During my nearly 35 years as a sports television columnist – first for the old Los Angeles Herald Examiner and then the Los Angeles Times – I have attended at least a hundred screenings.
But only once was I at a screening that got a standing ovation.
That took place only a couple of weeks ago at the Mann Bruin Theater in Westwood, Calif. The theater’s listed capacity is 696, and the place was packed.
At the conclusion of HBO’s magnificent “Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals,” every single person there stood and clapped. This documentary, which debuts on HBO Saturday, March 6 (9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT), is that good. Remember to set your DVR. This film is as fine a documentary as I’ve ever seen. It’s HBO quality as its best.
I was at the screening with my wife as a guest of HBO publicist Ray Stallone, who remains a dear friend even though I’m no longer with the L.A. Times.
I’m so glad he invited us.
In the documentary, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird are followed somewhat simultaneously through their basketball careers and beyond. It is some 90 minutes of riveting TV that includes classic footage and candid interviews with the principles.
The only flaw I found was that there is a little too much reliance on sportswriters who covered these two superstars. Having worked as sportswriter in Los Angeles for nearly 40 years – no, I’m not one of the sportswriters in the film – I got to know Magic fairly well, particularly after he got into broadcasting.
I knew very little about Bird – I think that is the case with just about everyone – and that is what made this film so fascinating for me. Bird is usually taciturn and only willing to talk about basketball – nothing personal. HBO Sports president and executive producer Ross Greenburg, producer Rick Bernstein and their staff somehow got Bird to open up.
Listening to Bird during the screening reminded me of Jerry West. Both had difficult, secluded childhoods, both have complex personalities and both are perfectionists to a fault. When Bird talked, I could envision West saying exactly the same thing. They even sound alike.
Bird talks about his childhood, including his father Joe’s suicide. Over past dinners at a popular sports hangout, Phil Trani’s in Long Beach, West has confided about his tenuous relationship with his father. Both fathers had drinking problems.
Bird said that, as a child, he didn’t know that everybody had a family car. “I was in a cocoon,” he says.
Magic and Bird have two distinctive personalities – as different as night and day. But amazingly a friendship developed over time. When Magic tested HIV positive in 1992, Bird called him. Magic tears up in the film when talking about that phone call.
Magic was at the screening and afterwards said, “This is the third time I have seen this film, and I cry every time.”
One complaint about the screening took place beforehand when former and current Lakers in the audience were introduced, along with some movie stars. One of the movie stars I’d never even heard of.
Sitting not far from us was Bill Sharman and his wife Joyce. This basketball legend was not introduced.
Sharman is one of only three men in the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. John Wooden and Lenny Wilkens are the other two. Sharman was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history in 1997. He played for the Boston Celtics (Bird’s team) and at different times was coach, general manager and president of the Los Angeles Lakers (Magic’s team). At 83, Sharman still works for the Lakers as a special consultant.
Magic came to the Lakers when Bill Sharman was the team’s general manager. If not for Sharman, Magic would have never been a Laker.
In 1979, the Lakers had the New Orleans Jazz’s No. 1 pick because of a Gail Goodrich trade. The Jazz finished last in the West, the Chicago Bulls did likewise in the East. Which team got the No. 1 overall pick was determined by a coin flip.
Because of a fan promotion, the Bulls wanted the right to call the coin even though it was the West team’s turn to make the call. Sharman, an extremely nice gentleman, obliged. Sharman said he would have called heads. Instead, the Bulls’ GM, Rod Thorn, called heads. The coin came up tails.
The Lakers got Magic. The Bulls got UCLA’s David Greenwood.
And Bill Sharman, to this day, gets little recognition.
Longtime L.A. Times sports TV columnist Larry Stewart continues to cover many sports, including horse racing and golf, for various publications, and writes a regular blog for a website in his home town called ArcadiasBest.com featuring fun reading about everything from his ongoing fascinating visits with sports legends to his favorite restaurants, watering holes, and vacation spots.