When the Game Was Ours - Larry Bird [41]
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By the time the Celtics started their regular season, Bird was spending most of his time with Robey and Cowens, drinking suds and watching sports. In the late seventies and early eighties, the home NBA team was required to provide the road team with a case of cold beer in the locker room after each game. Players drank as much as they wanted, then left the rest behind. The Celtics rarely had any surplus on the road because Bird and Robey grabbed pillowcases from the hotel and stuffed them full of cans of beer.
When the 1979–80 regular season ended, the Celtics had won 61 games and the Lakers had won 60. LA weathered an unexpected coaching change when McKinney fell off his bicycle on his way to play tennis with assistant coach Paul Westhead and suffered severe, life-threatening injuries. After Westhead took his place and named radio announcer (and former Lakers player) Pat Riley as his assistant, the team sailed on.
Both rookies filled the stat sheets from wire to wire. Larry's and Magic's skills, contrasting personalities, and dueling franchises couldn't have been better scripted on Madison Avenue.
"For once," said longtime NBA executive Donnie Walsh, "the hype was real."
The Lakers easily advanced past Phoenix and Seattle in the postseason, and Boston swept Houston in the first round, but the more experienced Philadelphia 76ers, led by Dr. J and Darryl Dawkins, put an abrupt end to Bird's first season and killed any hopes of a Lakers-Celtics Final.
Bird finished third in the league MVP voting and was a first-team All-NBA selection, yet none of that was of any consequence to him. His only focus was winning a championship, preferably over Magic. "And then all of a sudden, it was over, just like that," Bird said. "It was a shock, really."
Magic prepared for the Finals with mixed emotions. He was thrilled to be on the league's biggest stage, but wished he would be competing against someone other than Erving. The generous man who eleven months earlier had opened his home to a young college sophomore with a life-altering decision to ponder would now be trying to wrestle a championship away from him. When Dr. J and Johnson met on the floor before the game, Erving embraced his protégé and said quietly, "Forget everything I told you."
The Finals were a blur to the rookie. The intensity and the pressure and the attention was initially overwhelming. Magic marveled at Kareem, who approached each game with the same blank expression and the same measure of calm. The captain burned the Sixers for 33, 38, and 33 points in the first three games. He had already scored 26 points in the third quarter of Game 5 when he crashed to the court grabbing his ankle. Abdul-Jabbar was taken to the locker room, but returned late in the fourth quarter to score 14 points down the stretch and give the Lakers a 3–2 series lead.
When Abdul-Jabbar left the locker room on crutches, the Lakers recognized that they'd be going to Philadelphia without him—and, if they believed the rest of the NBA, without a chance.
The day before Game 6, Bruce Jolesch, the Lakers' public relations director, grabbed Magic after the team's workout.
"I've got some disappointing news," he said. "Larry Bird won Rookie of the Year."
"How close was it?" Magic asked.
"Not close," Jolesch answered.
Bird won the award by a 63–3 margin. The lopsided vote was demoralizing. Magic called to commiserate with Earvin Johnson Sr., who bitterly told him, "This is a complete injustice."
Magic expressed mild disappointment publicly, nothing more. But privately he seethed over the lack of respect he was given. The fact that Larry Bird dominated the vote only made it worse.
"I was jealous, and I was mad," Magic said. "I thought I had a great year. When I heard I only got three votes, I took it out on the Sixers. I wanted people to recognize my play the way they had recognized Larry's.
"It wasn't anything personal against Larry ... well, actually, it was."
By the time he dominated Game 6 as Kareem's fill-in, no one was talking about the Rookie of the Year any longer.