The Lakers and Celtics rosters were interesting at this time- this was before Dennis Johnson + Byron Scott. Lakers still had Norm Nixon, Boston had Tiny Archibald and Fitch was still on sidelines.
@@earthsurgery1237 blah blah blah You're a stupid. Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia will earn *400 MILLION DOLLARS* in just two seasons playing football in that country. *NO PROFESSIONAL NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, PLAYER COVERS A LOT OF MONEY IN JUST TWO SEASONS.* Football is a men's sport in the world. Only in a country of idiots like the United States is soccer seen as a girl's sport. You're an Idiot.
Once Walton came on board he dominated Kareem. There was definitely something about the game he brought against Kareem. Obviously Kareem had serious longevity versus Walton’s injury prone career. But 85-86 season Walton man handled Kareem. And for a C’s fan, was beautiful to watch. Kareem had nothing on him.
I'm a Celtics fan. But Kareem played at a high, all star level into 1986, when he averaged over 23 points a game on .56 FG% at age 38! Even in 1989 finals with Magic out with an injury, he had a great game vs. Pistons. He was a bit over 42 years old and dropped 24 points and 13 boards in 33 minutes on the young and hungry Pistons, soon to be NBA Champions. So would an all star from the early 1970s be any good in the late 80s? Look at Kareem. Thanks to his long career, we could easily speculate how good Havlicek, Oscar, Jerry West would have been in the 80s. Parish as well - he was still a better center than on most teams in 1991 and 1992, having started in late 70s.
The fact of the matter is that the NBA matured into a celebrity all-star league during the 90s, and by early 2000's it was just a mish-mash of streetball celebs, pure celebs, the Spurs, and Dirk/Nash. Few others were trying to play professional basketball - they were just trying to put on a show and all too often the show was "show everyone how good I am!". And the refs were told to reward them for it and help further mature the sport into a sport-for-show. While I'd love to say that players from the 70s and 80s would dominate today, I'm not so sure because the rules of the game itself have changed so much to favor the spectacle of 1-on-1 play and big shots. Mostly, I think players of the 70s and 80s would leave the league and play elsewhere because, naturally, most of them weren't in it for the money or the celebrity.
You said it all, Chris Cox. 90's basketball and their 81-78 final scores were absolute garbage. Had Magic, J and Bird been in their primes in the 90's, Jordan would be damn lucky to have won 1 NBA title.
@@radar0412 no, more because it really gets boring watching Magic and his one dimentional ass!!!! he was just a glorified facillitator!!!! nice try though
@@deborahbrick8679 On the contrary. Because of my concern for women, I hereby Forbid you from putting up unsophisticated comments about the complex game of basketball. Your ignorance of the game might unfairly reflect on innocent women who actually know about the game.
We know how great Magic, Bird, Jabbar, etc. were -- The best -- But Tiny Archibald shows his greatness as well= -- Two players in this game are two of the 5 to win at all levels. Magic and Quinn Buckner -- Celtics got DJ in the off season to guard Andrew Toney. Danny Ainge was a much better player than people give credit to. He was a great athlete. Back when I cared about the NBA.
Players were tougher then. No "load management" and no unwillingness to go after loose balls. of course, would have been nicer if Bird could have played 3 or 4 more injury-free years!
3:40 Ainge gets out on the break and finishes the layup and then gets back at the other end and steals the ball in under 10 seconds. He is way under-rated.
After watching a lot of 84 thru 87 Celtics games in retrospect, I honestly think Ainge deserves the HOF. He was a relentless 3/4 court pressure defender, an incredible finisher, a good jump shooter from anywhere on the court, and a lights-out 3pt shooter. Had he played more in an era that embraced 3pt shooting, he'd been HOF for sure since he'd probably put up 5-6pts per game more than he did.
Wow, just wow. The whole Garden is _pulsating_ - that crowd isn't in attendance, they're in _thrall_ What a frickin' treat. I love watching Kareem's mastery, too, so long as the Lakers don't win. :^>
Now the player have, perfect shoes, perfect personal trainers, perfect foods....... But they not have absolutely this intensity and this phisicality..... The real men VS cinematic men..... This is the truth!
@4:58 look at 00 Parish run down the court. Watching these games decades later and you can watch off the ball and really appreciate others performance. Parish had some serious speed under him. So much respect for the guy.
