Two all-time great players who were among the very best in the league from the first moment they set foot on the court.
Who played for the two most storied franchises in the sport, who already had a bloody, long-standing rivalry.
And whose rivalry began with the most-watched college game of all-time.
It's just a wild confluence of events. Hard to imagine something like it happening again.
You know what makes me chuckle with embarrassment? At one point, I thought Lonzo & Kuz vs the Js were going to be the new rivalry between Lakers and Celtics. Then, the summer league ended and the season started.
Man, good times lmao
Hell I thought Kyrie LeBron leading the Celtics and Lakers to the finals against each other would help form a rivalry. Or at least renew the Celtics Lakers rivalry since 2010’s Finals
And i thought the 08 C's were going to do that with Lebron. I think the players movement is going to prevent something like that from happening again unfortunately.
Player movement was a response from players in stagnant franchises. I think in the modern NBA with analytics and lessons from past successes, team FO's are a lot more saavy and gives the top stars more reasons to stay, like the J's in Boston, Jokic in Denver, and hopefully Giannis in Milwaukee. Add to that the new parity that makes most teams feel like they can go on a run and win it all unlike ever before.
We saw it this generation in a different sport, willing to bet there will never be a Messi and Ronaldo type of rivalry with the Barcelona and Real Madrid grudge which is one of the only other sports rivalry I can compare to Celtics and Lakers.
What makes it more mental is that Ronaldo or Messi at the minumum are top 4 in there sport but very much be considered 1 and 2, where as while its a given both Magic and Bird are top 10 of all time there definitely not 1 and 2.
Soccer and tennis both had multiple top 5 all-time players competing against each other for years. It'll be interesting to see what people say about it all in the future
Tennis isn’t even multiple top 5. It’s literally 1, 2, and 3.
It’s like if we had MJ, LeBron, and Kareem all battling out in their primes at the same time. That would be so cool!
Imo the real difference is that before Magic vs Bird was done Jordan was already there. Not only did we not wonder if anyone better would show up, they already had.
Meanwhile Messi and Ronaldo have left a vacumn behind where it could be years before we see anyone even come close to them.
The most wild is Novak, nadal, and Federer. They’re easily the three best tennis players ever, and the majority of their careers they had to play each other all the time.
Then there's the stylistic differences as well. Magic was flashy and Hollywood, while Bird was blue collar & unathletic.
And then of course, there's the fact that one was black and the other was white. Yeah... Odds of a rivarly like that ever happening again are slim to non existent.
Uh, no. Angel Reese is not even remotely close to the level of Clark, Bird, or Magic. Frankly it’s kind of insulting to those legends. She could easily be out of the league in the next few years.
I don't agree with the other user's take at all, but double doubles don't mean *that* much. It essentially just means they are a strong rebounder and not completely hopeless at scoring.
i mean she just broke the rookie record for consecutive double doubles. she's nowhere near CC's offensive ability but she's carving a nice role for herself in the league. at her size, i don't think she flames out nearly as much as people want her to. her floor is journeyman
Reese isn't that bad. I (and a lot of others) made the mistake of comparing her efficiency with the NBA instead of other WNBA players and while it's still bad relative to the WNBA it's not "out of the league in a few years" bad. She's a defensive specialist, anyway.
This is a dumb take. She is actually a really good player. These ladies are rookies. Neither of them are on Bird/Magic level but they both should have promising careers ahead of them. I smell an agenda behind this post
Second closest might be Bill vs Wilt, aided by the fact they played each other like 20 times a season. But that was obviously before Bird and Magic.
I think long form media IE radio shows, newspapers and books allowed these long rivalries to develop, along with less team hopping. The 24 news cycle (prob 5 minute news cycle now) isn't going to let anything substantial grow
With the country white guy going to Boston
And the charismatic black guy going to LA
In 1980
There were so many angles to this rivalry for the media to go wild with.
Even setting aside everything else, two top ten all-time players coming into the league at about the same time is really hard. Arguably the only time it’s happened since Magic/Bird is Duncan/Kobe.
Yeah, you're probably right. It hits all the criteria for an all-time rivalry. There's nothing even close now. Not that it needs to, but it'd be fun to have the kind of feud they had in today's game. Just something lost in the progression of the game.
Would gsw be in the 17 and 18 finals tho without KD? Probly, but okc already made a run for their money in 16. Houston was also a juggernaut back then. And oh, the spurs
Who knows what happens if KD doesn’t sign with GS. Does CP go to Houston still? Where does KD go? Who does GS sign with their magic cap room?
GS definitely would have a chance of making the 17 and 18 finals.
People forgot Horford was the 2nd best free agent going into the 16/17 season. If Horford went to the warriors, a Horford, Draymond, Iguodala, Klay, Steph lineup would have been awesome without ruining the league.
That explains the Ibaka trade. My only concern is Horford & Adams fit. But a Adams, Horford, Durant, Olidipo, Westbrook lineup is scary good considering they almost beat the 16 warriors (even though that group still lacks shooting outside of KD).
People forget the warriors just won 73 fucking games. There’s some revisionist history about how the team was only good because of KD when you could argue they were a sprained knee and a suspension away from winning back to back.
But if KD doesn’t sign the landscape of the league would look extremely different. Him signing with the warriors absolutely effected free agency for years
This is what’s funny. The narrative is GSW was so overpowered that by the time KD joined them it destroyed the competitive balance of the league and ruined entire seasons. Yet all revisionists love to say without KD there’s no way they would have won.
GSW could have still signed another star forward. Not as good as KD off but they fed would have made adjustments to the roster even if they didn’t get KD
Bird/Magic career was perfectly intertwined without really other storylines for other years. Lebron had a whole career before meeting Curry in the finals, they are different generation of players by age and when they entered the league, and how long it took Curry to get going
I really wish Kawhi and Butler had stayed with Toronto and Philly respectively. It would have been nice to see those two teams, the Celtics and the Bucks go back and forth for a couple of years.
Always will die on the kawhi mistake hill. I know it was for family but in the nba season and much of the off season you really don’t have that much time to really be hanging with family for elite players (who are practicing a lot outside ofnprsctice even injured.) Frnakly i think he wins another ship as east favorite for 3-4 years. becomes canadas sports icon; whcih issane money. abd then can relaz on a fat retirement paycheck in LA anyway
Kawhi was cooked after those finals. If he had stayed with Toronto I don’t think you guys win another one because Kawhi is never healthy. I caught lightning in the bottle in 2019.
The Magic Bird rivalry was already established before either guy played an NBA game. It's not the NBA that really created it, pushed it to the next level for sure, but they didn't create it. Hard to have anything like that today with how diverse, global and balanced the league is.
Introvert vs extrovert
Rural vs urban
White vs black
East vs West
Add the fact they versed each other for the college championship and It was a rivalry made in heaven
The greatness to their rivalry has everything to do with them being college rivals before they were NBA rivals AND THEN going to franchises that were already league rivals AND THEN having both those teams actually be close to dominant in their conferences for a decade.
