I Beg to Differ, The Magic/Bird rivalry was great for the game no question, but it was a product built from their college rivalry and really didn't increase the image internationally. Jordan did, he really made the game a true international success. Through endorsements no question, but being the most well known member of the dream team at the '92 olympics. Jordans' games of the 90's were the first true exposure to NBA basketball and the reason I can see every single game of a Domestic league from the other side of the world live from my computer and TV. The NBA owes plenty to having a player like Jordan for making their product an international success story. I think most international fans will agree with me on this.
I don't know where to begin to say how historically inaccurate and just plain wrong this statement is. In 1980, when Magic and Larry first hit the NBA and their 1979 rivalry from the NCAA Championship hit the NBA, the NBA was maybe the 4th most popular sport on television. Understand this, at the same time the NHL was still a very popular sport and was getting nationally televised games.
Now, remember, this is before ESPN, before 500 different channels, before the internet or fantasy sports or the cell phone. Following the Celtics or any other NBA team on a daily basis meant going to games or listening to Johnny Most on the radio or reading the newspaper the next day. There was no station televising every single Celtics game. That didn't exist.
But what did exist was the NBA on CBS on Sunday afternoons. And their ability to televise the emerging rivalry of two young and completely different players and the tremendous growth of talent and athleticism throughout the league, got bigger and bigger and bigger ratings every week and then year. Eventually CBS gave the NBA a huge contract to televise their games.
Simultaneously, the technology of cable television took off worldwide and one of the programs that would be shown in repeat versions across the world was the NBA on CBS and young players across the world suddenly became huge Larry and Magic fans and Celtics and Lakers fans. The popularity of the NBA soared in the US and worldwide kids stopped playing soccer and started playing basketball.
Ask the greatest of the greatest foreign players why they decided to play basketball instead of soccer or who inspired them and the answer is always Bird and Magic or Celtics and lakers. Olajuwan, Motumbo, Schremp, Smits, Sabonis, Stojakovic, Petrovic, Nowitski, Kokoc, Nash, Divac, Ilgauskas, Turkoglu, Radja, Diaw, and Muresan all will say that their influences were from the Bird/Magic era.
Bird and Magic sparked interest in the game of basketball worldwide like no other. The quality of basketball play overseas was sparked by these players. Before their exposure to a generation of foreign stars at an early age, the NBA was just an American phenomenon, much like the NFL of the 90's. Without Bird and Magic and cable television and the NBA on CBS introducing a generation of foreign children to basketball, Michael Jordan and Nike would have had no one to sell to but the American public.
The Dream Team idea was more about Team USA losing international basketball events because we only sent college players. Before, that was okay because the foreign competition was pathetic and our amateur college players could kill other countries. But because of Bird and Magic's influences, the foreign game got better because the best athletes abroad gave up on soccer and started playing basketball. That generation started making the foreign national squads in the mid to late 80's and they started beating the Americans.
Team USA couldn't put up with that anymore. Foreign countries sent their professionals to international sporting competitions so the USA decided that it was time we stopped losing these national competitions and take back our sport, basketball. That MJ was part of the team was huge, as he was then the league's biggest star.
But the foreign ticket buying audience that watched the Dream Team was there for their childhood heroes, Larry and Magic. Larry at the time had a bad back and the concept of the Dream Team almost feel through because Larry almost had to pull out. If he did, word was Magic would pull out too and the marketing and sale of this Team was going to fall apart. Overseas, the DRAW was Larry and Magic. That's who were the big draws.
So you see, without Larry and magic, MJ doesn't have a worldwide marketplace to sell Nike products to. He doesn't have the influx of foreign talent that helped to grow the NBA. He wouldn't have even had the Dream Team as the entire project was centered around the aging superstars that were giant icons overseas.
That is the history of what happened and it needs to be understood for young people to understand just what really happened and who was responsible for what.
Michael Jordan was, without a doubt, one of the greatest basketball players that ever lived. Real old timers will say he was Oscar Robertson in a watered down league and if the Big O had played in an expansion league with 26 teams he would have won 5 MVPs and 6 titles as well. He might be, might be, the best ever but that is extremely debatable.
What he was was the best all-time single marketed NBA basketball player ever. With the expansion of worldwide markets and with Larry and Magic opening those markets, he brought a ton of cash into the game and into the pockets of other players. But his legacy is no more or less important than those that came before him.
He deserves his number retired in Chicago. But he is not a figure like Jackie Robinson who transformed an entire society and succeeded and excelled where no others had ever tread. He did not change the way an entire race was perceived or opened up opportunities for millions.
Michael showed the very select few who followed him who are able to play NBA basketball how to make gobs and gobs of cash. That's his great, non playing accomplishment to the game. He made it richer. But without the accomplishments of those that came previously, he might not ever have had that happen.
Younger fans need to understand that Michael is one of the best ever but he deserves no more or less accolades than any other NBA player that was also one of the best ever. Like Cousy, Russell, West, Chamberlain, Robinson, Jabbar, Walton, Bird, Johnson or Erving.
Topic: Apparently Lebron James Thinks Basketball Started in 1984 (Merged) (Read 23141 times)