30 For 30: Celtics/Lakers

[ronsmac]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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 .

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]

Originally Posted by JustRalph

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]

Originally Posted by HalvOnHorseracing

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.