Stubbornness and pride: WHEN THE GAME WAS OURS.

When the Game Was Ours by Larry Bird
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a huge NBA basketball fan, with a special love of the game from the 80s--00s. I also really love journalist Jackie MacMullan, so when I received this book through a bookswap, I was quite excited. Obviously it probably appeals to a particular set of people, but if you love NBA basketball and detailed retellings of events that already occurred, then this book is for you. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson recount events to MacMullan, starting from childhood and going through their multiple NBA championships (and a bit beyond). The focus is on their similarities--and the fact that they rose up in basketball at the same time, became fierce rivals, but also friends.

I'll confess that the bulk of the Magic and Bird rivalry was just a little ahead of my time. I fell hard for the NBA with the Chicago Bulls and MJ (both parents being from the Chicago suburbs), so, of course, I knew Bird and Magic, and saw them play a bit, but I missed most of their true heyday.

Still, I found this book absolutely fascinating. I learned so much I didn't know--especially about Magic and the racism he faced, about Magic and Kareem, and about Larry's background. It was intensely detailed. I loved how similar the two were in some ways--both so basketball-minded--yet so different in their personalities (Magic so open and brash, Larry so private and shy).

I also loved how much the late David Stern appeared in this book. I hadn't realized the depth of how much David came up with Bird and Magic in the league--combining their success with his amazing acumen to build the league into what it is today. MacMullan and Magic's discussion of Magic's HIV diagnosis is amazing (and heartbreaking) and the way Stern reacted is honestly visionary.

Overall, if you don't like basketball, you probably wouldn't gravitate to this book, yet it's so informative and factual, that if you love learning new things, I would still recommend it. It's not a fast read--I usually read one or two chapters a night after finishing whatever fiction read I was reading that evening--but it made up for it in how compelling and factual it was. Certainly worth a read and a huge find for any basketball fan. 4+ stars.

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