I watched the Bird & Magic documentary on HBO last night.  If you are a basketball fan at all I would recommend checking it out.  You can get it On Demand and HBO will be showing it off and on for a while so plug it in to your Tivo.  Aside from just being about how great each player was it’s about their complicated relationship and how their careers and playing styles mirrored each other.  I had no idea that Larry Bird’s father killed himself and how difficult of a life he led until becoming an NBA player.  I really wish that I appreciated him more when he was playing.  I always rooted against him, and I’ll admit it was probably because he was white.  The documentary touches on this.  Boston was always considered somewhat of a racist city and because many of the Celtics stars of the time were white, they were very easy to root against.  None of this was Bird’s fault.  The documentary explains how he was basically color blind and paid no attention to the “great white hope” label that he was tagged with.  He didn’t care.  He was just a damn good basketball player known mostly as a shooter by the laymen, but was also an amazing rebounder and one of the best passers the game has ever seen.  I was more familiar with Magic’s story.  He wasn’t my favorite player and I never liked the Lakers, but I always admired him.  When I found out he was HIV positive, it’s one of those moments that I will never forget where I was like the 1989 Earthquake and 9/11.  I was a freshman in high school and it was just after one of my football games which I am assuming was a loss.  I was strolling off of the field when my Dad told me.  I remember breaking in to tears.  I didn’t totally understand why and at the time didn’t totally understand the difference between HIV and AIDS.  I thought that we were all going to be forced to watch the greatest point guard in history shrivel up and die before our eyes.  Luckily that didn’t happen.  Watching them recap this moment during the documentary choked me up a bit.  Anyway, these two guys changed the NBA and may have saved it from going the way of the NHL.  And if you’re not a basketball fan, it may still be worth the watch for the Arsenio Hall sighting and Bryant Gumbel thinking he’s a badass during one of the interviews.