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March 2010

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Jun

12

Lakers Twice Disappointed, Thrice Satisfied

Filed Under On This Day . . ., NBA, Loose Balls

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A little more than five years after engaging the nation as collegiate stars in the 1979 NCAA Championship game, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson found themselves in similar positions 25 years ago today: a do-or-die battle for all the marbles.

Only this time it would be Bird who would be victorious.

After his Indiana State team lost in 1979 to Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans in a game that changed college basketball as we would forever know it, Bird got some revenge on Magic in Game Seven of the 1984 NBA Finals.

In front of a raucous Boston Garden crowd, Bird and the Celtics outlasted Johnson and the Lakers 111-102 to win the organization’s 15th title.

While Boston would win the 1984 NBA Finals, the Bird-Johnson rivalry was only just beginning.

Saving the NBA from extinction in the early and mid-eighties, these two men would meet again in the 1985 Finals, with Johnson’s Lakers clinching the title in six games on the parquet floor of the venerable Boston Garden.

Bird and Johnson would meet again in the 1987 NBA Finals, which would result in another L.A. title in six games.

Still, things are rarely as good as the first time, with the 1984 NBA Finals between the Lakers and Celtics the one series that stood out to most.

Like the current 2009 NBA Finals, the 1984 NBA Finals saw the second and fourth games go to overtime.

While the Lakers have been victorious in both overtime games against the Orlando Magic so far this year, Los Angeles wasn’t as lucky back in 1984.

In fact, some would say that the Lakers, specifically Johnson, blew those two games and the series.

After stealing home-court advantage in Game One of the 1984 Finals with a six-point victory in Boston, the Lakers were on the verge of a 2-0 series lead when a James Worthy pass was stolen by the Celtics’ Gerald Henderson, who made a layup to tie the game.

Johnson then inexplicably dribbled out the clock in regulation during one of the few mental gaffes in his illustrious career, and the Celtics would go on to win in overtime.

In Game Four back at home, the Lakers had another late lead when Johnson threw the ball to Boston big man Robert Parish late in the fourth quarter and then missed two crucial free throws in overtime. Bird and the Celtics would take advantage in overtime as the Celtics’ superstar hit a tough fade away to give Boston the game.

For the Lakers, what could have realistically been a sweep of Boston, or at least a 3-1 series lead, was now a 2-2 tie.

The Celtics would take two of the next three to win the 1984 NBA Finals, and the Lakers would have to go a whole year hearing how they blew it (kind of like how this year’s Lakers team had to hear about how soft they were after getting pounded physically by Boston in the 2008 NBA Finals).

For Johnson, June 12th wasn’t the best of days in terms the NBA Finals, at least when he was playing.

Seven years after losing to the Celtics in Game Seven of the 1984 NBA Finals, Magic would play in his last Finals game, a 108-101 loss to the Chicago Bulls, which won its first title ever thanks to the sweet jump shot of John Paxson.

The Game Five and series loss in the 1991 NBA Finals would represent Johnson passing the torch over to Michael Jordan, who would handle it quite ably by winning five more titles in the next seven years.

Shortly after the 1991 NBA Finals, Johnson would announce he was HIV-positive and retire from the game.

While the 1984 NBA Finals may have been one of heartbreak and the 1991 Finals one of bittersweet sadness for the legendary Johnson, the 2002 NBA Finals was one that surely made the Magic Man beam his million-dollar smile.

On this day 7 years ago, the Lakers defeated the New Jersey Nets 113-107 to sweep the 2002 NBA Finals, arguably the most boring Finals in recent memory.

Once a Laker, always a Laker, Johnson must have felt like a proud father when Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant did something that he never did in Los Angeles, win a third straight championship.