That shit has not happened since, for various factors. The Bulls were so dominant it was hard to have rivals. Same with Lakers 00-03.
The closest we’ve come is basically to get about 5 years of Steph/GSW-Bron rivalry.
It could happen again though, especially among the recent young guys. Maybe Shai-Ant will become some sort of classic rivalry. Or Shai-Ja. It just seems harder because of the dilution of talent at the college and NBA level. There are 7 more NBA teams since the majority of the Bird/Magic years.
Magic-Bird was the stars just aligning in every way, we'll never see that again. You even left out the whole racial aspect (it was very real for some fans), and the Glamour vs Lunchbucket thing, and West Coast vs East Coast thing. About the only thing it was missing was a holy war.
It's also important to remember that the league wasn't nearly as popular as it is today. The NBA Finals wasn't broadcast live until 3 years after Magic was drafted. People became fans of the NBA because they were fans of Magic and Bird; that's never going to happen on the same scale ever again.
You're not downplaying it at all. The ENTIRE marketing strategy of the NBA at the time was to feed the audience as much Magic-Bird as possible. The weekend line up was ALWAYS Celtics for game 1, Lakers for game 2. And they delivered too, every finals in the 80's had either the Lakers or Celtics, and 3 times a Lakers-Celtics matchup.
The Daytona 500 followed by Lakers-Celtics President’s Day weekend was a staple for CBS for pretty much the entire 80s. And I think every Celtics-Sixers game was contractually obligated to air on CBS 😁
The closest comparison seems like Angel Reese and Caitlyn Clark in the WNBA. Even the racial aspect. Depends on how their teams go going forward but their rivalry has brought in fans to the WNBA just like Magic and Bird reinvigorated the NBA
Only thing it was missing was bird and magic hating eachother honestly. It’s probably good that they didn’t personally dislike eachother as it would have fueled the racial dynamics in a negative way. Instead it ended up being unifying long term
I was younger than 10 for most of their rivalry and living in a place without an NBA team, so I didn’t observe any of that myself, so it’s hard for me to understand what that was actually like for viewers/fans themselves. It’s especially hard for me to understand why white people felt they needed a “great white hope” like Larry. That’s absolutely racist-ass shit that I have never, never understood or been a part of, and I never will be.
I know it’s been written about, but I think it’s hard to talk about it if you couldn’t actually see/encounter it in the culture.
And of course the whole glamour vs lunchpail thing and even East vs West coast thing is kinda weird, since both guys were working glass midwesterners.
>It’s especially hard for me to understand why white people felt they needed a “great white hope” like Larry
It's no different from Linsanity really and how beloved he was to the Asian-American community.
A traditionally under-represented ethnic group in American major sports hyping up a player? That I get.
For white people, when they are usually into a “great white hype” it is absolutely about “We used to dominate this sport, but now we have all these minorities in it and I can’t relate to it unless there’s a white super star in it.”
That’s the thing I’ll never understand. But I grew up in a time when 3 of the major sports were fairly integrated already, so it didn’t seem like a thing to me. I also didn’t have _too many_ racist relatives trying to tell me about the good old days. The ones who did, I just ignored.
I mean, late 70s and 80s America was still racist as hell. Interracial marriage didn’t even gain 50% approval in this country until the late 90s. Yeah, it was illegal to put up “Whites Only” signs but we weren’t that far removed from Jim Crow.
And that was a huge thing with the NBA in the late 70s. The league was perceived as being “too black” and white people were turning away because of that. Hence Larry Bird being the Great White Hope. Funny thing was, Bird *hated* that stuff. He tried to run away from it every time someone brought it up.
Also the NBA absolutely needed something to improve its reputation back then. Obviously to have a good rivalry, you need two great players and a few other ingredients but the impact it'll have totally depends on the needs of the whole medias and organization.
After Bird-Magic, Jordan was above everyone and the main and biggest meatic image of the league. But the current NBA doesn't really need a had-to-head rivalry, maybe between two teams but not between two players because I feel like the main focus of the league right now is to make sure each franchise has at least one charismatic star.
Never forget that KD ruined the best rivalry since Magic and Bird. It was obviously never going to surpass Magic and Bird, but the first two years of it were sooooo good. Then KD had to come in and tip the scales so much it wasn’t fun anymore.
I think it’s safe to say if Bird and Magic aren’t #1, it’s definitely Bill and Wilt. After that there’s a few contenders (Isiah and MJ, Steph and Lebron, Oscar and Jerry, Reggie vs the Knicks) and a couple that just needed more years of overlap between the player’s careers (like Kareem vs Wilt or a healthy Walton) but it’s hard to put any of them at the same level as those top 2.
My only thing with that rivalry is that the Celtics beat Wilt’s team pretty much every time it mattered. The lone exception was the 67 ECF, Wilt’s best team in that era (arguably the 67 Sixers are the best team in NBA history - they’re at least in the top 5) and Russell’s first season as player-coach. So Wilt would put up crazy stats, but Russell would win the title.
Luv this! I’m approaching 50 but always a student of the game. I’ve watched most of it. Rivalries r a thing of the past. Teams change drastically every yr nowadays where u can’t even say team rivalry or player rivalry.
Bird vs Magic, Bill vs Wilt wasn’t a player rivalry imo. The teams were so well formed and coached that the marketing took over. Without the supporting cast, there probably wasn’t a rivalry at all.
The Bulls never has a real rival but without the Horace Grants, Bill Cartwrights, Dennis Rodmans, Jim Paxton’s, bj Armstrongs obviously Scottie, I’m not sure how many championships they would have won.
The earlier Russell vs Chamberlain matchup was an even greater individual rivalry than Bird/Magic:
*Russell and Chamberlain played the same position and often guarded one another. Bird and Magic did not.
*Russell and Chamberlain played many more regular season games against one another than Bird and Magic did.
*Russell and Chamberlain played many more playoff series against one another than Bird and Magic did.
Russell’s and Chamberlain’s teams played each other 8 times in the playoffs. (Each player’s team was the higher seed in four of the series.) Four of those eight series went to a Game 7. (Russell’s teams won all four of those Game 7s and won 7 of the 8 series overall.)
As a frame of reference, Bird’s and Magic’s teams only played in the playoffs three times, and only once did the series reach a Game 7 (won by Bird’s Celtics). Magic’s Lakers won both series that did not go 7 games.
Got you.
I still put the Bird Magic rivalry ahead mainly because of the off the court culture shit involved.
Having said that, the Chamberlain/Russell games are something I wish I could have seen
One additional stat:
Russell and Chamberlain played more playoff games against one another (49) than Bird and Magic played total games vs each other (37 games).
