Magic Johnson & Larry Bird - Lifetime Achievement Award - 2019 NBA Awards

the presenter of the MV a lifetime-achievement or has had some great achievements in his own career his films have made over 5 billion dollars making him the highest-grossing film actor of all time he has appeared in more than 180 four films and TV production in his career he has 100 more coming out next week from spider-man far from home give it up for Samuel l jackson [Applause] [Music] oh there is there is one unassailable fact in sports every generation thinks their heroes are the best the game has ever seen the truth of the matter is the game has changed so much through the years it's always been hard to measure one set of heroes against another but we're in the age of information now and the younger generation can see with their own eyes what us old guys are talking about when we say ain't nothing like Legend and Magic Johnson Googler eight NBA championships in nine years or they're six MVPs and seven youtube they're jaw-dropping highlights although apologies in advance for the short shorts and long hair socks stream the documentaries about how their parallel excellence fueled a rivalry that became an undying friendship you can even like the Broadway play based on their beautifully complex relationship it's all out there at your fingertips but with all due respect to social media you can't tell their sublime saga in two hundred and eighty characters I see yeah a lot of young players out there who were born after magic and Larry retired and it's hard to explain how before these two basketball was a sport after it was a religion yes the game has definitely changed there's no denying that but let's be damn sure we never forget that these two are the guys who changed her versus man magic versus birth it was so intense along comes magic along comes bird they immediately had this tremendous competition larry and magic dominated the 80s they carried the NBA with honor it helped elevate the NBA in to another level everybody's get ready at bat Penta let's enjoy [Applause] and Magic Johnson played with a mission Larry Bird one more impossible shot after the other huh guys can just score while the guys can just rebound by guys to just make plays we could do it all the way we played the game a basketball was exactly the same that's why we hated each other [Music] we would do anything to win Johnson / Parish and the most valuable player is Magic Johnson the most insulting I'm really proud to receive this award once you're consider the best do you want to stay lower I remember time magic and Larry had to come together moment where they realized how important they were to each other that is just a great basketball player they would never ever beat another man anything Magican burg the greatest robbery in sports history ladies and gentlemen your 2019 lifetime achievement award recipients Larry Bird and Captain Black Earvin Magic Johnson [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he's alright I'll go first get back every time oh this for me Lifetime Achievement Award that means you've been around a long time the magics case probably a little too long but you know I see all these highlights haven't seen a lot of them for a long time but you know I played for the Boston Celtics if you didn't know that and very proud to plays a lot of great teammates even play with some Hall of Famers Dave Cowens Pete Maravich my favorite bill Walden Robert Parish Kevin McHale and Dennis Johnson and Kevin Pritchard well I had to get that in Urkel he's my boss now so but you know a few right after I got done playing for the Celtics Donnie Walsh and herb Simon called me to see if any interest in coaching the Indiana Pacers right away I said no the next call no next time I met with him no so I called my friend Rick Carlisle so you didn't go believe this they're trying to give me coach the Indiana Pacers he goes don't do it stay away from it find some other hobby to do I go okay I'll never do that well guess what I did it called Rick up said you ready go be assistant with me he looked at me said I can't believe you're doing this let's go hey if it turns out bad at least we can hang around with Reggie Miller for three years so we did it we had some success and the only reason we had success I believe is just because they were great players they play together they cared you had Reggie mark Dale Rick Jalen Chris small and Sam Perkins Austin Crozier just a wonderful group of guys and even one year we got for the finals they ran into Shaq and Kobe which was you know a little tough at the time especially when they were young then I had an opportunity going to front office for a number of years and absolutely enjoyed it being back at home in Indiana you know the one thing that I see happens often is you see these old broken-down NBA players talking about their area and how great they were back then and the players today are not as good as they were back then that's crazy man I mean obviously you haven't seen LeBron James the last 17 18 years you didn't see klay Thompson scored 37 points in one quarter but you didn't see klay Thompson like I did score 30 60 points in 32 minutes or obviously you don't see him James Harden come down Lane getting rain dumped on whoever's standing there I mean it's just amazing how these guys are playing the game today and I couldn't be more prouder of them the games in a good place and when I tell all these young players coming in today it's keep the game the way you found it and it can go on for generations to come thank you first of all God is so good but listen man retirement is great for you because you've never talked this long so I want to thank dr. Jerry Buss the late great dr. Jerry Buss for drafting me back way back in the day this beautiful daughter now running the Lakers genie but let me just also think Kareem abdul-jabbar he was on this stage earlier made my life so easy one of my other former players that I play with Jamal wilts is here as well a Hall of Famer Vlade I see you over there thank you rookie season I got Larry I got to tell you a quick story about Jamal it was my rookie season and I threw a pass down the lane and Jamal wasn't looking and it went out of bounds and the coach said damn it rookie you can't make that pass so I said okay so next time doc we came down again the same plate Jamal wasn't looking so I hit him right in the head so I told your ma don't make me look bad when I throw a pass like that so tomorrow remember that play but anyway I want to thank Laker organization I want to thank all my teammates also the greatest coach has ever live at Riley for being such a great coach and allowing me to play up and down basketball I want to thank my beautiful wife cookie and and last but not least man listen I think we pushed each other to greatness and every day I watched your box score and I said man he had a high triple-double I always wanted to just be just where you were so thank you for pushing me and I hope I did the same for you god bless you thank you for allowing us to be here tonight

Channel: House of Highlights

Views: 2,607,485

Keywords: nba highlights, basketball highlights, top nba plays, best nba plays, best nba highlights, full game highlights, full players highlights

Id: CdaUy4bv2lI

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 24 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/thedudefromsweden]

Thanks for sharing. Was this recent?

Magic is the reason I started playing basketball some 30 years ago. So many good things has happened in my life because of it so I will be forever thankful to him.

[u/Kairos23]

Dr. J was cool as hell and he really attracted lots of attention, but these two gentlemen are the real transition from old NBA to the modern NBA we know. All of the Finals series they played are amazing, and a must-watch for everyone who wants to know NBA History. MJ is my favorite of all time, but I am so thankful for everything these two did for the NBA.