There’s a moment between Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan that marks a transition in the NBA. It’s described in the book When the Game Was Ours, written by Johnson and Bird with Jackie MacMullan. Johnson, Bird and Jordan are going back and forth discussing which NBA team is the greatest of all time, but in doing so, Bird comes to the realization that the league now belongs to Jordan and all he and Magic have are the great memories of the rivalry they had between them.
“I feel sorry for you,” Magic told Jordan. “You will never have what Larry and I had. We went two weeks without sleep knowing, if we made one mistake, the other guy was going to take it and use it to beat us. Who do you measure yourself against?”
At the time when Magic said this to His Airness, Jordan had just won back-to-back championships and MVP awards, he was the future of the NBA and all Magic and Bird could do was concede that their time had passed. While Jordan didn’t have a single individual to rival against and help catapult his game–he didn’t need one. The entire NBA playing field was his measuring stick. Once he figured out how to channel his competitiveness and insatiable desire to win to his teammates, it made the 90’s Chicago Bulls unstoppable.
Fast-forward a couple decades and the search for rivalries in today’s NBA yields slim results. There aren’t any more natural rivalries being formed. At least not to the level of say Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, and most definitely not like Bird and Magic.
Next: Not all rivalries are apparent or even form naturally
Rivalries can form in a variety of different ways. In the case of Magic and Bird, it formed in the purist and most natural of ways. The two began as teammates at the World Invitational Tournament, a couple of second-stringers not yet having been discovered.
Then came college and the NBA soon followed. Each would land in their respective powerhouse franchises and all the implications of the storied history between the Celtics and Lakers would only intensify their rivalry, not just for themselves, but for the fans. This coupled with their individual competitive drive created a rivalry between them to challenge each other and elevate their teammates at the same time.
It made for a decade of epic basketball, revived the NBA and left fans thirsty for more.
Not even the would-be rivalries that have trickled through the league within the span since Bird and Magic’s hay-day are worth mentioning in the same sentence.
The closest we’ve come to re-capturing what Bird and Magic had, is what Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have now–and it’s a long shot. Jordan didn’t need a rival because he had everything you could ask for in a basketball player all rolled into one. He had enough talent, flash and flair to carry the NBA all on his own. It’s something Kobe couldn’t do and LeBron could’ve done had he not sent his talents to South Beach and subsequently air-mailed every fourth quarter in the 2011 NBA Finals.
Jordan may not have needed anyone, but Kobe and LeBron need each other to challenge themselves to surpass Jordan’s legacy inasmuch regard as the fans need them to take the game to the next level, much like Jordan did when Magic and Bird’s time has passed.
James is still young enough that he can come out and stampede over everyone using his size and strength. As Kobe gets older, he knows he has to develop different ways of manipulating his style of play to maximize results on the court. The two could still very well be on a collision course to meet in the finals at some point, but with each passing year, the window of opportunity closes slightly.
Next: Kobe and LeBron share the same quest to surpass Jordan
In no way are Kobe and LeBron natural rivals, but the two have had their eye on each other from day one. Both at some point were labeled as Jordan’s heir-apparent and although they play on opposite coasts and haven’t ever met in the finals, the thought of the two facing off against each other in a championship game sends basketball junkies into a frenzy. Debates rage on, fans bicker over who’s better between the two and suddenly all is right with the world.
So maybe nobody wants to be tagged with all the hype and pressure that comes with being labeled as the next coming of Michael Jordan. Bryant may deny wanting to have anything to do with chasing Jordan’s legacy, but (should there be a season next year) his quest of tying Jordan for six championship rings would start nonetheless. It may not matter to LeBron what’s being said about him forming a super team, but he had to do what he thought was necessary to win as he so eloquently put it “…not five, not six, not seven…” championships. Without those championship titles nestled on his resume, he’s not even considered in the discussion.
Perhaps every championship title that LeBron wins with the Heat will have an invisible asterisk denoting he took the easy way out by pairing up with Dwyane Wade and recruiting Chris Bosh as their cling-on, but the way I look at it, he at least put himself in a position to be in the finals every year. Unless the East gets another super power in the near future, with the Celtics fading and the Bulls not-quite-there-yet, a Kobe/LeBron match-up in the finals could finally materialize.
As it is now, the league is full of talent. It’s somewhat evenly spread out between the two conferences–the East containing more players dubbed superstars, the West harnessing a handful of championship caliber teams. It all makes for interesting match-ups, exciting games, but not really any clear-cut rivals.
Yes, Kobe is older than LeBron. LeBron is about to enter the prime of his career while Kobe enters the epilogue of his. That doesn’t make the rivalry any less significant. Would it have been great to see the two in the prime of their careers? Of coarse, but what makes the rivalry relevant is the fact that Kobe would rather keel over than pass the torch over to LeBron. Meaning, so long as he has legs to carry him through an 82-game season and an extended stint in the playoffs, Kobe will find a way to maintain his game at a high level.
Until Kobe laces up his signature shoes one last time and until LeBron finally figures out how to win at all, let alone consistently, the two will be chasing each other to be considered the best there ever was. They may never get there, but for the moment, it’s that challenge which drives them individually and what drives us fans to the TV sets to catch a glimpse of the closest thing we have now to what Magic and Bird had back then.