David Stern, Magic, Larry Bird and Toronto's victory

National Post, 10 January 2020

By 1984, when Stern took over the NBA, Magic and Bird had already saved the league. The new model was set — get the superstar, find a supporting player or two, and launch the dynasty.

When David Stern, the former commissioner of the National Basketball Association, died on New Year’s Day, the generous tributes credited him with rescuing the NBA from 1970s decline and expanding the NBA’s footprint around the world. For Canadians who in 2019 enjoyed their best basketball year ever, Stern’s commissionership would be fondly remembered. His push for an international presence led in the 1990s first to the NBA “dream team” at the Barcelona Olympics (1992) and then to two Canadian basketball franchises, in Vancouver and Toronto (1995).

Stern lasted as commissioner for 30 years, 1984 to 2004, an impressive run by any standard. Yet whatever the influence of the 5-foot-9 executive it was the footprints of two 6-foot-9 players that really saved the NBA and created the league in which Kawhi Leonard could win a championship in San Antonio in 2014, Toronto in 2019 and perhaps Los Angeles later this year.

Three days before Stern died, the NBA marked the 40th anniversary of the first time that Magic Johnson (Los Angeles Lakers) and Larry Bird (Boston Celtics) played against each other in the NBA. I love anniversaries, and reach for them more often than most columnists, but even I thought the 40th of Magic-Bird was a little contrived, with the long profiles plowing well-tilled soil.

Then Stern died and attention was refocused on the sorry shape the NBA was in during the 1970s in contrast to the booming league today. Without diminishing Stern’s role, it is more plausible to draw a line from Magic-Bird in 1979 to the delirious Raptors championship run of 2019.

Magic Johnson and Larry Bird first played against each other for the NCAA college basketball championship in March 1979. It remains the most-watched college championship 40 years later. In the dwindling December days of that year, Boston would travel to Los Angeles for their first professional meeting. Forty years ago this January in Boston was the first of a career’s worth of rematches.

The great rivalry was born. When the NBA released its schedule, Magic would immediately circle the two-regular season games with Boston on the 82-game calendar. The rest of schedule became the “other 80” games.

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