Bird, Magic Shared Moment in Passing

Larry Bird will introduce Magic Johnson today at the Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at Springfield, Mass. Bird and Johnson were often unfriendly rivals, in battling for the 1979 NCAA championships and in the NBA Finals.

That changed in 1986, when they filmed a shoe commercial together and found they had a great deal in common.

“Both learned they were two hard-working guys from Midwestern, blue-collar families who loved basketball,” Perry A. Farrell of the Detroit Free Press wrote of the basketball icons. “They have been close ever since, to the point that Bird defied Celtic management and played in Magic’s Mid-Summer’s Night Classic [in 1986].”

Of Bird, Johnson told Farrell, “I had always wanted to play on the same team with him and that night we did.

“He didn’t disappoint. Some of the passes we made were incredible. I know he took a lot of heat for playing, but that let me know what kind of person he was.”

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Trivia time: What prompted Johnson to start at center for the Lakers in the deciding Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers, a game in which he scored 42 points?

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Foes no longer: College coaches Lute Olson of Arizona and Jerry Tarkanian of Nevada Las Vegas and Fresno State recently met and put an end to almost 30 years of bad feelings. Many believed their dislike began while recruiting against each other.

In fact, according to the Arizona Daily Star, it dates to 1973-74, when Olson replaced Tarkanian (now retired) at Long Beach State and the 49ers were slapped with a number of NCAA sanctions handed down during Tarkanian’s tenure.

The 49ers were 24-2 under Olson but were ineligible to play in the NCAA tournament. Two starters were suspended over admissions irregularities.

Olson departed for Iowa after one season at Long Beach State.

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Strange rituals: Johnette Howard of Newsday wrote recently of an odd diversion used this season by Alfonso Soriano, New York Yankee second baseman.

“At 24, Soriano really isn’t all that much older than some of the Yankees’ clubhouse kids and bat boys, and sometime in the course of Soriano’s wondrous season, they fell into a ritual this year,” according to Howard. “ ‘Who am I?’ Soriano will ask them sometimes, just before he goes up to hit.

“ ‘The Monster,’ the clubhouse kids will reply, stifling laughter.

“ ‘El Monstro!’ Soriano repeats grandly in Spanish, nodding and smiling in recognition of how preposterous this all is.”

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Trivia answer: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar could not play because of a sprained ankle.

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And finally: Bob Wolfley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist, applauded the Brewers’ management shake-up earlier in the week.

He was especially pleased to see the last of team president Wendy Selig-Prieb, daughter of baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Wrote Wolfley:

“Whoever made the decision, however they came to make their decision, whether it was forged in a crucible of panic or hatched in the shade of calm reason, the Milwaukee Brewers have restored a quality that has been missing in the franchise for more than a decade:

Hope.”