When the Game Was Ours - B+

I think I've used this quote before on the blog, but I use it again now to tell anyone other than a sports fan above the age of 40 to skip to the starred paragraph below.  There is not anything that will interest you between the quote below and the starred paragraph (and it's likely not worth scrolling down the starred paragraph anyway).

Obi-Wan: These aren't the droids you're looking for.
Stormtrooper: These aren't the droids we're looking for.
Obi-Wan: He can go about his business.
Stormtrooper: You can go about your business.
Obi-Wan: Move along.
Stormtrooper: Move along... move along.

SO, MOVE ALONG!

I'm not sure that I knew that college basketball existed before the 1979 Finals.  OK, that's an exaggeration.  But the 1979 Finals catapulted March Madness (and ultimately, the NBA) into the national consciousness.  For more on that, you can read When March Went Mad, another excellent book which focuses on the 1979 Finals game itself and Magic's and Bird's lives before the game.

Magic and Bird collaborated (with Jackie McMullin, a great sportswriter for the Boston Globe) on When the Game Was Ours.  The book tells the stories of Magic and Bird and how their lives have been, and forever will be, intertwined.  These two were not initially friends--in any sense of the word.  They weren't friends when they played on an amateur team together in 1978, they weren't friends when they met in 1979 at the NCAA championship and they weren't friends in their early years with the Lakers and Celtics.  I won't spoil the story about how they became friends (no spoilers, remember?), but anyone who follows basketball knows that they are close friends now.

When the Game Was Ours is not a biography, per se, of the lives of Magic and Bird.  It's not even really a "basketball" biography (the authors do not tell stories about Magic's pee wee league experiences, for example).  Their family backgrounds are discussed, and the action essentially picks up with their college recruiting and ends in present day.

I must confess that I was drawn to the book because my all time favorite athlete is Magic Johnson.  Why?  Well, there was the smile, of course, the smile that, while jovial, tells you that Magic knows something you do not (usually, that he's going to beat you).  The reason that Magic continues to be my all time favorite, though, is that you knew when you watched him play that winning was the No. 1 goal.  Not the personal goals, the "numbers."  Not the money.  Winning.  Winning unselfishly.  And if that meant that Michael Cooper got the shots and Magic didn't, so be it.

Bird was, of course, the same way--just not as flashy (Showtime) as Magic.

I'm old enough now that I can, unfortunately, refer to the "good old days," the days when athletes played to win--not for the fame or the money.  There was a youthful aspect to watching professional sports then.  Sure, the NBA was "professional" and a "business," but it was "playground," too.  Sports just isn't as much fun to watch any more, and the first guys who would tell you that, I think, are Magic and Bird.  If you want to read a book about  the "good old days" of professional sports, spend a few hours with When the Game Was Ours.  You won't regret it.

**No idea what book is next.  I have a nightstand full of paperbacks and hardbacks and a wife who wants that crap cleaned up.  I also have a couple of shelves of "to be read" books in our storage closet.  How do any of you decide what you're going to read next?  I guess that, when I get home tonight, I'll see what I'm in the mood to read.  Not an exact science, but hopefully, it'll be a good one.

Live long, read and prosper.