[SlimParticipant]

The TNT analyst Reggie Miller said: “He is the best player in the league; can we put him now in the same category of Michael Jordan, who never left Chicago; Larry Bird, who never left Boston; or Magic Johnson, who has four or five rings, in the same breath? No. If he would have stayed in Cleveland and won one championship built around him, we would have put him on Mount Rushmore.”
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Lakers
Kareem
Kareem had been there for years along with all star Jamaal Wilkes
-he forced a trade from Milwaukee because he wanted to play in a bigger city
-but not until Magic Johnson got there did they win anything.

How they got
Magic Johnson
-Back then underclassmen could not declare
-Seeing the opportunity to play with a HOF big man, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar Magic Johnson declared a financial hardship (exception to the rule)
when the Lakers had the #1 pick that year

“I probably wouldn’t have come out (in the hardship draft) if this team hadn’t wanted me. The Lakers have one of the best centers in the league in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and it’s an outstanding organization.”

James Worthy
As a junior power forward, Worthy was the leading scorer (15.6 points per game) of a Tar Heel NCAA championship team which featured future NBA stars Sam Perkins and freshman Michael Jordan.

In the NBA draft, Worthy was chosen first overall by the Los Angeles Lakers. Shrewd and opportunistic trade moves made by the Lakers front office, combined with a coin flip victory against the then-San Diego Clippers the year before provided them with the first overall pick, the year after winning the NBA Championship.

“James Worthy was one of the top 10 — top five — players in playoff history,” Johnson stated at the news conference in which Worthy announced his retirement.

The NBA soon installed the lottery system to ensure that no team, especially the reigning NBA Champion, would be guaranteed the first pick again.
—
Celtics (The Big Three)

Celtics #1 Overall
-Heading into the 1980 NBA Draft the Celtics held the number one overall pick.
-But in a shrewd pre-draft trade, considered by some to be among the most lopsided in NBA history, Boston Celtics President Red Auerbach dealt the top pick and an additional first-round pick to the Golden State Warriors for center Robert Parish
and the Warriors’ first-round pick, the third overall. With that pick the Celtics chose Kevin McHale.

-Larry Bird led Celts to Eastern Conference Finals, they lost to Dr Js Sixers (4-1)
-Heading into the 1980 NBA Draft the Boston Celtics held the number one overall pick.

In a shrewd pre-draft trade, considered by some to be among the most lopsided in NBA history, Boston Celtics President Red Auerbach dealt the top pick and an additional first-round pick to the Warriors for Robert Parish and the Warriors’ first-round pick, the third overall. With that pick the Celtics chose Kevin McHale.

The Warriors then proceeded to select Joe Barry Carroll with the first pick, whose career eventually was shortened by injuries.

The Celtics now had an imposing front court consisting of Bird, Parish, Maxwell, and McHale.

Parish later compared his transition from Golden State to Boston in a televised quote where he jokingly said it was like going from an outhouse to a penthouse.

Playing 14 years with the Celtics from 1980 to 1994, Parish won three NBA titles (1981, 1984 and 1986) teaming with Bird and power forward McHale. Parish, Bird and McHale came to be known as “The Big Three”.
—
Jordan and Pippen (the Dynamic Duo); Horace Grant, Kukoc, Rodman
—
Jordan never won a ring without Pippen
(Pippen:
-NBA All Defensive Team 10 times during his career and leading the league in steals in several seasons.
-Coach Phil Jackson once described him as a “one man wrecking crew, capable of guarding anyone from the point guard to the five position.” Pippen is one of three NBA players to record 200 steals and 100 blocks in a season, and he also has the record for career steals by a forward (2,307, as well as in the playoffs (395).)

Raw Power Move: Olden Polynice 4 HOF

-Michael Jordan came into the 1987-88 season determined that the Bulls would be a serious challenger, that he would be personally less dominant.

-Heck, it would be nine games before Jordan would score more than 37 points in a game, which was his average for the previous season.

-But the key was before the season, actually just after the end of the previous season in the scouting process.

GM Jerry Krause, while hardly a genius of personal relations, was an excellent scout and talent evaluator.

He’d identified this kid at a small college, Central Arkansas, as a sleeper in the draft.

-Krause had sent Bulls scouts to watch Scottie Pippen for a long time, noting Pippen’s extraordinary ball handling abilities as a high school point guard and long arms for defensive play.
-But Pippen began to excel at the pre-draft camps and moved up on all the draft boards.
-Krause was determined to get him; he’d gotten the No. 8 pick in the draft from a trade with New York.
-But Pippen now was moving up fast. So Krause made a deal with the SuperSonics, who had the No. 5 selection, as Sacramento with No. 6 was committed to Pippen.
-But the Bulls needed some luck and got it.
-Seattle wasn’t interested in Pippen, but wanted Reggie Williams of Georgetown. If he were available, Seattle was taking him and Sacramento would get Pippen.

-But the Clippers with No. 4 selected Williams. So Seattle took the Bulls’ No. 8 and future picks and considerations and selected Olden Polynice.
The Bulls had Pippen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbjBJy6AWQA

[NYCrealdealParticipant]

well it halped those players not leave because they played in LA chicago
not cleavland

[SlimParticipant]

Magic versus Lebron is better Conversation
—-

Aside from the trade hoopla they are all about rings and willing to move from their comfort zone to get it
—-
1984 NBA Finals: Magic Johnson is Something Special

Ever since fifth, sixth, seventh grade, I’ve always been on a winner,” he explains. “I could not imagine what it’s like not to be on a good team.”

The inescapable physical fact concerning Magic Johnsonis that he is 6 feet, 8 inches tall. He has the physique of a power forward, the finesse of a small forward and the quickness of a 6-foot guard.

He is, therefore, a unique historical force in the history of basketball. Just as Bobby Orr blurred the distinction between a forward and a defenseman in hockey, so has Magic distorted basketball’s classical concept of his position.

If he never shot once from beyond 4 feet, he would still be a magical player. Scoring, rebounding and defending are adjuncts to his raison d’etre, which is to pass.

When Magic runs a three-on-two or four-on-two (or even four- on-three), there is a better than 90-percent chance someone will get a layup.

“I just want to get the best shot every time,” Johnson says. “I want to make sure we don’t settle for the jump shot. A 2-footer is better than a 15- footer.”

What Magic knows very well, of course, is that opponents are terrified that he will keep the ball and go soaring in for a dunk.

“Even if there are big men back there, I can take it to the basket, and they know it.” Passing lanes open up as a consequence.

His size is of incalculable advantage in other ways. Surely there has never been a guard more capable of hitting baseline cutters with crisp passes. “He just looks over everyone he plays,” says West.

“It wasn’t as easy a transition for me to live out here (in LA) as people thought,” he insists. “I’m still a Midwestern country boy. I like the outdoors. I like to go off by myself to a lake and relax. I miss things such as the picnics we used to have back home. You don’t seem to have those family- type situations out here as much.”

Magic Johnson is all about winning.
“The others were nice, but when you win it all in the NBA you’re the World Champs, and you get the diamond ring to prove it,” he says.

He’s got two rings already, and let the Celtics be forewarned: when it comes to championships, the man is downright avaricious.

[SlimParticipant]

2004 NBA Draft
Cleveland #10 Luke Jackson
#11 Andris Biedriņš
#15 Al Jefferson
#17 Josh Smith (Luke Jackson is currently on his team’s summer League roster)
#18 JR Smith (i dont care what anyone says, this guy can light it up)

[Author]

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