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Bird-Magic HBO documentary

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Simon_Cowbell, Mar 12, 2010.

  1. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    This may be the best sports doc I have ever seen.

    It's so close to my heart, these greatest of athletes and, in the end, friends.

    Do yourself a favor and watch this one. Ninety beautifully crafted minutes.

    When Magic talks about when Larry called him on Nov. 7, 1991.... I flat-out lost it.

    I wish I had that relationship with someone.

    Thank you Larry and Earvin for all the great moments you gave me during my teenage years.
     
  2. jojoblack

    jojoblack Active Member

    One of my favorite sports memories was being courtside for the '92 NBA All-Star Game (Magic's return after retiring due to HIV) and he hits the signature three. Well, I had to freeze frame it for my family as we watched the Magic-Bird documentary because you can see moi being a fan boy and violating press row protocol by clapping as Magic leaves his hand in the air as the ball sailed through the net.
    Screw it, it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
     
  3. Pancamo

    Pancamo Active Member

    Two things really stood out for me.

    1. Bird describing the days around Magic's announcing that he was HIV-positive.
    2. A supposedly sick Magic scrimmaging with a broken down Larry off to the side flipping the ball to the hoop by himself.
     
  4. funky_mountain

    funky_mountain Active Member

    the doc is good, but if you want more stories captured in greater detail, pick up jackie macmullan's book when the game was ours. jackie wrote it; magic and bird told her the stories.
     
  5. HandsomeHarley

    HandsomeHarley Well-Known Member

    IMHO, Bird-Magic was an invention of Madison Avenue.

    Bird-Erving was the real rivalry. They actually played each other throughout the seasons, and there was much more of a rivalry there.
     
  6. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    The Bird-Magic thing definitely wasn't a Madison Avenue invention, even if Madison Avenue did jump on it. That 1979 NCAA Championship game captured people's imaginations without anyone spoon feeding it to them and it was all about Bird and Magic. And then both players came into an NBA that was in sad shape and immediately became the faces of the league. They were the best two players in league, turned their teams into winners and were linked because of how their college careers had ended. Then you had the black/white, showtime/blue collar thing, which fueled it. Madison Avenue didn't create all that. People saw it on their own.

    As far as Dr. J-Bird, Dr. J had been around long before Bird, and my memories of Dr. J make think of the ABA maybe, but not immediately of Larry Bird. The Sixers-Celtics rivalry in the early and mid 80s was amazing, but it wasn't really a Dr. J-Bird thing as much as two teams that battled. The first Sixer I think of with regard to that match up is really Andrew Toney, not Dr. J.
     
  7. SalukiNC

    SalukiNC Member

    Ahhhh the glory days of Terre Haute. It's been a rapid decline since 79 ::)
     
  8. Pancamo

    Pancamo Active Member

    I thought Bryant Gumbel calling bullshit on Jordan saving the NBA was bizarre. His tone was defiant and I always thought the Bird/Magic dynamic always got credit.
     
  9. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Of course, NBA fans never saw the real Doctor J.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  10. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Bird-Magic faced off in the NBA finals three times in four years. Madison Avenue can't invent anything that good.
     
  11. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Well, two things on that:

    1) Gumbel coverered the Bird-Magic game so of course he is going to vouch for its monumental significance.

    2) He's right. The NBA was in a near-coma when Bird and Magic arrived. Their rivalry reached the real fever pitch in 1984-87. Then there was the brief troglodyte interlude of the Bad Boys, then came the true ascendance of Jordan. Jordan wasn't universally acclaimed as the GOAT etc etc until the Bad Boys faded and Bird/Magic both went away, all of which happened within about a 12-month span in 1990-91.
     
  12. Point of Order

    Point of Order Active Member

    Yep. It also seemed generational. I remember my dad threatening to send me to my room if I kept cheering for the Lakers over the Celtics -- and this was in rural Alabama. I had a Magic poster on my wall, my older brother had Bird.
     
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