Follow young Earvin from the driveway where his father taught him the game, to high school, and then to Michigan State, where his Spartan team famously beat Larry Bird’s Indiana State team in the 1979 NCAA championship game. The action quickly moves to the NBA and Johnson’s storied career with the Lakers – playing with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy – vanquishing first Julius Erving and the 76ers, then Bird and the Celtics, on the way to five championships and the birth of a great dynasty. (This is Part 3 of
Follow young Earvin from the driveway where his father taught him the game, to high school, and then to Michigan State, where his Spartan team famously beat Larry Bird’s Indiana State team in the 1979 NCAA championship game. The action quickly moves to the NBA and Johnson’s storied career with the Lakers – playing with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy – vanquishing first Julius Erving and the 76ers, then Bird and the Celtics, on the way to five championships and the birth of a great dynasty. (This is Part 2 of
A Jordan analysis by a couple of NBA greats and Kenny Smith. Is Jordan the greatest of all time? As someone who saw him play, not even at his prime, because I’m only 27, I have to say above and beyond Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time. Jordan was just a phenomenon. I love Kobe Bryant, but recently I’ve read the comments of a bunch of 14 year olds who think that Kobe Bryant is better. That’s just really because Kobe is their favorite player, and they never saw how Jordan just dominated day in and day out. And as great as the Jordan highlights are here on youtube, they don’t do justice to how Jordan just dominated every game with his will to win. Something that I cannot say about Kobe. From my knowledge of basketball, the list of players I would pick to take the final shot of a game would be- 1. Michael Jordan 2. Larry Bird – I’ve only seen him in sports classics, but you can just see it in his face, absolute will to win. 3.????? I guess that’s the end of my list, in my 18 years of watching basketball, I really don’t see anyone else in that level, of just having that pure will to win. I’m sure there are others that played before my time and I don’t want to disrespect them just because I never saw them play. The will to win is not something that can be learned, it’s something that a strong soul possess. It’s something that shows even early in a players career because that player was born with that will. You can copy all of Jordan’s move, but you can’t copy the will …
Dug up from the archives! Highlights of the 2 games between the Magic Johnson All Stars vs The New Zealand All Stars. Both games were won comfortably by Magic’s Team. Probably the first and last time that NBA players of this calibre will play here. I actually won the Sunday News competition for free tickets, however had to turn them down as I was starting university.. I know.. priorities huh! I did however win an autographed basketball by Magic which was second prize so stoked about that. Game 1 was screened live by TV3 and I have this game in full. I may upload parts of this game if I have time.
Michigan State, coached by Jud Heathcote, won the national title with a 75-64 victory in the final game over Indiana State, coached by Bill Hodges. Magic Johnson of Michigan State was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. The final game marked the beginning of the rivalry between future Hall of Famers Johnson and Larry Bird. To this day, it remains the highest-rated game in the history of televised college basketball. Both Magic and Bird would enter the NBA in the fall of 1979, and the rivalry between them and their teams (respectively, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics) was a major factor in the league’s renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s. The game also led to the “modern era” of college basketball, as it introduced a nationwide audience to a sport that was once relegated to second-class status in the sports world. This was the first tournament in which all teams were seeded by the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. The top six seeds in each regional received byes to the second round, while seeds 7-10 played in the first round.
