.

The Friday night game suffered from advance hoopla which suggested that Magic was playing Bird one-on-one. Bird, naturally, was irritated. "It's stupid, really," he said before the game. "They need the publicity for the sport, and they'll get it any way they can. But it's like comparing me to Bob Cousy. How can you compare a guard to a forward?"

Specifically, how can anybody rightfully compare a guard who needs the ball all the time to a forward who operates best without the ball? And yet, due to time and circumstance the Boston Mark IV is being compared to the LA Porsche. Ah, media hype.

The fact is that Magic played better than Bird. Johnson had 23 points, six assists and seven turnovers. He was hardly the key man in the LA triumph. In descending order, the Most Valuable Lakers in this game were Jamaal Wilkes (22 points on 11-for-21 shooting), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (intimidation on defense, 18 rebounds and seven assists) and Norm Nixon (a fast offensive start when nothing else was popping for LA before finishing with 17 points and eight assists).

Bird, meanwhile played one of his three worst games. The stats (16 points, 7-for-15, three assists) treat him much too kindly. Nine of his points came in the final five minutes of the half (when Bob Ford replaced Wilkes, who was blanketing Bird), and he was burned repeatedly by Wilkes, whose combination of medium-range jumpers and with-out-the-ball cuts justified his experience and reputation. "I don't know how many times I said, "Don't leave Wilkes,' " sighed an exasperated Bill Fitch, "and every time I looked up he had the ball. And was burying a jumper with Bird arriving, as Sam Jones used to say, "too late.' "

Said Bird, "They were driving the lane, and I kept trying to drop off and fake help and then try to get back. He kept hitting the shot. Next time I'll try something different."

The storybook pair had two interesting confrontations. Bird made a Cowens-like retreating effort with the Celtics still in the game (95-85, LA, with 8:02 left), racing back to block the sneakaway lay-up attempt of a cruising-gear Magic, with the latter winding up standing out of bounds with the ball. It was an electric moment.

But the most interesting development, considering the advance hoopla, came with 2:25 left when Bird fouled Magic hard on a drive down the lane and the two wound up exchanging words. "He came driving down the lane, and if he thought I was going to lay down for him, he was crazy," Bird advised. "Next time he comes down the lane like that he'd better hold on."

Magic basically laughed the episode off, but, then, he has one of the world's most congenial natures, anyway. "There was just a lot of competitiveness," he said. "He wasn't going to back down and I wasn't going to back down. I wanted to say, "I've got you this time,' but I held back."

There is a great mutual respect between the two, and a common thought process as well. Asked about Magic before the game, Bird said, "He really loves to play. Everyone in the league does, but he does more than most. I think one reason he came out (of school) is that he loves the idea of playing every day."

"Tell Larry he's right," smiled Magic. "I like to play a lot and we have a great rivalry. We endorse all the same things, and we make cracks at each other. Then when the game starts, it's blood."

It's blood, and Magic is 2-0. But it isn't a rivalry. Of course, it isn't.