In Magic we see a young, invincible star struggle with the sting of defeat, not just as a player but as a team leader. We hear him talk with candor about playing through chronic pain and its truly exacting toll. From the heady days of trading championships to the darker days of injury and illness, we come to understand Larry’s obsessive devotion to winning and how his demons drove him on the court. With intimate, fly-on-the-wall detail, When the Game Was Ours transports readers to this electric era of basketball and reveals for the first time the inner workings of two players dead set on besting one another. When it started they were bitter rivals, but along the way they became lifelong friends. Each pushed the other to greatness - together Bird and Johnson collected eight NBA Championships, six MVP awards and helped save the floundering NBA at its most critical time. These were the basketball epics of the 1980s - Celtics vs Lakers, East vs West, physical vs finesse, Old School vs Showtime, even white vs black. And he burned with an inextinguishable desire to win. Young, indomitable, he was a pied piper in purple and gold. Showtime, a magnetic personality with all the right moves. In Celtic green was Larry Bird, the hick from French Lick, with laser-beam focus, relentless determination, and a deadly jump shot, a player who demanded excellence from everyone and whose caustic wit left opponents quaking in their high-tops. Their uncommonly competitive relationship came to symbolize the most compelling rivalry in the NBA. The New York Times bestseller from Hall of Fame basketball legends Larry Bird and Earvin Magic Johnson.įrom the moment these two players took the court on opposing sides, they engaged in a fierce physical and psychological battle.

When the game was ours