My high school coach George Fox used to tell me to never take my talent for granted.
“You’re special, Earvin,” Fox used to say. “But you can’t stop working hard. Just remember there’s someone out there who is just as talented as you, and he’s working just as hard. maybe even harder.
When Coach Fox told me those things I’d nod my head, but in my mind i was thinking, “I’d like to meet this guy because i haven’t seen him.” Truthfully? I wasn’t sure anyone like that existed.
That changed the day in 1978 when I walked into a gym in Lexington, Kentucky, and met Larry Bird for the first time.
As said by Earvin “Magic” Johnson in the brilliant biography When the Game was Ours. Written by Johnson, Larry Bird and Jackie MacMullan, it is filled with insight and anecdotes of the engrossing rivalry between the two stars of the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics that peaked in the 1980s.
Alex Raphael 