Bird vs Magic (HBO Documentary)

[82CardsGrad]

Phenomenal... Can't stop watching it... Who these guys are respectively.... Where they came from. When their paths crossed. It's epic. It's divine intervention, purely...

I was 15 years old in 1979, the year they faced eachother in the NCAA Championship. I had no idea that I was witnessing one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, human intersections ever... Damn those were great times.

Highly recommend this show.

 

[Mulli]

Phenomenal... Can't stop watching it... Who these guys are respectively.... Where they came from. When their paths crossed. It's epic. It's divine intervention, purely...

I was 15 years old in 1979, the year they faced eachother in the NCAA Championship. I had no idea that I was witnessing one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, human intersections ever... Damn those were great times.

Highly recommend this show.

First, what the heck is a "human intersection?"

Second, the intersection of two basketball players will never be the greatest human anything.

Or maybe that is just me.

 

[Gaddabout]

Bird and Magic are two of my all-time favorite athletes, but I thought the narrative was a little forced. They seemed to be imposing the idea that Magic and Bird were driven by each other 24/7 from their college days, and the edits in the interviews seemed to be cut together after leading questions so they could tell the story the way they wanted.

Even with their contributing comments, I find the narrative at least a little dubious. There's no mention of Dr. J, who was the star of the league when they came in and on a very good team. Kareem is treated like an afterthought in Magic's early portion, and he was still in his prime during those days, the best center in the history of basketball. There's barely a mention of Michael Jordan at the end, who had become the greatest athlete on the planet before they retired.

I enjoyed it but I can't see myself watching it again.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Bird and Magic are two of my all-time favorite athletes, but I thought the narrative was a little forced. They seemed to be imposing the idea that Magic and Bird were driven by each other 24/7 from their college days, and the edits in the interviews seemed to be cut together after leading questions so they could tell the story the way they wanted.

Even with their contributing comments, I find the narrative at least a little dubious. There's no mention of Dr. J, who was the star of the league when they came in and on a very good team. Kareem is treated like an afterthought in Magic's early portion, and he was still in his prime during those days, the best center in the history of basketball. There's barely a mention of Michael Jordan at the end, who had become the greatest athlete on the planet before they retired.

I enjoyed it but I can't see myself watching it again.

Gadd... the story was about Magic and Bird and the incredible way in which they, together, rose to such prominence. Sure, Dr. J was there, Kareem and Michael too... but in the strict context of Bird and Magic, those guys were nothing more than bit players in a much more elaborate, complex story...
I didn't view the narration as being forced or manipulated at all. Hell, Bird even states at the end that he completely lost the will to prepare and play at his previous high levels once Magic retired... He no longer was driven by "what Magic was doing".

IMO, there is absolutely no doubt that Magic and Bird, individually and collectively saved the NBA and had the greatest impact on the games' resurrection from obscurity than any other player or group of players...

 

[Mulli]

Gadd... the story was about Magic and Bird and the incredible way in which they, together, rose to such prominence. Sure, Dr. J was there, Kareem and Michael too... but in the strict context of Bird and Magic, those guys were nothing more than bit players in a much more elaborate, complex story...
I didn't view the narration as being forced or manipulated at all. Hell, Bird even states at the end that he completely lost the will to prepare and play at his previous high levels once Magic retired... He no longer was driven by "what Magic was doing".

IMO, there is absolutely no doubt that Magic and Bird, individually and collectively saved the NBA and had the greatest impact on the games' resurrection from obscurity than any other player or group of players...

In that context you might be right about them being huge for saving the NBA.

 

[82CardsGrad]

In that context you might be right about them being huge for saving the NBA.

Yes, the intersection of these two humans saved the NBA...

 

[Mulli]

Yes, the intersection of these two humans saved the NBA...

Ya.

I had no idea that I was witnessing one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, human intersections ever...

But this is silly.

 

[82CardsGrad]

But this is silly.

Yea.. it was. But c'mon man... I wouldn't have enough energy to call out your silliness if I chose to do so each time you posted...

 

[Shane]

The NBA would have flourished with or without Magic and Bird. GUARANTEED!

