Fan Request: Magic Johnson & Larry Bird | Letterman

I think it's the best sports documentary I've ever seen in my life and it's due to nothing more than you two gentlemen and who you are, the kind of men you are, and one of the things that's very good when you have your press. conference and announce that you have HIV the infection uh your reaction action and your reaction what does it tell us about your feelings well my feeling was the first time you know I told L to my agent I said we had to call Larry and I told him I want to tell him myself and then I want to talk to him, well, we couldn't actually get through to him, so Lon told him and then Larry wanted to talk to me and we were able to talk and, uh, the best feeling, uh, David is when a friend tells you supports and this young man came and supported me, that's what it's all about, forget the sports, forget the championships, the MVP, he came to my side and supported me and I'll never forget it, and that's the type of Man, Larry Bird, Is that so?

It's not. Gladly, it's not like it was in those days, in those days, if you heard anything that had to do with this, it seemed like an immediate death sentence, exactly and gladly I say that medical treatment is progress. where it's not that at all, but that's M must have been what you were thinking, yeah, we always heard nine years, but I remember the day we had a game that night, I always took a nap in the afternoon, my wife would wake me up. and she said, Hey, Lon Rosen called, you have to call Magic, so when I heard that I couldn't believe it, I mean, I can remember my dad died, and my heart skipped a little when I heard about

magic

.

It was like he had no energy, he didn't want to, it's the first time I remember he didn't want to play basketball and I felt a knot in my stomach for days, even after I talked to him, because in my mind nine or 10 years ago, he will go and then you know we had the Olympics, you know, in the future we had things that we wanted to achieve, but it's the man, here it is, yeah, happily, things didn't go as we feared, now I mentioned it. We talked about it, in the introduction, the change, the NBA changed professional basketball, give us a couple of ideas of how the game has changed because of your career, well, I think you know that the games were recorded late when Larry and I arrived. championships and I remember when we beat the 76ers when I was a rookie, the games started at 11:30 at night and to now put the championships in prime time, the salaries that people make, I mean, we affect a lot the change.

That's happening and then Michael Jordan came in right after us and took it to another level too. Do you see kids playing in the league and now you're like oh geez, this is the way I would have approached it or is that it? the game has changed so much the style of play of the year doesn't exist or can't exist oh it can exist um I mean there aren't many 69ine point guards out there yeah but I think what I see is that there are a lot of kids coming to our league and they take it for granted, but there are also a lot of kids in our league that want to get better every day and do the work necessary to do better and better and care about their communities and care about their teams, uh, I see a lot of that, when I first got to the league, I didn't see much of that right, I think what Irving and I did when we got there, people started watching basketball again and our uh David Stern, which was our.

The commissioner at that time came in the first year and took us to another level, then you have to remember Jordan Barkley Patrick and Carl Malone John Stockton, all of us came in, they came in a couple of years after us, the league got better, right ? So we were happy, we didn't know any of that was happening, we just wanted to play and compete, but in '84 it changed, but we also made passing fashionable again in the NBA, well, I think from a player's point of view fan. a guy from Indiana who grew up loving and watching high school basketball and trying to play, etc., the great legacy that you two leave behind is a demonstration of how to be a guy you know, how to be guys. you know and that's invaluable it's a I know what you're thinking at home you're thinking to yourself gez like David Leno well I wish you could come back tomorrow and the next night and the next night but I know you guys go to the theater to rehearse your big number It's a

magic

bird

at the Long Acre theater God what a pleasure to meet you and see you again magic thank you good luck with your dodge thank you very much we will be right Back with Jim G again everyone