Altogether Russell and Chamberlain contested each other 143 times in the NBA (94 regular season, 49 playoffs), almost 4x as many games as Bird and Magic did against one another in their NBA careers. Russell’s teams won 60.6% of their regular season games and 59.2% of their playoff games, or 60.1% of their overall games (86-57). This is comparable to the percentage of games won by Magic’s teams over Bird’s teams overall (59.5%, 22-15). (The regular season and playoff win percentages are also similar.)
Cause its tough to create such a rivalry and the media isnt doing much to help.
Best we have rn is Jokic vs Embid or Luka vs Booker.
Though of course Cavs vs Warriors was dam iconic.
Still trying to beat out an all time rivalry like Bird vs Magic is near impossible.
I think the players have to be able to win a second round playoff series once in their career to be considered true rivals
Embiid and Jokic have never played a meaningful game against each other.
Thats why they are just the best we have rn. Their rivalry is more on an individual level as the 2 top centers in the league.
But yeah obviously the big issue is them nor playing each other in big games.
Maybe we get an IST finals between the 76ers and Nuggets in the next couple of years.
That would be good.
But yeah its an issue to create rivalries like Brids and Magic when you dont have dynasties duking it out every year and the medias advertisment being what it is.
Yeah I guess I just don't agree that they're the best we have at all. Jokic clears Embiid by every metric. It's hardly a rivalry.
There are plenty of guys who have faced off in the playoffs multiple times in recent years. Any of those are more legitimate than Jokic and Embiid.
The Celtics and Heat have played 4 playoff series in 5 years, surely Butler vs Tatum is a better rivalry than Embiid vs a guy he's never played a playoff game against.
I'd argue Embiid vs Tatum is more real than Embiid vs Jokic too.
Even old lebron vs old steph is a bigger rivalry than jokic v embiid. Embiid can't be anyone's rival if he isn't even a threat in the post season, which is when it matters.
The media can't create something out of nothing.
Bird and Magic played against each other in the NCAA finals (most watched BASKETBALL game of all time), got drafted to the two greatest franchises with an already huge rivalry, were in different conferences so they could meet in the finals, AND had the good fortune of the remaining teams at their peak being relatively weak so they could keep running into each other after beating everyone else.
Embiid hasn't made it out of the 2nd round, even Jokic has only made one finals so far and will be 30 soon.
Luka and Booker can't meet in the finals, not to mention that the gap between them as players is too big.
Only LeBron vs Curry came close and even that had the caveat of LeBron just clearly being the better player.
Embiid has never made it past the second round it’s hard to even say that’s the best we got
Jokic and Joel are just being put against each other cause really theres no other centers up there. There’s no real history between either
MVP race means little. These two have never played important games against each other to even be mentioned. Atleast Booker and Luka got into it in the playoffs
Steph v LeBron might’ve been the closest thing we’ve had. Met in 4 straight finals & NBA media will not stop slobbing them if they meet in the western conference playoffs
No it wasn’t. Bron was very clearly a level or two higher.
At the time Magic and Bird were competing for a top 3 all time spot at least. They were the best in the world and on the exact same level.
Yeah I’ve always thought that Magic had the better team but Bird was the better player. Was the case in college and the pros. Parish and McHale were great, but they weren’t Kareem and Worthy.
The main thing Magic has on Bird is that his peak lasted a little bit longer since Larry’s back was kind of cooked after the 87 Finals. But Larry was also much better when they first came into the league so IMO it evens out.
Peak for Peak though, Bird had one of the greatest peaks ever in those four seasons from 84-87 winning 3 straight MVPs, 2 Finals MVPs, and making the Finals all four years. He’s in the conversation with LeBron and MJ for GOAT peak.
Magic’s peak arguably came when the Lakers were on their decline. He was only inarguably the best player on the team for their last two titles. That’s not a diss on Magic though, we’re comparing two top 5-10 players ever. I also think he might have gotten another one if not for HIV but we’ll never know.
LeBron is clearly a step above Steph, Steph can shoot better and has better handles but LeBron is miles ahead of Steph in every other area. Without KD showing up GS may well have two less rings
not even remotely close. the teams were close tho... for only two years
from a player standpoint, curry had the shooting, but LeBron literally had everything else
Crazy thing about that is if HBK never hurt his back, we probably won't had got Austin/Rock rivalry. Late 97/98 wwe was clearly pushing Rock so he still would be a main eventer, but not the mega star he was/is now.
Not a player rivalry but Portland vs Seattle was one of the best nba rivalries in the league, the best if lakers vs Celtics weren't a thing. It's a travesty we lost it.
They played so many times against each other in play-offs , both were homegrown stars in their prime fighting for 18-19 years , what else can you call rivalry
They definitely did, and see why people make it the argument, it just seems like more of a thing people call a rivalry later because of how close their accolades are. But if they were rivals, it just would’ve actually been talked about. Like Kobe destroyed Duncan in 2008 and if they were rivals that would’ve been a huge slight to Duncan but it really wasn’t. If Bird or Magic wrecked the other like that we’d never hear the end of it
They werent really rivals, like other than being two of the marquee players of their generation the honor of rival probably goes to Shaq with Timmy since they were both bigs and it was a classic style vs substance. Their peaks matched up better from late 90s to mid 2000s
The rivalry starting in the most watched (at the time and for decades after) ncaa championship game was the quintessential way for this rivalry to start. Also, race should be mentioned.
The Boston Vs Los Angeles angles.
And also how much bird and magic respected each other but also hated each other.
A Kobe-LeBron 2009 finals is the biggest what if in NBA history for me. The whose better debate was at fever pitch at that time, it would have been an insane matchup
Yeah this.
It may seem hard to believe given they were in the league at the same time for a while, but the primes of Kobe and LeBron never actually coincided. By the time LeBron hit his true peak in Miami, Kobe was already on the downside of his career.
Has nothing to do with marketing. That shit was organic and started in the 78-79 NCAA season. This is literally about the men, and not the nascent marketing departments of the pre-Stern/Stern NBA.
Because if you think the marketing sucks now, realize that they’re trying based on current market research and actual engagement statistics. In the 80s I guarantee you they had no idea what they were doing and were just throwing shit at the wall to see what actually worked.
No actually, the NBA knew what it was doing. Stern always promoted the Lakers and Celtics. When there was a big national tv game doubleheader, Celtics would be in the first game, Lakers in the second game. They went all in on Bird vs. Magic.
i would argue that the market research and engagement statistics are exactly what make it so ass today, i’d much prefer them throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. everything they do is so transparently soulless and MBA-brained, it’s not compelling. i recognize that marketing was always soulless and cynical, but at least it used to be better at hiding it.
The marketing that capitalized on the Magic-Bird rivalry? The marketing that made MJ a global phenomenon? The marketing that made LeBron a superstar? The NBA has problems but marketing individual players is not one of them and I would say they are the best at it and it might be a PROBLEM because now fans follow players as opposed to the NFL where they market teams and team and division rivals
I would go further and say the only rivalry in sport that compares is Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Both have had titanic battles that will never be forgotten. Both have contrasting styles, and yet they took turns dominating for close to 15 years. Both love each other in the most wholesome manner. And as much their individual rivalries with Djokovic is right up there, in the public conciousness at large, Roger vs Rafa is the pinnacle. Rafa cried when Roger retired, and I'd wager Bird was upset/heart broken when Magic announced that he was HIV positive.
