When the Game Was Ours - Larry Bird [107]
Magic received a phone call from Lakers public relations director John Black the day after the Celtics-Pistons game. "Your boy Isiah has done it," Black said. "What do you want me to tell people?"
"Leave me out of it," Magic answered.
Johnson was angry with Thomas. It was an irresponsible comment, and the timing was atrocious, since the Celtics were moving on to play the Lakers.
But what frustrated Magic the most was that he had spent hours on the phone with Thomas consoling him over his loss to Boston, much in the way Isiah had done for him in 1984. The Bird steal had come to symbolize the Celtics' mental toughness and the Pistons' shortcomings, and Thomas was struggling to understand that. His Lakers confidant did the best he could to help him through it.
"Normally Isiah is a fighter," said Johnson. "Not after that play. He knew he had taken a major hit on that one. He was still fighting for his own stature in the league, and beating the Celtics was the only way he was going to get his.
"He took that loss hard. It was worse too because Isiah and Larry didn't like each other, and neither did the teams. It was a long phone conversation. By the time we got done talking, it was light out."
When Riley learned of Thomas's comments, he too went directly to Magic. It was a distraction that neither he nor his point guard needed to be addressing as they prepared for Boston.
"Earvin," Riley said, "we can't afford to spend time on this. What the hell was Isiah thinking?"
Johnson did not call his friend to find out. The call he placed instead was to Bird.
"Isiah does not speak for me," Magic said.
"It doesn't mean anything to me," Bird insisted. "Really, I could care less."
The conversation meandered briefly toward their impending Finals matchup before the two rivals signed off. The significance of the phone call was not lost on former Celtic Rick Carlisle, who had grown close to Bird and knew how intense the rivalry had once been.
"Their relationship had clearly changed," Carlisle said. "They were both at a juncture in their careers where they knew time was getting short, and they needed to live their basketball lives to the fullest.
"And whether they liked it or not, they were doing that together."
The 1987 Finals was the most coveted ticket in town in two cities—Boston and LA. Both Magic and Bird were inundated with requests for tickets to the games on their home turf. Magic's agent Lon Rosen came up with a brilliant solution: the superstars would swap tickets. Magic provided Larry with extra seats in Los Angeles, and Larry shared his quota of Boston tickets with Magic. The two players never discussed it, nor did they share their arrangement with their teammates.
"But if that doesn't tell you how far we'd come, I don't know what would," Magic said. "Because three years earlier, neither of us would have considered it."
With Detroit finally in its rearview mirror, Boston literally limped into the Finals. The space in McHale's foot was widening, and the forward was in excruciating pain. Bird's back was also in terrible shape. Robert Parish was severely hampered by a sprained ankle, and while Walton was on the team roster, he had missed most of the season and even the most optimistic Celtics fan knew better than to count on him.
The Lakers routed Boston 126–113 in Game 1 behind Magic's 29 points, 13 assists, 8 rebounds, and 0 turnovers, then rode a barrage of Cooper three-pointers to victory in Game 2. With Parish hobbling in Game 3, the Celtics' chances appeared bleak, but reserve center Greg Kite played the most memorable game of his career, bodying Kareem, rebounding the ball, setting bruising screens, and even blocking one of Magic's shots. He was the Player of the Game without scoring a single point.
Game 4 became a must-win situation for the faltering Boston team. They were at home, down 2–1, and needed a spark. Instead, they were felled by Magic's majestic