Larry Bird and Julius Erving had a professional rivalry that often gets forgotten about. Erving was exiting his prime while Bird was entering his, but there are far more compelling storylines from this era of hoops.
In 1984, Bird’s Celtics and Erving’s 76ers met in an early-season matchup in which both teams entered undefeated. This clash was overshadowed by a fistfight between Erving and Bird that saw both players ejected. They later spoke about this moment.
(29:45) Dr. J: “Larry was complaining to the refs and I was complaining to the refs. The next time down the court, he got in my face.”
Larry Bird: “I was up 38 to 6. That’s how I summarize it. I don’t want to get into the details but I wasn’t happy with the way things were going on.”
Dr. J: “I felt like he was going to hit me. So my hands went up and his hands went up, and the next thing I know, we had each other’s necks.”
Bird was actually up 42 to 6 and not 38. Larry Legend scored 42 points with 7 rebounds in just the first 30 minutes of the game, while Erving was languishing with 6 points. Both players getting ejected ended their fun, as the off-court friends became fierce rivals on the court.
The Greatest Rivalries Of The Previous Generations
Even though basketball is a team sport, it often comes down to individual rivalries between star players of separate teams. Today, we see rivalries like that between James Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo or Luka Doncic and Devin Booker. The ’80s and ’90s had their own iconic battles.
Bird vs. Magic Johnson has to be the single-most iconic rivalry in the history of the sport, saving the league from financial collapse in the early-’80s. The late-’80s saw Michael Jordan’s Bulls and Isiah Thomas’ Pistons become deathly rivals. That ended with Jordan beating them en route to his first championship, finally establishing the NBA as his league that he doesn’t need to share with a rival.
The new era is gonna birth more iconic feuds, but it’ll be hard to top the intensity of the feuds from before the turn of the millennium.
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