Magic Johnson and Larry Bird dominated the 80s. Their teams were present in every Final between 1980 and 89’ and won 8 championships between them in that period. The only other teams to win rings during the time were the Detroit Pistons and the Philadelphia 76ers. However, Bill Russell’s Celtics of the 60s still dwarfed the dominance of both Magic and Bird combined.
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In the 80s, Magic’s Lakers reached the Finals 8 times and lifted the Larry O’Brien five times. Bird’s Celtics reached there five times and won the silverware thrice. Johnson and Bird won 5 MVPs and 5 Finals MVPs between them in that duration.
Given the fact that both of them had plenty of all-time greats like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish playing alongside them at the time, their dominance should not be a surprise. Neither should Bill’s. However, when the three of them came together, the Celtics greats mocked Johnson for not winning it without KAJ.
When Bill Russell & Larry Bird trolled Magic Johnson by telling him to run and call Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Somewhere around the early 90s, the Celtics’ 11x NBA champ paid a visit to Bird and Magic in one of their games. And when the 3 of them came together on the court, they shared an amazing time.
While Magic was introducing Bill as his idol, Bird came along, and Johnson honored him with the “idol” title as well. Three of them laughed about how they had all of the NBA championships right there, as 19 chips were sharing the screen.
Larry Legend, being the trash-talking savant he was, said “Majority of them are here,” pointing to the fact that Kareem wasn’t there. And then hysterically mocked the Lakers point guard by telling him to “run and get Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar].”
Magic took it like a good sport and hilariously acted like somebody put a “dagger through his heart.” Watch the whole exchange in the following YouTube clip by ‘NBA on ESPN‘.
Bird and Magic made the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, the biggest in the NBA
Although no decade could match up to the Celtics-Lakers rivalry of the 80s, the one in the 2000s came closest. The Lakers had already won 3 championships to start that decade. They later became weaker after Shaquille O’Neal left them in 2004.
The latter part of the 2000s saw Celtics become a strong contender. In the 2007-08 season, the team had multiple future Hall-of-Famers. They defeated Kobe Bryant’s Lakers in the Finals. Bryant had his revenge by beating them in 2010.
And now we are in 2023, 13 years after the Cs and Lakers competed for the championship, and the fans and media are still hyped up for the chance to see a Celtics-Lakers Finals again. However, with the Celtics down 2 games to the Heat in the ECF and the Lakers down 3 against the Nuggets in WCF, we might have to wait for it a little longer.
