The ‘foes to friends’ trope has never been replicated to absolute perfection the way Magic Johnson and Larry Bird carried it out during the 80s. Having been rivals since their days at Michigan and Indiana State, they would go through the ebbs and flows of a highly emotional friendship that culminated with a beautiful speech given by Magic at Bird’s Hall of Fame induction.
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“[Players today] don’t hate each other. I hated Larry Bird and every Celtic,” said Johnson last year. The feeling certainly was mutual with Bird saying, “Earvin the man, but Earvin the basketball player? I had a little problem with him.”
Their competitiveness wasn’t unfounded as they’d played against one another in the 1979 NCAA Championship game with Magic leading the Spartans and Larry paving the way for the Sycamores. Magic came out on top and even in the NBA, holds a 2-1 record against Bird in the Finals.
Following a decade-plus of battles, the two eventually retired and Bird made it to the Hall of Fame in 1998. It was here where Magic poured his heart out, something he’d done sporadically in the past but never to such a great extent on a public platform.
“Larry, you’re just what a basketball player should be. The biggest reason I’m here is because of you, making me go to the gym all summer,” said Johnson while getting choked up and a bit teary-eyed.
“It was tremendous playing against you, and I’m just happy and I thank God I got to know you,” he continued. The two had made amends long before ’98 as a Converse commercial shot in Indy led to Magic meeting Larry’s mom whose favorite player, in a perfect symphony of irony, was Magic.
“Magic is head-and-shoulders above everybody else. I’ve never seen [anybody] as good as him,” said Bird on the 5x champ also being included in the GOAT conversation.
They humanized one another and kept their on-court feud on NBA hardwood. Since then, they shown each other the utmost amount of respect with their friendship spanning 40+ years.