I'm an older guy, much more into football. Loved football growing up, played college football, and remained a fan. Just wasn't into basketball as a boy or young man. However, the NBA go so incredibly compelling and entertaining during this time frame (1980-1992 or so) that I became a huge basketball fan! I loved the Celtics because my dad always did, and then my favorite college basketball player went there (Carlos Clark from Ole Miss, didn't have a good pro career). I got to experience the greatest era in NBA history, with the Celtics having THREE massive rivalries which made it amazing fun: The '76ers, the Lakers, then the Pistons! [while the Celtics-Lakers rivalry gets all the attention, the Celtics-76ers rivalry seemed "meaner." Those teams HATED each other!]
Thanks for posting = great footage. Love how Bird moves without the ball and the overall hustle!! Bird was a good defender with good instincts and anticipating passes - he doesn't get credit for this part of his game. Kareem with the skyhook = unstoppable and still looks agile and quick here.
Beautiful basketball display! Look Bird`s flying through the hollow old garden floor. This is the real Larry Bird. There`s no stat that can measure a champion heart and his tough leadership. Bird`s is the paradigm of what a Basketball player should be.
trha2222 Why was that a problem? Are you saying the Celtics organization was racist against having black players? you're an idiot if that's what you think.
No, it seems odd that you're making a big deal about it, so what! It doesn't mean anything, during the 1960s, almost their whole team was black, they have nothing against black players, please just drop it ok?
trha2222 You are a complete and total imbecile. People like you make the world so much more tedious and insufferable than it has to be. Go stir up some racial animus somewhere else you hapless and hopeless little worm.
I Never understood why people didn't believe Larry Legend wasn't an Athlete. He MOVED without the Ball as good as Jamaal Wilkes, (Who was the best ever at that), Larry could start and finish a fast break, and Larry Shot a jumper instead of a Set Shot like Magic. I never got it?
A well-rested Celtics team clobbered these goons. You can't tell me that the gauntlet of the East playoffs vs. the cake walk of the West playoffs didn't play into the ring counts.
I've been looking for the last regular season meeting between Bird and Magic - 1991 February 15 at LA. Bird had a triple double 11/11/11 but shot really poorly ...Magic nearly a triple double of his own 21/9/13 .. Celtics 98 Lakers 85 ...nowhere to be found. its the last time I saw them play each other. SHOULD have recorded but didn't.
A lot of people forget the Lakers didn’t gain the edge in the Celtic rivalry in the 80s till the latter part, when the Celtics had the onslaught of bad luck, starting with the death of Len bias
Cant stop commenting about this video . The symmetry that existed between the players was unreal . Bird to Maxwell, Magic, to Kareem , Tiny to Parish , Cooper , to Worthy on and on I'm sorry todays era would get thrashed compared to this era
Nice game at the Garden between coastal rivals in the early 80s. Kareem's skyhook didn't seem to go anywhere but the bottom of the basket this game, and check him taking it coast to coast. Magic always did something that would make your head spin, dig the bullet pass inside towards the end of the video. Bird was again all over the parquet floor on both offense and defense, watch him fall over the assistant Celtic coach to keep a ball in play which a teammate converts into a field goal, or lose his defender completely for a wide open jumper, the ample time which he has to take said shot surprising even him as he sets his feat and nails it. Lots of great footage on this channel.
Good evening Mr Larry Bird i know and to know a lots of people in the Nation of U. S. A. That is about of my story about me. Im CREATE my self and making my love story.
Two all-time great teams that not only had fantastic talent, not only were in their own respective conferences which meant there would be no championship series being played a round before the championship series, but they had such a varied way of playing winning basketball. The Lakers were the race-horse team - they ran opponents off the floor and made them give up. Their fast-breaks were via their athleticism and legs. The Celtics' fast breaks were by the Celtics signature passing - quick inbounding after opposing baskets, and passing the ball ahead to teammates instead of dribbling it and running it up the court. The Lakers had Magic who could play all 5 positions, Abdul-Jabbar with his unique and flawless as well as unstoppable sky-hook, Worthy with his slashes to the basket, and Cooper with his 3-pt shooting. The Celtics had do-everything Bird with his full-court hustle and vision, McHale with his dizzying array of post moves, Parish with his rain-inducing turn-around fade-aways and break-away slams, and Maxwell with his clutch post-season heroics. There were so many players that could execute in these games, and they went back-and-forth with little clutter and road-blocking physical play, so there were often 4-5 players on each team with 20+ pts each, and scores into the 120s for both teams. Just constant offense, and scoring....
