After Magic, Bird and MJ, the league had fallen into years of low-scoring thugball.
Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and a Hall of Fame list of others had that.
In the second scene, from later in the play, Bird ribs Magic about his many off-the-court ventures.
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The producers were reportedly this close to casting a couple of six-footers as Bird and Magic and filling out the cast with little people.
FORBES: Magic Johnson's Business Ambitions Come to Broadway in MAGIC/BIRD
It was also the year that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird joined the NBA and it began its staggering ascent over the next three decades.
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That wasn't worth much at first, but thanks to Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and, eventually, Michael Jordan, the NBA exploded in popularity in the 1980s and '90s.
When the NBA began to explode in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s (thanks to Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and, eventually, Michael Jordan), television rights fees escalated in concert.
Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and Isiah Thomas were each reviled by at least a few teammates for their brutal verbal takedowns of lesser players --and almost everyone in their respective locker rooms were lesser players.
That's probably why, in the NBA, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers teams of the '80s, led by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, respectively, rate higher than the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls clubs of the 1990s.
For the March Madness television coverage, the company not only released more ads in the same formula, but created a new set, where NBA greats Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabar and Bill Russell take the role of the kids.
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With no competition from EA Sports yet again this year, things were looking good until the NBA lockout. 2K Sports knew that was coming and focused on NBA legends like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Dr. J for the cover as well as new gameplay modes.
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And that's with the advantage of nostalgia as an added selling tool, thanks to a matchup invoking memories of the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson battles of the 1980s (the three L.A.-Boston finals of the '80s averaged a 30 share, as did the six Michael Jordan-led Bulls series in the '90s).
Eleven Hall of Fame players, including Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, David Robinson, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley, came together to crush international opponents and win Olympic gold in Barcelona, Spain.
Magic Johnson entered the NBA the same year as Bird, and joined a team that had underperformed for years.
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Remember Indiana State's Larry Bird tussling with Michigan State's Magic Johnson in the 1979 championship game (which Magic's team won)?
It's what makes sports fun: You can passionately make a case about the brilliance of Magic, while the guy in the office across from you thinks Bird was the most clutch player who's ever graced the court.
Can you imagine Magic chasing after Team USA's speedy guard Russell Westbrook, or Bird trying to contain Carmelo Anthony?
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