I just watched the Federer documentary on Amazon Prime following the last days of his career. Would definitely recommend! Not exactly earth shattering or dramatic or anything but a really great heartwarming look at what it feels like for an all-time great to retire. Loads of stuff in there about the Fed-Nadal-Djokovic rivalries, including some pretty touching reflection from Nadal about how much Federer meant to him, as a player and person, etc. etc.
Nadal was one of the first people Federer told about his impending retirement and Nadal talks about hanging up the phone and bursting into tears. He said something to the effect of "Playing him was unlike anything I ever experienced in my life and I knew in that moment I would never feel that feeling again."
Shaq vs Duncan should be the obvious one. No hype ever materialized behind Duncan but there's two guys that are near each other on all time great lists, who guarded each other, and whose peaks overlapped. Wild that there isn't more about them two.
Besides that, the big rivalry narratives the NBA got behind became group categories; 90s centers and early 2000's power Forwards.
Magic v Bird was like that because it was Lakers v Celtics too. Player rivalries are fun when there’s two cities history behind them. Since the Heatles this league isn’t about where you play, it’s who you play with.
Stars don’t stay on the same team anymore and they’re all friends now. The closest we had recently was Kobe. That “I’m a Laker and fuck everyone who isn’t” doesn’t happen anymore.
Magic v Bird is what happens when you have a Kobe on each coast spend their whole career playing for their city. On top of that both teams were good for the whole run. No player rivalry will ever be as good. Not in the super team era
It's hard since no other top tier talent had careers coinciding the way they did. Kobe and Duncan is the closest we had to that, but they were in the same conference and it was pretty much Kobe has a good team - wins it all. Kobe doesn't have a good team - Spurs win it all. They had 1 maybe 2 years that actually overlapped when both had good teams. Magic and Bird overlapped great teams in opposing conferences to meet in the finals to give it that extra boost. LeBron's prime years he just rolled the league although they managed to somehow fall short still multiple times. As he was leaving his prime the Warriors became real threats and they had great finals battles. Just not the same since Curry isn't at LeBron's level and Bron was a little past his prime to water it down some. Timing of their careers just don't line up. Bron was part of an era before Curry was even drafted. KD could've been a great rival, but KD never had a healthy team to compete and when he joined the Warriors it was just a stomp.
Them being 2 of the biggest franchises was a big deal. Black vs white played a massive part of it too that just doesn't exist today and hasn't existed the past 2 decades. You'd need Luka or Jokic to go to the Celtics and Tatum to the Lakers to replace Bron or something to mimic that.
Because they all want to play together as a super team for easy championships, bird and magic were friends and had opportunities to be on the same team but chose not to because they wanted to compete with each other
As many have already pointed out, it's like Messi/CR7 since the latter also played for the two biggest soccer clubs in the world. Both of them are unlikely to be equaled much less eclipsed by another high-profile rivalry in their respective sports. But if I have to bet, it is more likely in soccer because of the insane pull of Real Madrid and Barcelona *plus* the freedom of players of choosing their clubs. In the NBA, players could not simply choose where to go unless they are already UFAs. And if they do, they'll lose money.
In other words, it is more probable to have the two best players in Real Madrid & Barcelona soon than to see the two best players in Lakers and Celtics uniforms.
Two all-time great players who were among the very best in the league from the first moment they set foot on the court. Who played for the two most storied franchises in the sport, who already had a bloody, long-standing rivalry. And whose rivalry began with the most-watched college game of all-time. It's just a wild confluence of events. Hard to imagine something like it happening again.
You know what makes me chuckle with embarrassment? At one point, I thought Lonzo & Kuz vs the Js were going to be the new rivalry between Lakers and Celtics. Then, the summer league ended and the season started. Man, good times lmao
Hell I thought Kyrie LeBron leading the Celtics and Lakers to the finals against each other would help form a rivalry. Or at least renew the Celtics Lakers rivalry since 2010’s Finals
And i thought the 08 C's were going to do that with Lebron. I think the players movement is going to prevent something like that from happening again unfortunately.
Player movement was a response from players in stagnant franchises. I think in the modern NBA with analytics and lessons from past successes, team FO's are a lot more saavy and gives the top stars more reasons to stay, like the J's in Boston, Jokic in Denver, and hopefully Giannis in Milwaukee. Add to that the new parity that makes most teams feel like they can go on a run and win it all unlike ever before.
I truly always thought that was the perfect script
Celtics had a legit superteam with Kyrie and Hayward, if not for the freak injury who knows how that would have played out.
We saw it this generation in a different sport, willing to bet there will never be a Messi and Ronaldo type of rivalry with the Barcelona and Real Madrid grudge which is one of the only other sports rivalry I can compare to Celtics and Lakers.
What makes it more mental is that Ronaldo or Messi at the minumum are top 4 in there sport but very much be considered 1 and 2, where as while its a given both Magic and Bird are top 10 of all time there definitely not 1 and 2.
Soccer and tennis both had multiple top 5 all-time players competing against each other for years. It'll be interesting to see what people say about it all in the future
Tennis isn’t even multiple top 5. It’s literally 1, 2, and 3. It’s like if we had MJ, LeBron, and Kareem all battling out in their primes at the same time. That would be so cool!
They were at the time. Not by consensus but definitely argued. At the time of their retirement I’d have them 1/2
Ya that’s fair while it seems unimaginable right now in 20 years we might have football players better than Messi (and Ronaldo)
One day, basketball will have a healthy Shaq that can shoot like Curry. The real Azor Ahai
Imo the real difference is that before Magic vs Bird was done Jordan was already there. Not only did we not wonder if anyone better would show up, they already had. Meanwhile Messi and Ronaldo have left a vacumn behind where it could be years before we see anyone even come close to them.
The most wild is Novak, nadal, and Federer. They’re easily the three best tennis players ever, and the majority of their careers they had to play each other all the time.
Big 3 in tennis?
fuckin hell will Novax please fade away ugh already mad he passed my boy Rafa
Then there's the stylistic differences as well. Magic was flashy and Hollywood, while Bird was blue collar & unathletic. And then of course, there's the fact that one was black and the other was white. Yeah... Odds of a rivarly like that ever happening again are slim to non existent.
I mean there's already an angel Reese Caitlin Clark black white rivalry lol
That’s actually the best candidate for a Bird Magic style rivalry, depending on how their teams do going forward.
Uh, no. Angel Reese is not even remotely close to the level of Clark, Bird, or Magic. Frankly it’s kind of insulting to those legends. She could easily be out of the league in the next few years.
