Top 100 NBA Players: #7

Magic Johnson

(Kalb: #7, Simmons: #4, BBR: #6)

There have never been two careers as intertwined and parallel as those of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. The two originally became rivals in 1979, when they met in the NCAA Championship Game, with Magic and the Michigan State Spartans coming out on top. The two left for the NBA immediately afterward and became the most heralded pair of rookies in NBA history.

The two stars happened to be drafted by the two most storied franchises in NBA history, and despite both having grown up in the Midwest, they spent their professional careers on completely opposite sides of the country, but they would have plenty of chances to meet during their time in the NBA. 13 of the 20 teams to play in the NBA Finals and 8 of the 10 teams to win titles in the 1980's were led by either Magic Johnson or Larry Bird.

Another parallel that is easily drawn between the two players is the fact that both saw their careers end prematurely, Bird due to injuries and Magic due to HIV. Each had the potential to become the best player in history, but each was cut down in his prime and forced to settle as one of the best ever.

So what puts Magic ahead of Bird? The first thing to look at is the number of titles, and Magic holds the edge over Bird 5-3, although he was only the best player on 4 of those title teams, which makes it a little closer. Of the three times the two players met in the NBA Finals, the Lakers won twice and the Celtics only once, and Magic also took his team to the Finals much more often, 9 times to Bird's 5.

In the 1980's there was only one season in which the Lakers did not advance at least to the Conference Finals, and that was the season in which Magic Johnson missed more than half of the regular season with a knee injury. The Celtics had two such seasons, one in which Bird missed most of the season, but the other season had no such explanation, with Boston being swept by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round.

Bird's peak years were much better than Magic's, and he was able to play at that level for 5 years before he was cut down by injuries, but Magic was able to reach his peak level earlier in his career and maintained that level of play until his retirement 9 years later. For two seasons Magic was the league's best player, before Bird began his run at the top for 4 years, but Magic was never far behind, ranking as one of the top 10 players in the league in every full season he played.

With all the similarities between the two players, and how evenly they were matched up throughout their careers, the only place where you can definitively say that Magic was better than Bird was in playoff success, which happens to be the most important facet of the game. That is why Johnson is ranked just slightly ahead of Bird among the game's greatest players.