Comments about ‘The game that saved basketball’

I like basketball. It is good!

I do not dispute the impact the game had on you and it was early in your life so it had a big impact but I was also at the first Wooden team national victory in 1964 in Kansas City and watching what that team did and how they played had as big an impact on the game as the Bird/Magic game. I had seen Bird play three times before and it was great to see how through practice he made it look so easy.

Great article Rock! I was there. It was a classic as few others. Sure, in the long history of great players and pivotal games, it cannot stand alone, but you are correct. There are some watershed moments in sports and in life that we do not appreciate except in the clarifying glass of the rear view mirror, This was surely one of those. Later, as I watched Magic and Bird put their indelible stamp on the game we love, I have always remembered the seminal moment when they entered the stage and made the light shine brighter.
Jordan joined the show later and added a new element, but your assesment is right on.

...be remembered fondly by some. IMVHO this game ushered in a class of sophmores to the NBA that saved the game for the decade of the 80's. From the 90's on the game has been dead and shows no signs of revival at either the collegiate or NBA levels. The B in NCAAMB and NBA stands for boring.

is lacking...case in pt. the europeans have more fundamentals down way before the americans...and it will die!!

I agree with the game that the fundamentals or lack therof is hurting this game. That is why it is so important that the players start when they are young and have the proper perspective of the game from when they are young. It's not all about scoring, or about 1 or 2 individuals. It's about the TEAM as easy as it sounds. Parents (not all) are doing a disservice to their children putting the emphasis on scoring the most. It needs to be balanced. The best players are always the most balanced players. (example)- Tyler Hawes- H.S. Magic and Larry- Stockton even Malone to some degree. And Jordan could do everything!
BASKETBALL IS NOT DEAD, and is getting stronger, but it could go the wrong way if we don't continue to develop players into Great young men and Very good players.

die because of lack of fundimentals.

Greed and self-serving players, coaches and agents may bring it down, if it goes down. The public can afford only so much cost. Eventually, the NBA will find itself scalping its own tickets at discount prices to get half a crowd to each game.

I had the unbelieveable experience to be there as a 16 year old and found it magical. I loved every minute of those games that weekend. The crazy fans with their faces painted and decked out from head to toe in their school attire made the whole atmosphere awesome. I'd never seen anything like it. I became a huge fan of Bird right then and there. I was never a big fan of Magic's game but his personality certainly helped the game of basketball and he was a winner. Too bad a final 4 will never be held again in a place like the "Special Events Center", as it was called then. The game was so close and personal. It is an event I'll never forget!

I read your nice article to get a little flavor of the big game. I was pleasantly surprised to see the kind referrences to Coach Meyer. As a boy I attended Coach's summer camp in northern Wisconsin. He and his wife and their three sons always made all the campers feel as if a part of their immediate family. When my own son was seven I picked up the phone and called coach. We got caught up on the 20 years since I was a camper and I asked him what the age limit for camp was (it was 8). Coach said don't worry, his grandson would be there with him and he was also seven, and he invited my son to stay in his cabin and room with his grandson. What a guy he was. Thanks for remembering him.

I believe these two guys saved the business...but the "game" has deteriorated rapidly because of the economic changes they ushered in!

nice job

It is down memory-lane again in basketball goodtime rock & roll. Here in with these two unselfish players was along with Jordan, was the real "DREAM TEAM" anything(team)later and now are a try to be like mike thing.

M C HAMMER TIME "YOU CAN'T TOUCH THAT!

Being fortunate enough to have seen in person a super bowl, two world series games, and an NBA semi final I can attest that nothing comes close to a final four weekend.

My dad and I were at the Bird-Johnson coming out party and it was one for the ages. Dad and I knew we were witnessing something very special.

Thanks Rock for bringing up some wonderful memories of that night at the SEC.

What's with this "All Final Four" historical team?

Maybe Lew Alcindor and Chamberlain were worthy.
Magic and Bird may have "saved" the game -- making them worthy of the accolade. But they were only in one Final 4.
But Jordan? He was only in a Final 4 as a frosh. And he wasn't even MOP.
What about Walton? Ewing (3 Fours in 3 years). Or Laettner (4 Fours in 4 years?)

to SLC? why not? Have it @ the DC and rock it out?

If Bird and Johnson had any impact on the game, they cemented the NBA strategy of marketing the game as individual players, instead of teams and teamwork.

And that, Rock, is why the NBA today is made up of prima donna crybabies and is virtually unwatchable.

You obviously don't know what you are talking about. Magic was the greatest player of all time...not Jordan. Magic could and did play every position on the team. I still remember him stepping in and playing CENTER when Kareem went down in game friggin 7 of the NBA finals...HIS ROOKIE YEAR. Are you kidding me? They won, he got playoff MVP and the rest, my young uneducated friend, is history.

Both Bird and Magic were capable of scoring 50 points every night, but instead, they were regularly triple double threats, choosing to play team ball. Bird was the first player to come close to getting a quadruple double...missing it by 1 steal.

Take my advise and use your pie hole for shoving in pie and nothing else.

Jordan was nowhere near the college player that Magic and Bird were. Ewing/Laettner - there are at least a dozen players on that level. Walton was special, but he (and Alcindor) were on such talented teams that they didn't stand out as much. Chamberlain played in an era where basketball was just not very competitive.