Magic & Bird: Basketball's Awed Couple

Hall of Fame superstars Earvin (Magic) Johnson and Larry Bird share their opinions and insights on their sport, the National Basketball League and their careers in this special volume. Bird with the working-class Celtics and Magic with the Hollywood flash and brash L.A. Lakers was a rivalry made in hoops heaven for the NBA. They would meet in four final series in seven years,with Team West Coast winning three championships, after previously losing seven straight to Boston 's finest. Larry and Magic garnered personal fame, riches, championships and MVP awards, but the NBA was the big winner. Both men exited as quickly as they had arrived, Bird sidelined by back ailments that would have paralyzed mere mortals, and Magic by a diagnosis of HIV positive that shook the sports world to its very roots in 1991. Before they left the game they finally got together with the fabled Dream Team at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, arguably the best team ever assembled in the sport. Today their paths rarely converge but they are still 'joined at the hip' in the minds of the sporting public.