30 For 30: Celtics/Lakers

[PhantomOnTour]

I understand that this was the big sports rivalry of the 80's with two iconic players in Magic and Bird, but does anyone think ESPN has gone just a little overboard here?
It's a three part series that last five hours...five hours !?!?!?
:faint:

I was an 80's kid and this should be right up my alley, but can't this be thoroughly covered in less than five hours?
I've become less and less enamored with the 30 For 30 series, esp since there's got to be way more than 30 of them :D

They had some good ones though:
The Two Escobars
The Best That Never Was
The U
Once Brothers
Without Bias
Slaying The Badger
9.79

[MutuelClerk]

ESPN overboard? Never. Of course it's too much. Some of the 30 for 30's have been excellent. Selfishly I like the one on the Bad Boys best.

[Tom]

I don't think Magic and Byrd played against each other for 5 hours.

[Rise Over Run]

I understand that this was the big sports rivalry of the 80's with two iconic players in Magic and Bird, but does anyone think ESPN has gone just a little overboard here?
It's a three part series that last five hours...five hours !?!?!?
:faint:

I was an 80's kid and this should be right up my alley, but can't this be thoroughly covered in less than five hours?
I've become less and less enamored with the 30 For 30 series, esp since there's got to be way more than 30 of them :D

They had some good ones though:
The Two Escobars
The Best That Never Was
The U
Once Brothers
Without Bias
Slaying The Badger
9.79

I thought that I Hate Christian Laettner and the one on John Daly Hit it Hard were well done.

[JustRalph]

I DVR'ed it.

Two hours in and they are really allowing some background characters lots of screen time. I find that interesting. But it is dragging some.

I think there is a shorter version that concentrates mostly on Bird and Magic. It ran last year.

I was surprised they went back through the 50's in the first hour. Some neat footage from the fifties with Bob Cousy et al.

Watching Hondo was cool too.

[kinznk]

I've like a lot of the 30 for 30s but I really enjoyed the 9 for ix about the free diver.

[cj]

I DVR'ed it.

Two hours in and they are really allowing some background characters lots of screen time. I find that interesting. But it is dragging some.

I think there is a shorter version that concentrates mostly on Bird and Magic. It ran last year.

I was surprised they went back through the 50's in the first hour. Some neat footage from the fifties with Bob Cousy et al.

Watching Hondo was cool too.

I think the version you are talking about was an HBO show.

[JustRalph]

I think the version you are talking about was an HBO show.

maybe.......it was better....

[tophatmert]

Not a 30 for 30 but check out the documentary Disgraced about the Baylor basketball program and the murder of Patrick Dennehy. It is on HBO or Showtime I believe .

[Inner Dirt]

Where they went overboard was making LA vs Boston in the 80's a black vs white divide on who rooted for who. Bringing race in to it was complete nonsense. Where I was at during that time no such thing occurred.

[cj]

Where they went overboard was making LA vs Boston in the 80's a black vs white divide on who rooted for who. Bringing race in to it was complete nonsense. Where I was at during that time no such thing occurred.

I think that is pretty naive. It may not have been a thing where you were, but it definitely was in many places.

[JustRalph]

Where they went overboard was making LA vs Boston in the 80's a black vs white divide on who rooted for who. Bringing race in to it was complete nonsense. Where I was at during that time no such thing occurred.

I was in the Police Academy in Ohio during that 85 finals. It was a huge black versus white thing with our class. Mostly driven by a group of Officers from the Cleveland area. They hated Bird. It was all in good fun mostly.

I never knew the NBA was in such dire straits, or did they exaggerate that?

[cj]

I was in the Police Academy in Ohio during that 85 finals. It was a huge black versus white thing with our class. Mostly driven by a group of Officers from the Cleveland area. They hated Bird. It was all in good fun mostly.

I never knew the NBA was in such dire straits, or did they exaggerate that?

The NBA was really struggling, and there was a rampant cocaine problem in the 70s. Bird and Magic definitely saved the league IMO. The Finals weren't even shown live many years, you had to watch on tape delay.

[jimmyb]

Where they went overboard was making LA vs Boston in the 80's a black vs white divide on who rooted for who. Bringing race in to it was complete nonsense. Where I was at during that time no such thing occurred.
Being from Boston and having lived and died with the Celtics from the early '60's on, I never heard the 'white Celtics versus the black Lakers', or any other team for that matter.

