Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals (2010)

Directed by

Ezra Edelman

Genre

documentary, drama

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 28m

Rating

7.8 of 10 from 28 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This documentary looks at the rivalry between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. It shows how their competition started in college and continued through their NBA careers. The film argues that their matchup helped save the NBA in the 1980s.

competitivenostalgicfocusedinsightfultenserespectfulfast-paceddramatic

What happens

Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals is a 2010 television documentary film broadcast on HBO. The film chronicles the rivalry between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird that began with the 1979 NCAA Basketball Championship Game and lasted throughout their Hall of Fame careers in the NBA. The film makes an argument that without the massive media attention that was placed on the rivalry that Johnson and Bird had, the NBA might not have made it through the 1980s following the merger with the ABA, among other things. HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg stated that the documentary was partly inspired by the book When the Game Was Ours by Jackie MacMullan. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• Larry Bird: A Basketball Legend (1991)
• The Last Dance (2020)
• Do You Believe in Magic (2008)
• Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies (2017)
• They Call Me Magic (2022)
• Stephen Curry: Underrated (2023)
• Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (2022)
• The Rivalry: Red v. Blue (2013)
• More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.