Book excerpt

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2009/10/18/kings_of_the_court/

Great excerpt from Bird and Magic's forthcoming book about the 1984 finals. That one was my favorite because it was against the Lakers and the Celtics weren't supposed to win.

Henderson's steal to send game two into OT, the Heat Game where Bird torched them while Kareem was sucking on an oxygen mask,, ML Carr running up the Forum floor with both arms raised in triumph after he iced game five with a steal and dunk, Max schooling Worthy in game seven....

Great memories.

Hey Carpe, welcome to the board. That book should be a great read. What an interesting concept. Have two rivals like that ever gotten together to write a book before? Thanks for bringing it to our attention...and for giving this forum a try.

Sam

Sam, I can't think of any other book from such fierce rivals.

Magic and Bird's relationship is interesting. From fierce rivals who obviously didn't like each other to mutual respect and then genuine affection.

Both realized that niether would have been as great without the other. The best against the best. There's no honor in beating inferior opponents.

Too bad Russ and Wilt never got together to write a book. Before Wilt passed, I heard Russ say that they talked often on the phone, "cackling like old ladies."

When the top 50 players of all time were introduced, Wilt and Russ made it a point to stand next to each other.

Carpe, Russ and Wilt were my first thought when you posted about this book. I would guess that, for pure rivalries, Bird/Magic and Russ/Wilt pretty much stand alone in NBA history. Is there any current rivalry that "rivals" those?

Sam

You need great players on great teams.
Teams that win championships or are at least getting the chance.

LeBron is young enough but Cleveland has no winning history.

Plus they should be in different conferences so as to meet in the finals.

Perhaps it will never happen again as too many teams water down the talent pool

beat

If Clvd wins I can see Lebron and Kobe. But there is almost a decade's age difference there.

Russ and Wilt were only four years apart. Bird and Magic went back to college with that MSU-IU final drawing the biggest ratings to date and they came into the league the same year.

Yeah, being age peers makes a difference. Like Williams and DiMaggio.