Where would the NBA be without Larry Bird and Magic Johnson? Their very first meeting, however, wasn’t a pro ball encounter but a 1979 NCAA Championship Game. Magic Johnson and Michigan State would come out on top over Larry Bird's Indiana State, kicking off a rivalry that would last another 13 years and transform the pros. Bird and Magic were later drafted by iconic NBA franchises that had fallen on hard times — Bird by the Boston Celtics and Johnson by the Los Angeles Lakers. They faced off against each other in three epic NBA Finals in the ‘80s that set the sports world on fire and supercharged the NBA’s reach and popularity. As LZ and Will discuss, it’s hard to overstate how much impact they had on the league — and how much money they made for so many people associated with the game.