@@cindyknudson2715 Magic started out as a Guard with the Lakers, but they already had a Point Guard in Norm Nixon, who was a fine PG. The year before Magic joined LA Nixon was their starting PG who appeared in all 82 games and averaged 17 ppg and 9 apg. Magic joined and started sharing minutes at PG with Nixon, but played other positions due to his 6'-9" height making that an option. Magic's rookie year in 1979-80, the Lakers reached the 1980 NBA finals against the Philadelphia 76ers, and won the title in 6 games. Nixon started all 6 NBA Finals games and averaged 40+ mpg, and didn't play badly, averaging 15.5 ppg, 7.0 apg, and 3.7 rpg. Magic however averaged better assists numbers at 8.7 apg, and also averaged 21.5 ppg and 11.2 rpg. In the 6th and final game of the series, the Lakers starting Center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did not dress nor travel to the game which was held in Philadelphia due to spraining his ankle in the Game 5 win, so Magic was picked to play Center in Abdul-Jabbar's stead. Magic responded with a game-high 42 points to go with 15 rebounds and 7 assists, putting in as good a game as any would expect from the future Hall-of-Famer Abdul-Jabbar, had he played. So, to say all of this as an answer to your question, Magic earned his own Hall-of-Fame career playing mostly as a Point Guard, retiring with the all-time NBA career record average of 11.2 assists per game. Even John Stockton couldn't average that much. But he ALSO proved himself capable on the highest stage at holding the Center position and even excelling there. I do not know if Magic has ever officially played the other 3 positions of Shooting Guard, Small Forward, and Power Forward - when he was sharing PG duties with Nixon in the years Nixon was with the Lakers, they both obviously shared the guard duties of the 2nd Guard when both were on the floor at the same time - but if you're able to produce spectacularly at BOTH the #1 and #5 positions, common sense tells you that you're also able to produce well at the #'s 2, 3, and 4 positions as well......
That 1982-83 Celtics team is one of the all-time enigmas. On paper, they looked as strong as ever (I believe Sports Illustrated predicted that they could possibly win 70 games), particularly with the additions of Quinn Buckner and Scott Wedman. Yes, Tiny Archibald was nearing the end, but the majority of the roster was still in its prime. I don't recall them suffering any significant injuries that season, either. Yet, they were maddeningly inconsistent, finishing with a somewhat mediocre 56-26 record, nine games behind Philadelphia in the Atlantic Division. They struggled to beat Atlanta in the "dreaded" mini-series, then were wiped out by the Bucks, 4-0, in the conference semifinals. Something was just missing. Maybe they had started to tune out Bill Fitch (that was to be his last year in Boston), or perhaps there was a bit of a lingering hangover from the previous season's crushing disappointment in the conference finals against the Sixers. It's also possible that they had too many guys who needed steady playing time and there simply weren't enough minutes to go around. That can be almost as deadly as having too few capable players. Whatever the reason, significant changes were clearly needed before the next season. They replaced the uber-intense Fitch with the more laid-back KC Jones as head coach, then added Dennis Johnson in a trade with Phoenix.
Not complicated. Johnson for Archibald. Archibald always held that team (Bird) back. He held the ball too long, had to have the ball every possession, ignored Bird. The fact that that team beat Philly in 81 was just complete luck--and Philly was a horrible outside shooting team. Fitch? He sat Bird out for 5 minute stretches in the 4th Quarters. Bird wanted them gone, and he finally got it.
@roxydejaneiro5640 Bird didn't oust Fitch. Bird had Walton and Fitch to welcome him into the HOF. Dan Shaunessy goes into the situation in his book _Wish It Lasted Forever_ A bummer that it cost them a finals. It's a great book, by the way. Audiobook is read by the author.
You can wonder, but I'm pretty confident the Warriors couldn't compete in the 80's because the 80's was the Era of The Big Man. Against either Lakers, Celtics, or the Pistons, the Warriors would never get an offensive rebound, and would even struggle getting defensive rebounds against those teams!
Agreed. Great player, HORRIBLE announcer. Just like George Foreman was a great fighter and laughably bad announcer. I absolutely despised Sugar Ray Leonard but he was an intelligent announcer. But yeah, Bill Russell being a commentator was about as lame as when the had Rick Barry doing play by play on TBS in the 80's.
