Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals

For all my youth, Magic was the one, with even ever seeing the man play, but after seeing this Documentary, ewrything changed, and Larry Bird became my favorit Sports Star. This is the one Documentary, and the one Sports Rivalry that Towers above any one in Sports History. Its a Must watch.

For basketball fans this is amazing. Spectacular simple and easy to understand. Only thing lacking is that it is maybe not perfect for people like me who never watched a single game. You get the basics and understand their life story and how important they were to the game. Yet the doc never tries to hype them up or explain smaller things like tactics or NBA history. Rather we just follow their careers. Some pundits here claim that Magic and Bird saved NBA which is what I have heard too. Yet it is never explained. We just see them compete and then talk about it in 2010. No monetary deals are mentioned, no team history, no win streaks explained, no team profit margins revealed. It's just 2 great athletes. Which is a shame because if they did save NBA then surely that part is essential to their stories. Instead it looks like any doc about any good athlete. They played well, got sick, stopped. What did they influence?

Also, while Magic is presented as an amazing player Bird is kinda at times presented as just this White guy who is good at basketball who was hyped up for being White. They for example only mention he was good at shooting by having a teammate explain how he saw it in training. But Bird is still one of the best 3 point shooters of all time and clearly did this stuff in games. From the doc it was not clear what he did or what his playing style was. With Magic they go into greater details. Also, it did seem like Magic was a much bigger star overall which at times they didn't explain so it seemed like he was a way better player. Bird didn't like to give interviews or meet new people so Magic was a bigger showman overall and maybe Bird alone would not have saved NBA as he would just be a boring good player. The fight with Magic made him an essence of NBA. A showman by just playing.

Honestly if you know what they did to NBA already and how much profit they produced and how they popularized the game then this is ideal for you. You will not see how famous they were or are just that they were great players with many fans. Maybe having modern players and coaches talk about them too would have made this clear. Like modern Celtics and LA Lakers players and fans. That would illustrate it all to people who don't follow the teams. It would make it clear that they changed the game. Instead you just have to know this before watching it.

As a basketball fan and knowing that HBO does an excellent job with documentaries, I had high expectations for this, and it certainly didn't disappoint.

Born in 1981, I never fully appreciated the rivalry as it was happening, but this certainly put it in perspective. It covers every intricacy of both the rivalry and the two men as individuals. After viewing it I'm not sure that there is any story in the history of sports that's as unique and special as Bird and Magic.

It started in 1979 with the NCAA championship and continued on to the NBA for several years.

On one hand you have Bird, the introverted type-A personality from Indiana; on the other you have Magic, the happy-go-lucky extrovert. The two men couldn't be more different personality-wise. So naturally in the early stages of the rivalry they had every reason to dislike each other. Yet as things progressed and as they found out more about each other, the relationship softened. For all their differences, they were eerily similar on the court and because of that there was a deep-rooted respect. Things really started to change when they got together to shoot a commercial for Converse at Bird's home in Indiana. And when Magic first announced he had HIV, Bird was one of the first people to reach out to him. It's obvious how much that meant to Magic.

I believe that every professional athlete can learn so much from both of these guys. The respect they have for the game and for each other represents the greatness of sports. It's really what it's all about and this documentary captures it like nothing else I've ever seen. Brilliantly done.

I also found it amazing how much pain Bird was in during the latter stages of his career. Yet he kept toughing it out game after game, season after season. You'd be hard pressed to find any one who'd do that in today's game.

If you are fan of these two great basketball players and want to know more about them and their lifes this is a really good one to get that. You will end understanding how great was that era with these two legends and how amazing they were.

If you grew up watching basketball in the 80's then you knew all about the Magic v. Bird rivalry. My brother is a Lakers fan to this day because of Magic and the Showtime Lakers, and I'm sure there are many Celtics fans out there because of Bird.

This documentary chronicles their upbringing and their rivalry that began in college. There are interviews from pros, fans, and analysts about the two. Their rivalry may have been exaggerated for the sake of the NBA, but it wasn't a myth, and the world benefited as a result.