Magic or McHale & Parish

[moiso]

What an interesting scenario.

Would Bird and Magic have pushed each other to compete at the level they did if they had been teammates instead of rivals?

They were great in college, they were great as rookies.  I don't think it would be in their personalities to get lazy from being on the same team.  We would have won a lot more than the 3 titles Bird won.

[2short]

What an interesting scenario.

Would Bird and Magic have pushed each other to compete at the level they did if they had been teammates instead of rivals?

they would have pushed each other, wow what an amazing duo


the vision and passing those two had are what separates them, jordan was great but didn't have that
love mchale and parish but couldn't say no to magic & larry together

[wahz]

I think the real question is what Red would have done and I am almost sure he would have just drafted Magic and built the team around Bird and Magic. Its one thing to trade the ability to draft Joe Barry Carroll, quite another to trade away Magic

[DavorCroatiaFan]

I love McHale and Parish, but you just have to go with Magic. And i think that Magic arrival would not be the end of Tiny in Boston. Lakers used in early years Magic with Nixon, so i think Celtics lineup in 1980/81 would look like:
NATE ARCHIBALD
MAGIC JOHNSON
LARRY BIRD
CEDRIC MAXWELL
DAVE COWENS (i believe without Parish in town, he wouldn't retired).
The bench would be:
GERALD HENDERSON
CHRIS FORD
ML CARR
RICKY BROWN (or some other big drafted #13)
RICKY ROBEY.
Our biggest rivals were Sixers back then, and you remember what Magic did to them in 1980 g6 (42+15+7).
I believe we would still win the title in 1981. Win it all in 1982, and later maybe trade Archibald, Brown, Robey with some picks for some bigs (maybe Parish)and we could end up with 5-6 championchips at least in 8 years.
We would still draft Ainge, and Red would make some magic (ala Robey for DJ, Henderson for 2nd pick (Bias)). Every free agent would kill for oportunity to play with Bird and Magic...

[ram]

Red still gets GS to trade Parish for the #13 or he trades Magic to GS for Parish, the #3 pick and Purvis Short and keeps the #13 pick.

With the #13 pick Red takes Jeff Ruland.

[slamtheking]

I love McHale and Parish, but you just have to go with Magic. And i think that Magic arrival would not be the end of Tiny in Boston. Lakers used in early years Magic with Nixon, so i think Celtics lineup in 1980/81 would look like:
NATE ARCHIBALD
MAGIC JOHNSON
LARRY BIRD
CEDRIC MAXWELL
DAVE COWENS (i believe without Parish in town, he wouldn't retired).
The bench would be:
GERALD HENDERSON
CHRIS FORD
ML CARR
RICKY BROWN (or some other big drafted #13)
RICKY ROBEY.
Our biggest rivals were Sixers back then, and you remember what Magic did to them in 1980 g6 (42+15+7).
I believe we would still win the title in 1981. Win it all in 1982, and later maybe trade Archibald, Brown, Robey with some picks for some bigs (maybe Parish)and we could end up with 5-6 championchips at least in 8 years.
We would still draft Ainge, and Red would make some magic (ala Robey for DJ, Henderson for 2nd pick (Bias)). Every free agent would kill for oportunity to play with Bird and Magic...

Cowens didn't retire -- after Bird's rookie year with went to the Bucks to play his last year with Bob Lanier.

I think he keeps Magic and Nate and hopefully either talks GS into Parish for #13 or takes Jeff Ruland or Rick Mahorn with that pick. 

on a side note, looking at the players taken in the first round is deceptive because Ricky Brown doesn't look like a bad pick -- until you look at who was taken in the second round.  Either Ruland or Mahorn would have been a nice pick up at 13 that year.