Magic & Bird

[C.Biscuit97]

I caught it too and thoguht it was great. They were in the prime a little before I was into sports so it was nice to hear their thoughts on things. Magic is more engaging and present in the media so you hear a lot from him. But I thought the Bird stuff was really interesting because he is a closed book. It's sad but it's awesome that hurt his back putting in his own driveway and that he would mow his own lawn with a group of people watching.

 

The part that really stuck out was how everyone made such a fuss about the racial overtones of the Celts and Lakers and Bird who was born in the heart of the KKK birthplace never thought of race. Great stuff and it's a little sad because of the big bucks in sports and all the friends being buddy-buddy we will never see a rivarly like this again.

[erynthered]

Speaking of B-Ball, caption this photo:

 

Ouch

[Nervous Guy]

Speaking of B-Ball, caption this photo:

 

Ouch

You don't tug on Superman's crotch, you don't spit into the wind

You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with Dwight.

[Buftex]

I caught it too and thoguht it was great. They were in the prime a little before I was into sports so it was nice to hear their thoughts on things. Magic is more engaging and present in the media so you hear a lot from him. But I thought the Bird stuff was really interesting because he is a closed book. It's sad but it's awesome that hurt his back putting in his own driveway and that he would mow his own lawn with a group of people watching.

The part that really stuck out was how everyone made such a fuss about the racial overtones of the Celts and Lakers and Bird who was born in the heart of the KKK birthplace never thought of race. Great stuff and it's a little sad because of the big bucks in sports and all the friends being buddy-buddy we will never see a rivarly like this again.

 

 

Being a big Celtics fan, the race thing has always existed. There has been a common (mis)perception that the Celtics were/are a racist organization, which is incredibly ludicrous. This mis-perception, no doubt, is born, partly, out of the fact that the city of Boston, itself, has had some well documented race problems over the years.

 

When the Celtics were at their most dominant, (the won 11 championships in 12 years) the bulk of their players were white, yet their best, Bill Russell, was black. Their only real rival was Wilt Chamberlain, a black man, also on mostly white teams, who was possibly the most dominant single player of his (or maybe any) time. So, the common image that most had of the NBA, was Red Auerbach, lighting up his victory cigar, at the expense, more often than not, of whatever team Chamberlain was playing for. Russell was a great player, but the C's also had players like Bob Cousey, Tom Heinson, Don Nelson and John Havlicek who were prominent on those teams. Make no mistake though, it was Russell who made their dominance possible.

 

The Celtics fan base was mostly white, and, other than Russell, the other truly great players in franchise history (Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Bob Cousey, John Havlicek) were white. The Lakers, meanwhile had incredible teams, particularly in the 1980's, playing a much more up-tempo style of basketball... the Celtics of Bird and McHale, and the Lakers of Magic and Kareem were just natural, polar opposites. Bird will tell you, Dennis Johnson and Robert Parrish were two of the greatest basketball players of their era...but they never got the attention that Bird and McHale did, because, IMO, the media at the time played up the black vs white thing, without mentioning it.

 

The Celtics, the first NBA team to have black players, the first NBA team to have a black head coach, were, unfortunately, labeled as white Americas' team... Red Aurbach, the pudgy Archie Bunker lookalike, probably did more than almost anyone to bridge the racial divide in American pro sports.

 

It is pretty sad, even to this day, when you say you are a Celtics fan, their is an inclination of some to assume it means you are a racist... I say it with pride, because I love that team...no matter who is playing for them, no matter what color the skin is...my love of this team was simply born out my love for the game, and geography.

 

I loved the Buffalo Braves as a kid, and when they left town, it killed me... but I still loved the game. Being too young to know, or care, about the role the Celtics may have played in facilitating the death of the Buffalo Braves (no need to chime in Exiled In Illinois, ya hear me? ), and after trying (unsuccessfully) to follow the San Diego Clippers in the days before ESPN and the internet, I simply adopted the Celtics as a kid, because they were good, and, most importantly, all of their games were on cable, as our cable system carried the Boston super station...