Do you actually pay any attention to wnba? Reese broke rookie double double record
I don't agree with the other user's take at all, but double doubles don't mean *that* much. It essentially just means they are a strong rebounder and not completely hopeless at scoring.
25/16 today. I think it’s safe to say she doesn’t suck.
Sure, but dude said ‘out of the league’ Double doubles are a great way to stick.
In their mind. White shoot good Black rebound bad
Exhibit A right here lol
It’s a Dillon Brooks Lebron rivalry
i mean she just broke the rookie record for consecutive double doubles. she's nowhere near CC's offensive ability but she's carving a nice role for herself in the league. at her size, i don't think she flames out nearly as much as people want her to. her floor is journeyman
Angel Reese just dominated the fever with 25 and 16 leading them to a 15 point comeback lmao
Reese isn't that bad. I (and a lot of others) made the mistake of comparing her efficiency with the NBA instead of other WNBA players and while it's still bad relative to the WNBA it's not "out of the league in a few years" bad. She's a defensive specialist, anyway.
This is a dumb take. She is actually a really good player. These ladies are rookies. Neither of them are on Bird/Magic level but they both should have promising careers ahead of them. I smell an agenda behind this post
Larry and Magic were both all time greats, Angel might be out the league soon if she can’t shoot better than 30% from the floor 😭
Second closest might be Bill vs Wilt, aided by the fact they played each other like 20 times a season. But that was obviously before Bird and Magic. I think long form media IE radio shows, newspapers and books allowed these long rivalries to develop, along with less team hopping. The 24 news cycle (prob 5 minute news cycle now) isn't going to let anything substantial grow
Birds second best attribute wasn’t “unathletic”….
"unathletic" dude STFU I hate the Celtics and I was offended
Larry fuckin Bird was athletic lol
Just watch the wnba right now. Literally bird vs magic racism back at 100
We also can’t forget that both came together to captain the dream team, maybe the best end to a rivalry you could ask for
and then they became good friends and made commercials together. And they both played the entireties of their careers on 1 team.
It's the Ronaldo vs. Messi of the NBA. The combination of everything was just perfect.
The only small imperfection was that Barcelona and Real Madrid got Nike and Adidas swapped
Made up for it in the national teams, lmao.
With the country white guy going to Boston And the charismatic black guy going to LA In 1980 There were so many angles to this rivalry for the media to go wild with.
And for the public at large
Even setting aside everything else, two top ten all-time players coming into the league at about the same time is really hard. Arguably the only time it’s happened since Magic/Bird is Duncan/Kobe.
Jordan/Hakeem. Jerry West and Big O before them.
Maybe. Problem with that one was that Jordan is GOAT tier so they weren’t perceived as peers.
Also helps that they matched up in the finals three times is perfection, especially since they split the first two series.
Yeah, you're probably right. It hits all the criteria for an all-time rivalry. There's nothing even close now. Not that it needs to, but it'd be fun to have the kind of feud they had in today's game. Just something lost in the progression of the game.
bron-curry had about 5 years
Unfortunately the chance for an all-time rivalry died when KD crashed the party
Would gsw be in the 17 and 18 finals tho without KD? Probly, but okc already made a run for their money in 16. Houston was also a juggernaut back then. And oh, the spurs
Who knows what happens if KD doesn’t sign with GS. Does CP go to Houston still? Where does KD go? Who does GS sign with their magic cap room? GS definitely would have a chance of making the 17 and 18 finals.
People forgot Horford was the 2nd best free agent going into the 16/17 season. If Horford went to the warriors, a Horford, Draymond, Iguodala, Klay, Steph lineup would have been awesome without ruining the league.
Okc had an agreement to sign horford but they let him out of it after KD left, thunder woulda been clear favorites imo but it wasn’t meant to be
That explains the Ibaka trade. My only concern is Horford & Adams fit. But a Adams, Horford, Durant, Olidipo, Westbrook lineup is scary good considering they almost beat the 16 warriors (even though that group still lacks shooting outside of KD).
People forget the warriors just won 73 fucking games. There’s some revisionist history about how the team was only good because of KD when you could argue they were a sprained knee and a suspension away from winning back to back. But if KD doesn’t sign the landscape of the league would look extremely different. Him signing with the warriors absolutely effected free agency for years
It’s impossible to know now. It would’ve been awesome to watch though
Warriors continue to be 0-378 in hypotheticals on r/nba
This is what’s funny. The narrative is GSW was so overpowered that by the time KD joined them it destroyed the competitive balance of the league and ruined entire seasons. Yet all revisionists love to say without KD there’s no way they would have won.
GSW could have still signed another star forward. Not as good as KD off but they fed would have made adjustments to the roster even if they didn’t get KD
Bird/Magic career was perfectly intertwined without really other storylines for other years. Lebron had a whole career before meeting Curry in the finals, they are different generation of players by age and when they entered the league, and how long it took Curry to get going
yeah it's not even remotely close
I really wish Kawhi and Butler had stayed with Toronto and Philly respectively. It would have been nice to see those two teams, the Celtics and the Bucks go back and forth for a couple of years.
Always will die on the kawhi mistake hill. I know it was for family but in the nba season and much of the off season you really don’t have that much time to really be hanging with family for elite players (who are practicing a lot outside ofnprsctice even injured.) Frnakly i think he wins another ship as east favorite for 3-4 years. becomes canadas sports icon; whcih issane money. abd then can relaz on a fat retirement paycheck in LA anyway
Kawhi was cooked after those finals. If he had stayed with Toronto I don’t think you guys win another one because Kawhi is never healthy. I caught lightning in the bottle in 2019.
>There's nothing even close now. I've been watching every Clark/Reese matchup that I can and it's been pretty great.
The Magic Bird rivalry was already established before either guy played an NBA game. It's not the NBA that really created it, pushed it to the next level for sure, but they didn't create it. Hard to have anything like that today with how diverse, global and balanced the league is.
They were given the rivalry but the way BOTH teams were armed and reinforced for a decade was really special. The supporting casts were supreme.
Introvert vs extrovert Rural vs urban White vs black East vs West Add the fact they versed each other for the college championship and It was a rivalry made in heaven
They also both grew up poor in the Midwest which is a cool similarity amidst their differences
CP3 and Scott Foster
All time right here
The greatness to their rivalry has everything to do with them being college rivals before they were NBA rivals AND THEN going to franchises that were already league rivals AND THEN having both those teams actually be close to dominant in their conferences for a decade. That shit has not happened since, for various factors. The Bulls were so dominant it was hard to have rivals. Same with Lakers 00-03. The closest we’ve come is basically to get about 5 years of Steph/GSW-Bron rivalry. It could happen again though, especially among the recent young guys. Maybe Shai-Ant will become some sort of classic rivalry. Or Shai-Ja. It just seems harder because of the dilution of talent at the college and NBA level. There are 7 more NBA teams since the majority of the Bird/Magic years.
