I have always been a huge fan of the movie “Remember the Titans”. In the movie, the football team of a small town is divided as they try to integrate a new player as they try to win a state championship. In the movie, the underdogs showed how much potential they had as they showed they could be a team despite being small in numbers. The movie shows that what you believe is how you behave. So, what is the lesson of the movie? While you always have a chance, if you’re going to run, you have to believe you can win.
Twenty minutes from now I will have begun a two hour jog around my neighborhood. It will be a warm, sunny day, and a jog is a good way to get some fresh air and a little exercise. For some it is a way to get the blood pumping and the muscles working, for others it is a way to clear the mind and relax. But whatever your thoughts, I hope you will join me out there.
When I was a kid, I used to do a lot of running. For a whole afternoon, I would run around the neighborhood, from one end to the other. I would run from my house to my friends’ houses, as well as to school and across town.
While every professional athlete is competitive, rivalries add a layer of intrigue to the game. Even if a single game doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, no one likes to lose to a team they despise. Just look at Magic Johnson is a well-known basketball player. and Larry Bird.
Bird and Johnson had their share of spectacular battles throughout the course of their illustrious careers. Larry Legend, predictably, sent at least one piece of stinging trash talk Magic’s way.
Larry Bird and Magic Johnson competed in both the NCAA and the NBA.
Johnson and Bird buried the hatchet and became friends over time. However, there was a period when the two men were bitter enemies.
When Magic and Michigan State faced Bird’s Indiana State team in the 1979 NCAA championship game, the two superstars first met in college. The Spartans were victorious, giving Johnson a head start in the contest. According to NCAA.com, Bird was devastated by the loss and claimed it would be “difficult” for him to recover.
But Magic and Larry Legend didn’t stop there. Despite the fact that they wound up on opposite sides of the nation, with the Lakers and Celtics, respectively, the stars were still at odds. Bird and Johnson seemed to be often placed against one other on basketball’s greatest stage as their teams battled for titles.
However, to be fair to both guys, they did have their fair share of success. Eight NBA championships, six NBA MVP awards, and two of the finest careers in NBA history were won by the two superstars.
Magic Johnson was the target of some scathing barbs from a well-known adversary.
Larry Bird (R) and Magic Johnson (L) of the NBA in 2012. | Walter McBride/Corbis via Getty Image
Familiarity breeds disdain, as the cliché goes. Even though Bird and Johnson didn’t get to the point of loathing one other, they did exchange some words.
Magic once had the unpleasant job of defending Bird during a head-to-head match-up, as he recounted at an AOL event. As you would imagine, this meant a long evening of labor ahead of him.
According to a Youtube video of Johnson’s comments, “Now, I’ve got to close Larry Bird out.” “So, as I’m rushing out the door to see Larry Bird, he’s yelling at me. ‘I have no idea why you’re rushing out here.’ Who says anything like that in the midst of a game? ‘I’m going to wait until you take one step away from me, then I’m going to fire it right in your face,’ he added. This is a true story.”
Larry Legend, to his credit, did just that. However, the Celtics star’s bucket wasn’t enough for him.
So I took a step back. He fires it. It’s all about the internet. Three-pointer. Good. ‘You did all that running for nothing,’ he muttered as he turned to face me.
Magic Johnson
For Larry Bird, trash language was nothing out of the norm.
While Magic Johnson’s incident left an indelible impression on him, it wasn’t completely unusual. Larry Bird wasn’t only a great scorer; he also had some of the greatest trash talk in the league.
One of Bird’s trademark techniques was telling opponents how he was going to score and then executing precisely that, as occurred to Magic. Before hitting the game-winning three, he even went so far as to inform the whole Phoenix Suns bench that he was weary of playing against them. But it wasn’t the only weapon he had at his disposal.
Larry Legend was likewise capable of savagely savagely savagely savagely savagely brutally He mocked a young Dennis Rodman, telling Pistons head coach Chuck Daly that no one was guarding him, informed Dominique Wilkins that he didn’t deserve in the league, and threatened his own teammates ahead of practice.
Michael Jordan claimed Bird was one of the greatest trash talkers he’d ever encountered when speaking at a basketball camp. Magic Johnson, it seems, would concur with that judgment.
Larry Bird’s $24 million career was ruined when he built a driveway for his mother: ‘I was wondering whether I was going to be in a wheelchair.’
Related Tag
- give me the ball and get out of the way
