After a Hall of Fame career as a franchise player and one of the greatest to ever play the game, Larry Bird became a front office executive with the Boston Celtics, he left Boston to become coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1998 to 2000. In 2003 he assumed the role of president of basketball operations, a position he still holds at the age of 50...
Julius "Doctor J" Erving became a businessman and owner of a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Philadelphia when his Hall of Fame playing days were over. He also dabbled on TV as an analyst, joined the front office of the Orlando Magic in 1997 and as recently as 3 weeks ago had put together a group interested in buying the 76ers from Comcast-Spectacor (Philadelphia Daily News Oct. 20 Sports). The good doctor is now 56...
Both players were in their prime on the night of November 9th, 1984 when 'Friday night at the fights' broke out between the two superstars at the old Boston Garden. As great as he was, Bird talked trash better than most NBA players and kinda mentioned to Erving a time or two that he was stuffing Dr. J's stethoscope all game long (He would wind up outscoring Erving 42-6). A shoving match between the two developed into left hooks and right crosses and a bench-clearing brawl or as one spectator would put it: "I went to a basketball game and a hockey game broke out". The Celtics wound up winning that game 130-119..
Both Bird and Erving were given the night off at the 1:38 mark of the third quarter and there are clips of that game contained in the video "Larry Bird the best ever" which you can click on at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvo7__wwBU&mode=related&search=
More on Larry Legend in my commentary...
Ten Timeline Memories...
- [1938] Nazi troops and sympathizers destroyed and looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, burned 267 synagogues, killed 91 Jews and rounded up over 25,000 in an event known as Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass"...
- [1953] The Supreme Court upheld a 1922 ruling that major league baseball did not come within the scope of federal antitrust laws...
- [1961] Brian Epstein sees the Beatles play at the Cavern Club in Liverpool and thinks: "hmmm"...
- [1965] The great Northeast blackout turns the lights out in 9 states and 2 provinces of Canada, affecting 25 million people for more than 13 hours...
- [1982] Sugar Ray Leonard retires from boxing. He fights one more time in 1984 before becoming a boxing commentator for NBC...
- [1989] Happy Germans dance on top of the Berlin Wall as Communist East Germany throws open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West...
- [1996] It's the beginning of the end for Mike Tyson as underdog Evander Holyfield batters Tyson to win the heavyweight championship but Holyfield would hear more (make that less) from Tyson in the future...
- [1997] The Lions' Barry Sanders becomes the 1st player in NFL history to rush for over 1,000 yards in 9 straight seasons. In the same game Sanders passes former Cowboy Tony Dorsett for 3rd place on the all-time rushing list...
- [1998] A federal judge in New York approves the richest antitrust settlement in U.S. history when a leading brokerage firm is ordered to pay $1.03 billion to investors who had sued over price-rigging of NASDAQ stocks...
- [2004] Houston pitcher Roger Clemens wins his record 7th Cy Young award...
"Happy Trails": 1953] Dylan Thomas, a heavy drinker, dies from pneumonia at 39...1970] Former french president Charles De Gaulle dies from an aneurysm at 79...1988] Former Attorney General and major Watergate figure John N. Mitchell dies of a heart attack at 75...2003] Veteran actor Art Carney dies of natural causes at 85...
#1 on this date: 1966] "Poor Side of Town" - Johnny Rivers...1978] "MacArthur Park" - Donna Summer...1985] "The Theme from Miami Vice" - Jan Hammer...
Released on this date: 1962] "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" - Miracles...1963] "Louie, Louie" - Kingsmen...1973] "Piano Man" LP - Billy Joel...
"On the cover of the 1st Rolling Stone": 1967] John Lennon...[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
Commentary...
Larry Bird had been out with that bad back of his for 3 weeks but I heard he would play that night while I was visiting San Francisco in the 80's. I took the BART to Oakland, got a ticket at the game at settled in to watch it but what I really saw was a clinic. Bird who would play most of the game - bad back and all, was taking shots from Santa Clara and getting nothing but net all night long. K.C. Jones was the coach then and when he would give Bird a breather, he would lay down prone out of bounds, stretching his back and then come in and just pop the 3's with his jump shot with laser precision. When he came out of the game he had 40 points and the Celtics won...
Plans have now been finalized for a New York Memorial Service for Tommy Noonan. It will be held upstairs at Gallagher's, between Broadway & 8th Avenue on Monday, November 20th. Time: 5-7pm. A special announcement will be made at the service for a T.J. Martell Foundation fund to be set up in Tommy's memory. If you knew and loved Tommy as much as we all did, you're more than welcome to attend...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Nick Lachey (33), Lou Ferrigno (55), Mary Travers (70), Bob Gibson (71), Whitey Herzog (75) and sportscaster Charlie Jones (76)...
Timeline Countdown: 52 days left until 2007, 59 days left until the NFL playoffs and 87 days left until Super Bowl XLI in Miami...
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