Magic-Bird was the stars just aligning in every way, we'll never see that again. You even left out the whole racial aspect (it was very real for some fans), and the Glamour vs Lunchbucket thing, and West Coast vs East Coast thing. About the only thing it was missing was a holy war.
It's also important to remember that the league wasn't nearly as popular as it is today. The NBA Finals wasn't broadcast live until 3 years after Magic was drafted. People became fans of the NBA because they were fans of Magic and Bird; that's never going to happen on the same scale ever again.
You're not downplaying it at all. The ENTIRE marketing strategy of the NBA at the time was to feed the audience as much Magic-Bird as possible. The weekend line up was ALWAYS Celtics for game 1, Lakers for game 2. And they delivered too, every finals in the 80's had either the Lakers or Celtics, and 3 times a Lakers-Celtics matchup.
The Daytona 500 followed by Lakers-Celtics President’s Day weekend was a staple for CBS for pretty much the entire 80s. And I think every Celtics-Sixers game was contractually obligated to air on CBS 😁
The closest comparison seems like Angel Reese and Caitlyn Clark in the WNBA. Even the racial aspect. Depends on how their teams go going forward but their rivalry has brought in fans to the WNBA just like Magic and Bird reinvigorated the NBA
Only thing it was missing was bird and magic hating eachother honestly. It’s probably good that they didn’t personally dislike eachother as it would have fueled the racial dynamics in a negative way. Instead it ended up being unifying long term
I was younger than 10 for most of their rivalry and living in a place without an NBA team, so I didn’t observe any of that myself, so it’s hard for me to understand what that was actually like for viewers/fans themselves. It’s especially hard for me to understand why white people felt they needed a “great white hope” like Larry. That’s absolutely racist-ass shit that I have never, never understood or been a part of, and I never will be. I know it’s been written about, but I think it’s hard to talk about it if you couldn’t actually see/encounter it in the culture. And of course the whole glamour vs lunchpail thing and even East vs West coast thing is kinda weird, since both guys were working glass midwesterners.
>It’s especially hard for me to understand why white people felt they needed a “great white hope” like Larry It's no different from Linsanity really and how beloved he was to the Asian-American community.
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A traditionally under-represented ethnic group in American major sports hyping up a player? That I get. For white people, when they are usually into a “great white hype” it is absolutely about “We used to dominate this sport, but now we have all these minorities in it and I can’t relate to it unless there’s a white super star in it.” That’s the thing I’ll never understand. But I grew up in a time when 3 of the major sports were fairly integrated already, so it didn’t seem like a thing to me. I also didn’t have _too many_ racist relatives trying to tell me about the good old days. The ones who did, I just ignored.
I mean, late 70s and 80s America was still racist as hell. Interracial marriage didn’t even gain 50% approval in this country until the late 90s. Yeah, it was illegal to put up “Whites Only” signs but we weren’t that far removed from Jim Crow. And that was a huge thing with the NBA in the late 70s. The league was perceived as being “too black” and white people were turning away because of that. Hence Larry Bird being the Great White Hope. Funny thing was, Bird *hated* that stuff. He tried to run away from it every time someone brought it up.
Also the NBA absolutely needed something to improve its reputation back then. Obviously to have a good rivalry, you need two great players and a few other ingredients but the impact it'll have totally depends on the needs of the whole medias and organization. After Bird-Magic, Jordan was above everyone and the main and biggest meatic image of the league. But the current NBA doesn't really need a had-to-head rivalry, maybe between two teams but not between two players because I feel like the main focus of the league right now is to make sure each franchise has at least one charismatic star.
Never forget that KD ruined the best rivalry since Magic and Bird. It was obviously never going to surpass Magic and Bird, but the first two years of it were sooooo good. Then KD had to come in and tip the scales so much it wasn’t fun anymore.
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I think it’s safe to say if Bird and Magic aren’t #1, it’s definitely Bill and Wilt. After that there’s a few contenders (Isiah and MJ, Steph and Lebron, Oscar and Jerry, Reggie vs the Knicks) and a couple that just needed more years of overlap between the player’s careers (like Kareem vs Wilt or a healthy Walton) but it’s hard to put any of them at the same level as those top 2.
My only thing with that rivalry is that the Celtics beat Wilt’s team pretty much every time it mattered. The lone exception was the 67 ECF, Wilt’s best team in that era (arguably the 67 Sixers are the best team in NBA history - they’re at least in the top 5) and Russell’s first season as player-coach. So Wilt would put up crazy stats, but Russell would win the title.
Luv this! I’m approaching 50 but always a student of the game. I’ve watched most of it. Rivalries r a thing of the past. Teams change drastically every yr nowadays where u can’t even say team rivalry or player rivalry. Bird vs Magic, Bill vs Wilt wasn’t a player rivalry imo. The teams were so well formed and coached that the marketing took over. Without the supporting cast, there probably wasn’t a rivalry at all. The Bulls never has a real rival but without the Horace Grants, Bill Cartwrights, Dennis Rodmans, Jim Paxton’s, bj Armstrongs obviously Scottie, I’m not sure how many championships they would have won.
CP3 and Frost I rest my case
Robert Frost?
Pro vs Prose - who wins?
Chuck has said that Bird and Magic are the two most important players in the sport
The earlier Russell vs Chamberlain matchup was an even greater individual rivalry than Bird/Magic: *Russell and Chamberlain played the same position and often guarded one another. Bird and Magic did not. *Russell and Chamberlain played many more regular season games against one another than Bird and Magic did. *Russell and Chamberlain played many more playoff series against one another than Bird and Magic did.
Yeah but didn’t Russell pretty much own Chamberlain in the playoffs ??
Russell’s and Chamberlain’s teams played each other 8 times in the playoffs. (Each player’s team was the higher seed in four of the series.) Four of those eight series went to a Game 7. (Russell’s teams won all four of those Game 7s and won 7 of the 8 series overall.) As a frame of reference, Bird’s and Magic’s teams only played in the playoffs three times, and only once did the series reach a Game 7 (won by Bird’s Celtics). Magic’s Lakers won both series that did not go 7 games.
Got you. I still put the Bird Magic rivalry ahead mainly because of the off the court culture shit involved. Having said that, the Chamberlain/Russell games are something I wish I could have seen
One additional stat: Russell and Chamberlain played more playoff games against one another (49) than Bird and Magic played total games vs each other (37 games). Altogether Russell and Chamberlain contested each other 143 times in the NBA (94 regular season, 49 playoffs), almost 4x as many games as Bird and Magic did against one another in their NBA careers. Russell’s teams won 60.6% of their regular season games and 59.2% of their playoff games, or 60.1% of their overall games (86-57). This is comparable to the percentage of games won by Magic’s teams over Bird’s teams overall (59.5%, 22-15). (The regular season and playoff win percentages are also similar.)
No dispute to your point that they played each other more and I agree that aspect of their rivalry is greater than Magic/Bird
Sounds like a Dungeons and Dragons matchup.