[JustRalph]

The NBA was really struggling, and there was a rampant cocaine problem in the 70s. Bird and Magic definitely saved the league IMO. The Finals weren't even shown live many years, you had to watch on tape delay.

CBS did the same thing with NASCAR. Taped delayed Daytona 500 up until 79

I was a Celtics fan before Bird, because of Havlicek. That transferred right into Bird. I met Auerbach, Cowans and Bird in the Columbus Airport late one night in Birds first year. Spent ten minutes with them and really was excited about Cowans and Red. Bird didn't say three words in ten minutes.

Btw, Red spent the whole time talking about getting a new arena built.

[ronsmac]

Where they went overboard was making LA vs Boston in the 80's a black vs white divide on who rooted for who. Bringing race in to it was complete nonsense. Where I was at during that time no such thing occurred.
It was so true though. Nearly every white friend I had rooted for Boston and every single black friend I had rooted for the Lakers when they played. Like it or not, race was a huge factor.

[ronsmac]

For my money Bird was better than Magic but I'm biased. Magic knocked Notre Dame out of the NCAA tournament in 1979 and I've disliked him since.

[HalvOnHorseracing]

I think Larry Bird had one of the technically sweetest jump shots in the history of the game. If a kid wanted to learn a jump shot and asked me who they should emulate, I would say Bird. Or Pete Maravich.

Magic was clearly naturally more athletic than Bird. Bird got absolutely as much out of his body as he could have. He was exactly what he seemed - a hard-working, blue collar player. Magic was more of a glider, a guy who made it look easy, even when he was working hard.

They were different players with different roles, but both deserved the title of legend of the game.

[ElKabong]

Where they went overboard was making LA vs Boston in the 80's a black vs white divide on who rooted for who. Bringing race in to it was complete nonsense. Where I was at during that time no such thing occurred.

In the 80s I used to play touch football and pick up basketball on weekends with a group of guys (mostly black, former college football players). The Celtics- Lakers series definitely had a racial tone to it. While I knew a lot of white guys that were Laker fans, I didn't know a single black person that pulled for the Celtics. And I do mean zero. It was odd

Good series so far, I've seen part 1 and 2. Brought back memories of good and entertaining basketball

[ElKabong]

Not a 30 for 30 but check out the documentary Disgraced about the Baylor basketball program and the murder of Patrick Dennehy. It is on HBO or Showtime I believe .

It was on showtime last month. I urge any fan of sports to watch this documentary, it will make you angry as hell. It's a look in the mirror of what NCAA sports has been for some time. This case is to the extreme, but to think this type of manipulation and sleaze doesn't go on in a lot of programs is naive.

[ElKabong]

I never knew the NBA was in such dire straits, or did they exaggerate that?

The nba was an afterthought in the mid 70s. I really thought the NHL would overtake the NBA for the 3rd major sport in the 70s. Why it didn't is a debate worth dozens of pages.

I remember going to watch the ABA Dallas Chapperals in the late 60s and early 70s (now known as the SA Spurs). Most nights I went there were only 100 or so people, yet you could go to a Ft Worth Wings-Dallas Blackhawks hockey game and the games were sellouts (capacity 6,000+)and fights in the stands were common between the two cities' fans (it was a different area back then, huge rivalry between the 2 cities)

My fondest memory of the old Chaps was watching some kid from Mass named Julius Erving, along with a team mate of his, put on a dunk fest in pregame warmups. There may have been 30 people in the building at the time, but everyone saw something new and different. Pretty amazing stuff

[reckless]

The most interesting thing I learned watching the show was the genius of Red Auerbach.

The Celtics had both the 1st and 13th picks in the 1980 NBA draft. Leading up to this draft Auerbach was regularly quoted as saying that Joe Barry Carroll was the very best player in the draft and that the Celtics were going to take him with their No. 1 pick.

But Red being very, very slick saw an opportunity to improve the team immediately. He traded Boston's two first round picks to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for center Robert Parish and the Warriors' first round pick, the 3rd overall.

With this 3rd pick, Auerbach drafted Kevin McHale.

So the Celtics basically got both Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale in exchange for Joe Barry Carroll.

It is often said that this was the most lopsided deal in the history of the NBA.

[highnote]

If a kid wanted to learn a jump shot and asked me who they should emulate, I would say Bird. Or Pete Maravich.


Totally agree. I taught my kids to shoot like Maravich. My older son had a tryout in North Carolina this week at a prep school. Most of the people didn't know we were his parents. The one comment we kept overhearing is "that kid's got a nice shot."

Proud dad. :)