"Earvin and I came in the league in 1980 and the league wasn't really healthy" - Larry Bird on why he and Magic Johnson will always be in a different category

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"Earvin and I came in the league in 1980 and the league wasn't really healthy" - Larry Bird on why he and Magic Johnson will always be in a different category originally appeared on Basketball Network.
The icons of the NBA are many, but only a handful are spoken of with a certain finality as if their place in the game's mythology is no longer up for discussion.
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Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan make up that trinity.
Their careers altered the course of basketball. They redefined what greatness looked like in eras when the league was still building its identity. For Bird, it was never just about the numbers but the timing, rivalry and evolution.
Bird, Magic and MJ changed the game
The 1980s were built brick by brick in packed arenas and on tired knees. Bird remembers it well and in a recent reflection, he gave voice to the reality of what he and Johnson did for the NBA.
"Earvin and I came in the league in 1980 and the league wasn't really healthy and they had their problems," Bird said. "But I think by us playing team basketball and one being on the East Coast and one being on the West Coast, we sort of help grow the game with a lot of great players also."
Bird's entrance into the league wasn't flashy by design, but it arrived at just the right time. The NBA in 1979 was plagued with poor attendance, low TV ratings and image problems stemming from locker room rumors and off-court distractions.
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When he joined the Boston Celtics and Johnson landed with the Los Angeles Lakers, it was two rookies entering the fray, and it was the beginning of a new gravitational pull in the league. Suddenly, the Finals were no longer just games; they were events. And year after year, Boston and L.A. carried the weight of that spectacle on their shoulders.
Bird and Johnson's rivalry — most famously immortalized in three NBA Finals matchups between 1984 and 1987 — was about how they played. Bird's precise, methodical dominance in Boston contrasted with Johnson's fast-breaking, flair-filled showtime in L.A.
Together, they ushered in an era where the NBA was watched and followed religiously. Between them, they won eight NBA titles in the 1980s and three MVP awards each. In 1984, their head-to-head battle drew a national TV audience of over 40 million, proving that basketball had arrived.
Related: "Yeah, they'll probably have to do something" - Bird says the NBA will be forced to move the 3-point line back if high volume continues
Jordan effect
For all the cultural and competitive gravity Bird and Johnson provided, there's an unmistakable shift that arrived when Jordan took hold of the league in the late '80s. The '90s belonged to Jordan, and Bird and his longtime rival in the West had to step back.
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"Then when Michael came in and he took over really, '89, '90, He ruled the game," Bird said. "You got to remember, it wasn't just Earvin and I, we had Karl Malone, John Stockton, we had Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, you can go that line, there were so many of them. But I would say we sort of started all that."
Jordan's rise wasn't accidental. By the time he captured his first MVP in 1988 and then his first championship in 1991, the torch had been passed. The Chicago icon brought with him a scoring arsenal that seemed to defy logic. Yet Bird doesn't position his own generation as stepping aside for Jordan's era — rather, he sees it as laying the foundation.
The stars of the 1990s all played in the shadow of what Bird and Johnson began. And Jordan, as much as he became the face of basketball worldwide, also owed part of that platform to the groundwork built before his rise.
Between 1980 and 1998, Bird, Johnson and Jordan combined for 11 championships and 10 MVP awards and countless NBA All-Star appearances. Their teams were not merely dominant, they shaped narratives. The Bulls' two three-peats, the Celtics-Lakers trilogy and the Olympic Dream Team of 1992 were cornerstones.
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For all the greatness that followed, from Kobe Bryant's timeless fire to LeBron James' versatile dominance, the era that Bird reflects on remains a separate chapter. Not for lack of talent elsewhere but because history needed those particular men at those particular moments.
Related: "If I didn't have that, other than a couple of championships, what is it?" - Larry Bird admits he wouldn't have enjoyed his career if there was no Magic Johnson to compete against
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 13, 2025, where it first appeared.