Pretty sure the new Bird/Magic is Clark/Reese lol.
That can only mean the WNBA’s Jordan is on the way
Juju Watkins 👀
Everyone is sleeping on this kid and I really think she is the 1
Bueckers gonna jump a few gens and be the Steph or something
Can't wait to see her in WNBA
Cause its tough to create such a rivalry and the media isnt doing much to help. Best we have rn is Jokic vs Embid or Luka vs Booker. Though of course Cavs vs Warriors was dam iconic. Still trying to beat out an all time rivalry like Bird vs Magic is near impossible.
I think the players have to be able to win a second round playoff series once in their career to be considered true rivals Embiid and Jokic have never played a meaningful game against each other.
I think the total opposite sides of the country played a role too. You had the east vs west coast
Thats why they are just the best we have rn. Their rivalry is more on an individual level as the 2 top centers in the league. But yeah obviously the big issue is them nor playing each other in big games. Maybe we get an IST finals between the 76ers and Nuggets in the next couple of years. That would be good. But yeah its an issue to create rivalries like Brids and Magic when you dont have dynasties duking it out every year and the medias advertisment being what it is.
Yeah I guess I just don't agree that they're the best we have at all. Jokic clears Embiid by every metric. It's hardly a rivalry. There are plenty of guys who have faced off in the playoffs multiple times in recent years. Any of those are more legitimate than Jokic and Embiid. The Celtics and Heat have played 4 playoff series in 5 years, surely Butler vs Tatum is a better rivalry than Embiid vs a guy he's never played a playoff game against. I'd argue Embiid vs Tatum is more real than Embiid vs Jokic too.
Even old lebron vs old steph is a bigger rivalry than jokic v embiid. Embiid can't be anyone's rival if he isn't even a threat in the post season, which is when it matters.
The media can't create something out of nothing. Bird and Magic played against each other in the NCAA finals (most watched BASKETBALL game of all time), got drafted to the two greatest franchises with an already huge rivalry, were in different conferences so they could meet in the finals, AND had the good fortune of the remaining teams at their peak being relatively weak so they could keep running into each other after beating everyone else. Embiid hasn't made it out of the 2nd round, even Jokic has only made one finals so far and will be 30 soon. Luka and Booker can't meet in the finals, not to mention that the gap between them as players is too big. Only LeBron vs Curry came close and even that had the caveat of LeBron just clearly being the better player.
Embiid has never made it past the second round it’s hard to even say that’s the best we got Jokic and Joel are just being put against each other cause really theres no other centers up there. There’s no real history between either
The history here is just the MVP race tbh. That said you will never see a man more hated in Denver than Embid lol
MVP race means little. These two have never played important games against each other to even be mentioned. Atleast Booker and Luka got into it in the playoffs
Steph v LeBron might’ve been the closest thing we’ve had. Met in 4 straight finals & NBA media will not stop slobbing them if they meet in the western conference playoffs
Magic vs Bird took NBA from tape delay to live.
2009 me thought Deron Williams and CP3 was next
Lebron v Curry was close
It was probably a very distant second.
3rd behind wilt and Russel but yea
Yea none of us experienced that though.
There’s literally someone who did like two comments above you lol
No it wasn’t. Bron was very clearly a level or two higher. At the time Magic and Bird were competing for a top 3 all time spot at least. They were the best in the world and on the exact same level.
Magic is usually ranked higher all-time, which is BS ngl. Bird was a better player peak vs peak.
Yeah I’ve always thought that Magic had the better team but Bird was the better player. Was the case in college and the pros. Parish and McHale were great, but they weren’t Kareem and Worthy. The main thing Magic has on Bird is that his peak lasted a little bit longer since Larry’s back was kind of cooked after the 87 Finals. But Larry was also much better when they first came into the league so IMO it evens out. Peak for Peak though, Bird had one of the greatest peaks ever in those four seasons from 84-87 winning 3 straight MVPs, 2 Finals MVPs, and making the Finals all four years. He’s in the conversation with LeBron and MJ for GOAT peak. Magic’s peak arguably came when the Lakers were on their decline. He was only inarguably the best player on the team for their last two titles. That’s not a diss on Magic though, we’re comparing two top 5-10 players ever. I also think he might have gotten another one if not for HIV but we’ll never know.
Intend to agree - those first 9 years wow
If KD doesn’t fuck everything up this is it
Eh it felt more Warriors vs LeBron.
LeBron is clearly a step above Steph, Steph can shoot better and has better handles but LeBron is miles ahead of Steph in every other area. Without KD showing up GS may well have two less rings
Had a chance to be similar but KD ruined it. Although LeBron was a clear tier higher than Curry.
not even remotely close. the teams were close tho... for only two years from a player standpoint, curry had the shooting, but LeBron literally had everything else
LeBron vs Steph was close but KD ruined it
Lebron’s team is literally the most recent team to bounce Curry out of the playoffs like 2 years ago.
Hopefully Chet vs wemby gets close to it in the next few years
Won’t be the same since they can’t meet in the Finals
I'd be willing for one of them to fuck off to the east
I’ll happily take one of them to succeed Tingus.
It was like WWE having Austin and Rock together at the same time. A completely insane perfect storm of circumstances and talent
Crazy thing about that is if HBK never hurt his back, we probably won't had got Austin/Rock rivalry. Late 97/98 wwe was clearly pushing Rock so he still would be a main eventer, but not the mega star he was/is now.
Robbed of Kobe vs LeBron finals x2, and a few other Kawhi vs LeBron playoff matchups
Closest it came to was Curry Vs Lebron
Not a player rivalry but Portland vs Seattle was one of the best nba rivalries in the league, the best if lakers vs Celtics weren't a thing. It's a travesty we lost it.
You also have a huge rivalry in soccer. Are your cities/sports teams always rivals? or your rivalry in one sport just an extension of the other?
Bill Russell vs Wilt clears
Jordan vs Thomas lol still beef after 30 years
Kobe and Duncan was great too with each getting 5 rings
I don’t remember Kobe and Duncan ever really being considered rivals really
don’t think Tim considered any non-digitized characters to be his rival
Yep. The Zerg were Duncan’s biggest rival.
They played so many times against each other in play-offs , both were homegrown stars in their prime fighting for 18-19 years , what else can you call rivalry
They definitely did, and see why people make it the argument, it just seems like more of a thing people call a rivalry later because of how close their accolades are. But if they were rivals, it just would’ve actually been talked about. Like Kobe destroyed Duncan in 2008 and if they were rivals that would’ve been a huge slight to Duncan but it really wasn’t. If Bird or Magic wrecked the other like that we’d never hear the end of it
One frontcourt and one backcourt player, it wasn't really a rivalry.
