Magic Johnson vs Larry Bird. Year-by-Year.

[plowking]

The rest of the league doesn't give a shit about ranking players homie. That honor is reserved for armchair basketball analysts. I think that 99.9% of the players and teams in the league do think winning the championship is the be all and end all.

And yet while Kobe was dominating in 05-06 and 06-07, not winning championships, NBA players were still ranking him the best in the league. Funny that.

[LeBird]

Doesn't that just mean that Magic had the better team?

It does, clearly. Bird took a few guys off a pick up truck to the NCAA finals, unbeaten IIRC.

[fpliii]

son of a bitch, we all knew these vs threads would eventually give birth to Magic v Bird

I don't have time to do this now (not that anybody cares), but I'm looking forward to reading responses tomorrow before putting my list together

[Kobe 4 The Win]

Having the better team doesn't win you the FMVP. Yes, you and your team have to get there. Once you do get there it's the people that perform that are given the FMVP. FMVP is not a team award. Magic performed and he was declared the MVP.

He was also voted the 1979 NCAA Tournament's "Most Outstanding Player" for those of you scoring at home.

[LeBird]

Having the better team doesn't win you the FMVP. Yes, you and your team have to get there. Once you do get there it's the people that perform that are given the FMVP. FMVP is not a team award. Magic performed and he was declared the MVP.

He was also voted the 1979 NCAA Tournament's "Most Outstanding Player" for those of you scoring at home.

You need a great team to get to the finals to become the finals MVP. A relatively small sample vs a whole season? You can't be serious. This is akin to arguing that Pierce was actually the best player in the year he won his finals MVP.

Magic got the final 4 award because his team won. His team was far better than Larry's. Larry owned the NCAA as a whole. It isn't close. Magic was great, but Larry was a phenom.

[Kobe 4 The Win]

You need a great team to get to the finals to become the finals MVP. A relatively small sample vs a whole season? You can't be serious. This is akin to arguing that Pierce was actually the best player in the year he won his finals MVP.

Magic got the final 4 award because his team won. His team was far better than Larry's. Larry owned the NCAA as a whole. It isn't close. Magic was great, but Larry was a phenom.

Bird played like shit in the final and he admits this. So he owned the NCAA as a whole. Except Magic.

[nycelt84]

1988- Bird. If Jordan didn't have such a strong season Larry would have again been MVP otherwise I agree with the OP.

[LeBird]

Bird played like shit in the final and he admits this. So he owned the NCAA as a whole. Except Magic.

Players have off days and Bird is no different. It's strange since Bird is up there with the most clutch players of all time - in any sport IMO - but that was a game where he wasn't at his best.

Regardless, the comparison is flawed. Bird had to deal with Magic's much superior team and Magic had to deal with a team that almost entirely depended on Bird. Just look at their college basketball numbers: it. is. not. even. close.

I have to reiterate - since I seem to be a bigger Bird fan, especially here - that I think Magic was, well, simply Magical. He is one of the GOAT. But in the beginning of his career Bird was simply just that much better and it showed.

As an aside, I am always amazed why basketball fans put so much credence in certain opinions with such small samples to back it up.

[Psileas]

Players have off days and Bird is no different. It's strange since Bird is up there with the most clutch players of all time - in any sport IMO - but that was a game where he wasn't at his best.

Regardless, the comparison is flawed. Bird had to deal with Magic's much superior team and Magic had to deal with a team that almost entirely depended on Bird. Just look at their college basketball numbers: it. is. not. even. close.

I have to reiterate - since I seem to be a bigger Bird fan, especially here - that I think Magic was, well, simply Magical. He is one of the GOAT. But in the beginning of his career Bird was simply just that much better and it showed.

As an aside, I am always amazed why basketball fans put so much credence in certain opinions with such small samples to back it up.

A team that "almost entirely depended on Bird" would not have as a Finals' MVP (1981) another player but Bird. OK, you may argue that the voting was flawed, but a team that depended on Bird that much would not easily win Finals' games when Bird would only score 8 and 12 points respectively, regardless of the rest of his game, unless maybe he played some Bill Russell level defense (than again, we all know Russell himself had plenty of help).
Also, a team that dependent on Bird would not include multiple other All-Stars (not even multiple All-Stars including Bird, but multiple All-Stars except Bird), including the 1981 ASG MVP, it would not have a guy producing close to 19/10/3 blocks/54.5% FG in just 28.0 mpg (for PER lovers, that's 25.2, compared to Bird's 19.9), it would not use Kevin McHale as a 6th man, it would not have 8 of its players play for 80-82 games, etc.
Enough with this "Celtics were not deep" myth.

[Psileas]

Something more: The OP's comparison is flawed, not only because it doesn't indicate who had the better season (for example, Magic had easily the better 1982 season), but also because it doesn't obviously take into account the 3+ years of difference between Magic and Bird and because it doesn't mention the year by year margin between the 2 players. Therefore, declaring Bird the "winner" because the OP gives him a 7-5 lead isn't accurate to say the least.

[Sarcastic]

So we'll bring up Bird's back, but we won't bring up Magic's knee in 1981? Seems fair.

[TheBigVeto]

So we'll bring up Bird's back, but we won't bring up Magic's knee in 1981? Seems fair.

MAgic made that up, just like he made up his HIV excuse because he knew Jordan was going to slap him silly every year since 1991.

[LeBird]

@Psileas

You've gone on a rant without realizing I am talking about their NCAA sides. As far as Celtics v Lakers go; they were both talent filled teams although Lakers were probably better for most of the time both played.

In Bird's first year there is no debate that he had a much weaker side.

[Odinn]

1980 - Bird
1981 - Bird
1982 - Bird
1983 - Bird
1984 - Bird
1985 - Bird
1986 - Bird
1987 - Tie ***
1988 - Magic or Tie
1989 - Magic
1990 - Magic
1991 - Magic

Remember, the Celtics in 1987 NBA Finals had horrible bench.

[Ne 1]

Kareem was the REAL FMVP that year.

After originally voting 4-3 for Kareem Abdul Jabbar as NBA Finals MVP, one writer was apparently persuaded by CBS to change his vote to Magic Johnson. The vote was 4-3 in Magic's favor, although it was announced on TV that the vote was unanimous. It was not. And actually, Kareem WAS the true MVP of that Finals series.

Magic did lead the Lakers to victory in the closeout game 6, but Kareem was easily more valuable in the other 3 games the Lakers won.

Not to the people that had votes that counted. The REAL FMVP is the guy who has the trophy in his case. Anybody else is a woulda been, coulda been, shoulda been MVP and that dont count for much in the real world.

True. However Kareem was the biggest reason why the Lakers won in 1980. It was kind of an awkward situation with him missing the last game and Magic having a monster closeout game, but he was still more important than Magic overall in the series.