Magic Johnson and Larry Bird led the NBA to a level of popularity that it had never thought it would see as soon as they came into the league in 1979. However, when this generation talks about the GOAT of the game neither of them comes close to Michael Jordan or LeBron James. Why?
Advertisement
There are several reasons for it. One particular reason is the time they played in the league. Neither of them played more than 13 seasons in the NBA where as MJ, James, or any other players who come ahead of them in most rankings have played at least 15 other than Bill Russell.
What if Bird and Magic played at least two more seasons?
GOAT case for Larry Bird
“Larry Legend” is one of the greatest basketball players of all time who debuted in the NBA in 1979 and went on to become half of what is the NBA’s greatest rivalry to date. But even if you separate him from Magic Johnson, he had a playing style, an aura, and also a career to be remembered forever by basketball fanatics.
In his 13 years in the league, the 6ft 9” averaged 24.3 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game. There was nothing on the court he could not do.
The NBA’s first and one of the greatest 3-point shooters of all time, Bird, was unstoppable in his heyday because of his peculiar shooting form, which made him unguardable at his length.
A 12x All-Star, Larry took the Celtics from bottom to top as soon as he joined the team as a power forward. He led them to five NBA Finals, winning three of them, defeating some of the greatest teams of all time like the Showtime Lakers and Bad Boy Pistons in the Playoffs/Finals.
However, by 1992, he, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish started getting into injury trouble and the former two retired one after the other in 1992 and 93. Had he played 3-4 more years, but with another franchise, even with 80% of himself, Bird would have won a championship or two more.
Would we be looking at his GOAT candidature differently if he had 5 Championships?
GOAT case for Magic Johnson
There is not as fancy and as accurate a player as Earvin Johnson Jr. in the history of basketball. White chocolate might be the second closest, but he did not achieve much. Nikola Jokic? Well, he is fancy and accurate, but he doesn’t look half as magical.
But then he was successful in winning some championships as well. Not one or two, Magic-led Lakers won five championships in unarguably the toughest decade to play basketball in NBA history.
At 20 years of age, he handled the pressure of joining the Lakers, who already had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, quite well. They had become top contenders after drafting him as the #1 pick in the 1979 Drafts. The 20-year-old didn’t waste the chance.
While KAJ was out for the 1980 Finals because of an injury, 6ft 9″ Magic played as the center and led them to a championship. That was his rookie year, and he won the Finals MVP in it. To this date, he is still the youngest.
He went on to play only 12 continuous seasons, winning 5 championships and had to retire because of his HIV diagnosis in 1991. Johnson did come back after a few seasons in 1996 but didn’t have even a decent situation in LA to contend. He retired again shortly.
Had he not gone through all that, the man could have won a title or two more, which then means Jordan would have lesser rings than his six. You wouldn’t call MJ the GOAT then, would you?
If we eliminate LeBron James from the GOAT talks, citing his long career compared to Jordan and lesser championships, Magic’s career was shorter than him and almost equally successful.