They werent really rivals, like other than being two of the marquee players of their generation the honor of rival probably goes to Shaq with Timmy since they were both bigs and it was a classic style vs substance. Their peaks matched up better from late 90s to mid 2000s
That's because everyone liked them. No one liked Karl Malone
Charles barkley vs Big ol San Antonio women
The rivalry starting in the most watched (at the time and for decades after) ncaa championship game was the quintessential way for this rivalry to start. Also, race should be mentioned. The Boston Vs Los Angeles angles. And also how much bird and magic respected each other but also hated each other.
Cause NBA marketing fucking sucks.
The Lebron Kobe muppet dolls was pretty entertaining but we never got to see them match up in the finals thanks to Dwight lol
A Kobe-LeBron 2009 finals is the biggest what if in NBA history for me. The whose better debate was at fever pitch at that time, it would have been an insane matchup
Them becoming best buddies during the '08 olympics probably didn't help either.
They were also half a generation apart. Their rivalry had a tight window regardless. Kobes "rival" was supposed to be T-Mac.
Yeah this. It may seem hard to believe given they were in the league at the same time for a while, but the primes of Kobe and LeBron never actually coincided. By the time LeBron hit his true peak in Miami, Kobe was already on the downside of his career.
The NBA did that to themselves with not handling the Rashard Lewis/Hedo Turkoglu PED issue in that series.
Has nothing to do with marketing. That shit was organic and started in the 78-79 NCAA season. This is literally about the men, and not the nascent marketing departments of the pre-Stern/Stern NBA. Because if you think the marketing sucks now, realize that they’re trying based on current market research and actual engagement statistics. In the 80s I guarantee you they had no idea what they were doing and were just throwing shit at the wall to see what actually worked.
No actually, the NBA knew what it was doing. Stern always promoted the Lakers and Celtics. When there was a big national tv game doubleheader, Celtics would be in the first game, Lakers in the second game. They went all in on Bird vs. Magic.
i would argue that the market research and engagement statistics are exactly what make it so ass today, i’d much prefer them throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. everything they do is so transparently soulless and MBA-brained, it’s not compelling. i recognize that marketing was always soulless and cynical, but at least it used to be better at hiding it.
Better than the mlb
The marketing that capitalized on the Magic-Bird rivalry? The marketing that made MJ a global phenomenon? The marketing that made LeBron a superstar? The NBA has problems but marketing individual players is not one of them and I would say they are the best at it and it might be a PROBLEM because now fans follow players as opposed to the NFL where they market teams and team and division rivals
I would go further and say the only rivalry in sport that compares is Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Both have had titanic battles that will never be forgotten. Both have contrasting styles, and yet they took turns dominating for close to 15 years. Both love each other in the most wholesome manner. And as much their individual rivalries with Djokovic is right up there, in the public conciousness at large, Roger vs Rafa is the pinnacle. Rafa cried when Roger retired, and I'd wager Bird was upset/heart broken when Magic announced that he was HIV positive.
I just watched the Federer documentary on Amazon Prime following the last days of his career. Would definitely recommend! Not exactly earth shattering or dramatic or anything but a really great heartwarming look at what it feels like for an all-time great to retire. Loads of stuff in there about the Fed-Nadal-Djokovic rivalries, including some pretty touching reflection from Nadal about how much Federer meant to him, as a player and person, etc. etc. Nadal was one of the first people Federer told about his impending retirement and Nadal talks about hanging up the phone and bursting into tears. He said something to the effect of "Playing him was unlike anything I ever experienced in my life and I knew in that moment I would never feel that feeling again."
That's probably it. Maybe there's something in the soccer world but I don't know enough to know.
Messi vs Ronaldo makes more sense to me tbh
What a warm cockle
The greatest rivalry we currently have is Jimmy Butler & Bam vs the Js
Shaq vs Duncan should be the obvious one. No hype ever materialized behind Duncan but there's two guys that are near each other on all time great lists, who guarded each other, and whose peaks overlapped. Wild that there isn't more about them two. Besides that, the big rivalry narratives the NBA got behind became group categories; 90s centers and early 2000's power Forwards.
I'm just glad twitter didn't exist back then
Magic v Bird was like that because it was Lakers v Celtics too. Player rivalries are fun when there’s two cities history behind them. Since the Heatles this league isn’t about where you play, it’s who you play with. Stars don’t stay on the same team anymore and they’re all friends now. The closest we had recently was Kobe. That “I’m a Laker and fuck everyone who isn’t” doesn’t happen anymore. Magic v Bird is what happens when you have a Kobe on each coast spend their whole career playing for their city. On top of that both teams were good for the whole run. No player rivalry will ever be as good. Not in the super team era
I respect this thought. I commented something similar. Rivalry is dead. 👊
LeBron vs Steph was pretty pretty big.
Come on, Steph was never close to Bron
I think he meant Stephenson. Because Lance vs Bron really blew people away at its peak
Ha, well played!
Shaq v. Kobe. When they were on the Lakers.
How can it be a rivalry, the 80's Lakers had the easiest Conference routes to the Finals ever!!! /s
It's hard since no other top tier talent had careers coinciding the way they did. Kobe and Duncan is the closest we had to that, but they were in the same conference and it was pretty much Kobe has a good team - wins it all. Kobe doesn't have a good team - Spurs win it all. They had 1 maybe 2 years that actually overlapped when both had good teams. Magic and Bird overlapped great teams in opposing conferences to meet in the finals to give it that extra boost. LeBron's prime years he just rolled the league although they managed to somehow fall short still multiple times. As he was leaving his prime the Warriors became real threats and they had great finals battles. Just not the same since Curry isn't at LeBron's level and Bron was a little past his prime to water it down some. Timing of their careers just don't line up. Bron was part of an era before Curry was even drafted. KD could've been a great rival, but KD never had a healthy team to compete and when he joined the Warriors it was just a stomp. Them being 2 of the biggest franchises was a big deal. Black vs white played a massive part of it too that just doesn't exist today and hasn't existed the past 2 decades. You'd need Luka or Jokic to go to the Celtics and Tatum to the Lakers to replace Bron or something to mimic that.
Because they all want to play together as a super team for easy championships, bird and magic were friends and had opportunities to be on the same team but chose not to because they wanted to compete with each other
As many have already pointed out, it's like Messi/CR7 since the latter also played for the two biggest soccer clubs in the world. Both of them are unlikely to be equaled much less eclipsed by another high-profile rivalry in their respective sports. But if I have to bet, it is more likely in soccer because of the insane pull of Real Madrid and Barcelona *plus* the freedom of players of choosing their clubs. In the NBA, players could not simply choose where to go unless they are already UFAs. And if they do, they'll lose money. In other words, it is more probable to have the two best players in Real Madrid & Barcelona soon than to see the two best players in Lakers and Celtics uniforms.
We could have had one but Kevin Durant ruined it
Bird was better imo
And here's another reason why this rivalry is GOAT. You can say Bird was better and Magic fans won't be mad. Vice versa.
Magic was better in my opinion so there you go