[don'tbedenied]

I dunno man, Magic did some amazing stuff--like the time he played center when Jabbar was hurt and won the NBA championship. A point guard playing center in an NBA championship series?
Also Bird had great talent with him at Boston. McHale is a hall of famer as is Dennis Johnson I believe. Ainge wasn't bad either.
Its good enough for me that they both were great--and Spike Lee can go to hell.

[cpdiii]

I trust Magic Johnson's opinion of Larry Bird as I do Larry Bird's opinion of Magic Johnson. They considered each other their greatest foe on court. Off the court they were great friends.

[Ol' Sparky]

It's not like the Lakers didn't have Hall of Famers and all-stars surrounding Magic -- Jabbar, James Worthy and, even, Byron Scott was a very good player.

The real measure of Bird's greatest is taking a sorry university like Indiana State, a insignificant school in Indiana, and leading them to the NCAA championship.

[r9etb]

A point guard playing center in an NBA championship series?

A 6'9" point guard -- which is pretty incredible in its own right, when you get right down to it. Magic Johnson was/is an incredidibly gifted athlete.

Physically, Larry Bird was a very good athlete, but his real gift was that he had an uncanny eye for what was going on in the game. He knew his team mates, he could see how the play was shaping up, he knew how to be at the right spot at the right time, and (most important of all) he knew whether to be the shooter or the passer.

My favorite Larry Bird highlight reel included a string of him making about 20 blind or otherwise incredible passes....

[drew]

That game was unbelievable, Magic was a rookie for chrissakes! I don't know that that could be duplicated in today's game.