 

[Mulli]

Yea.. it was. But c'mon man... I wouldn't have enough energy to call out your silliness if I chose to do so each time you posted...

Too true. I take it back.

 

[82CardsGrad]

The NBA would have flourished with or without Magic and Bird. GUARANTEED!

Debatable... I think, eventually, it would have come back to life... Jordan and the globalization of the game would have certainly done that. But I think it's pretty safe to say that had Bird and Magic not come along when they did, and had they not achieved the heights they reached, the NBA would have continued to suffer and probably drop even further during the early to mid 80's. Which would have made the job of pulling out of the depths of despair it was in even more difficult for Jordan and others...

 

[Rivercard]

Disapointing, I thought this thread was going to be about a dove who refused to fly out of a hankerchief.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

I really liked it

I wish they would of gotten a little more into how it changed the way the game was promoted and how that eventually led to serious issues post-jordan (when the league was again facing the thought of being "streetball" and "thug" with no superstar that was relateable)

The NBA was in bad shape in those years and it's very telling that there was a perfect storm that allowed these two guys to propel their teams and become the faces of the league

They ended up on the right franchises, in the right cities at the right time .... if bird went to LA and magic to boston it wouldn't of been the same

The east back then was a little more formidable, but the focus was on Bird & Magic .... so while it's good to have some mention of the sixers and pistons as context and to show that there were battles before the finals, they weren't pertinent to the story

they kept their scope pretty focused and I think that was a good thing

in '86 you had the double OT barn burner where jordan dropped 63 in the garden and lost

you had the epic battles against the sixers in the early 80s which were tense & violent (which they showed a little bit of with bird mixing it up with Dr. J)

then the bad boy pistons which had their run ins with the celtics before breaking through and spending some time as the bulls nemisis

however, bird & magic IMO made all the other teams in that era relevant

it was fun to watch 'nique do his thing, but he couldn't get by the celtics in the playoffs and would have some serious scoring duels with bird

by squashing the sixers it shifted the image and style of the league

heck, even the don nelson bucks were a pretty consistent playoff rival of the celtics and they carried some heat

not to mention how magic was able to make guys like kareem likeable and rambis cool .......... with a little bit of Magic showtime and riley became absolute fixtures

it was really the contrast that made it - i like how this showed them at the individual level though - that despite all they had in common they ended up being bitter rivals and wanted to just dominate each other

you can tell that 30 years later that NCAA game still eats at Bird - you know magic still thinks he was the real rookie of the year

however, despite the ultra-competativeness there developed a great deal of respect and ultimately a friendship

i think it was pretty well done

 

[Russ Smith]

The NBA would have flourished with or without Magic and Bird. GUARANTEED!

I haven't seen it(don't get HBO) and I'm somewhat in agreement with Shane and somewhat not. part of my issue with the NBA in the Bird and Magic era was the the NBA tried too hard to make the rivalry. People who weren't watching then forget but we typically got one national NBA game a week, weekends only, and you could almost bet the game would be LA vs Boston, Boston vs Philadelphia, or Philadelphia vs LA. The entire rest of the NBA was ignored. So while it was a great rivalry, it was somewhat contrived by the way the NBA scheduled so that those 3 teams were on all the time and if it wasn't Bird vs magic, it was one of them against Dr. J or Barkley.

I know the Celtics and Lakers are still on all the time, but there's so much more national coverage of other teams now that we don't get as much of a great rivalry but we actually see the whole league and not just a few teams which I prefer?

I think Bird and Magic were so good it was a natural but even without them I have a feeling the NBA would have found a way to create a rivalry at the time.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

they did mention this a little bit in the film

basically it sounds like CBS was pushing the scheduling - they found that bird & magic were ratings gold

when they'd show other teams they'd struggle

when they filled their programing with those teams they flourished - not a ton in the middle

those contests and coverage are a big part of the reason why I still have a soft spot for the celtics and am a basketball fan in general

to me it's similar to the constant coverage teams like the yankees get

do people care about them because they're constantly on TV or are they constantly on TV because people care