- Magic Johnson gives the foreword and says there are 3 reasons he respects and fears playing against Bird - his dedication, guts, and poise under pressure
- Baseteball just 'clicked' in his mind. Whatever he practiced he would pick up quickly - he also practiced more than anyone
- Didn't care how much he scored or was the main player, as long as his team won
- Extremely competitive and grew up going at it with his brothers - family was always a united front
- Blessed with a good memory and was able to remember every instruction - was given the nickname 'Kodak.' My memory has always helped me to quickly up on things that I'm interested in. I think I've surprised people sometimes when they become aware of my recall capacity. Once, when I was doing a network interview, the producer ran a videotape of a previous year's NBA championship game so I could comment on the game. When they stopped the tape randomly, they were trying to figure out at what point of the game it was, so I told them right away, "It's the fourth quarter with fie minutes and forty seconds left." The producer asked me how I could possibly have known that exact time and I told him I could tell from the fight song that was playing. He asked, "What fight song?" I explained, "I remember in the game the fight song was played three times. The last time they played the song the crowd was going absolutely crazy. Houston had come back from being 17 points down and I remember looking up at the clock at that point and there were five minutes and forty seconds to go." I went on to describe the rest of the plays for the producer before they appeared on the tape. I guess it's things like that that earned me the nickname of "Kodak" from Coach Bill Fitch.
- Never treated rookies badly - always took them under his wing
- His life motto was: I'll deal with it when it comes. Never over thinking things or wasting energy
- When looking for his agent, the key question his team asked of each candidate was, "If you don't get the job, whom would you recommend?" Almost all of them replied, "Bob Woolf." Bird was really impressed by that and ended up choosing him
- After he was drafted by the Celtics, he read up on their history Red Auerbach, and the rest of the team
- As a rookie, have to gain respect. Focused on consistency so the team knew they could count on him every night
- Maxwell tried to get reactions from others to get himself fired up
- A basketball team consists of 12 men - not five or six. If the team is going to function properly, every member must have a role and that includes off the court, as well as on. The problem is that the public only pays attention to the ones who play the most minutes. Eric Fernsten was perfect for our team because he did everything and anything Coach Fitch asked. What he wanted to do was practice. His games were like mine while I was being red-shirted at Indiana State. He lived for practices. You may find this difficult to believe, but he really didn't care that much about playing in the games. Eric would walk into practice and say, "Today is my day." Then he'd go out and give you a real battle. He made the players he practiced against better - and that includes me. If Coach Fitch told him he wanted him to tackle you - which happened about three quarters of the time - that's what he'd do. He would get me so frustrated, he'd make me want to play harder. He would do everything to you that you hated in an opponent.
- We all knew Danny Ainge had to start playing more, but when you're a player you don't think the same way they do in management. Danny had a tough time his first 2-3 years. He played a lot with one eye on the bench and I've always said you just can't play that way
- Whenever I'm trying to improve my game, I analyze my weaknesses first and work on those relentlessly. When Michael Cooper made all those subtle changes on me, I knew I needed to come up with something new.
- Bill Walton wanted to get his points, just like everyone else on the team. We weren't afraid to go to him, but we never wanted him to get to the point where he felt he had to score. I think there was a time that seasons when he felt he should score eight or ten points a game. I remember telling him, "Don't worry about points. We'll take care of that. Just make your move if you have it. If not, give it to someone who can shoot it." Once he accepted that, we didn't have any problems
- Magic plays basketball the way I think you should play basketball. We think the same way about the game. We look at such and such a player and say, "If he was on my team, I could make him a great player." Well, maybe not make him one, but sort of bring out the best of his abilities. We've reflected on that experience when we played on the same All-Star team in college. Both of us want to bring out the best in our teammates. We also want the fans to be involved in the game. Without them reacting, it just wouldn't be as much fun. Magic plays to the strength of every teammate. The Lakers have a great team and they would be very good without him, but he is the special ingredient that brings them championships.
- The Lakers learned a lot from the loss in '84. They've developed the attitude we used to have. When we had our great teams, we remembered every loss. The next time we played that team, we wanted to bust 'em. If we lost a game, the players would say, "What went wrong tonight? The next time we play them, it won't happen again." And it wouldn't
- I play for the fans, but they don't come first. The owners come first. Without them, none of us would have anything. Then come the Celtics, which means Red. He gets me more fired up to play than any other individual. My high school and college coaches were great, but Red is "Mr. Basketball" to me. Then come my teammates and somehow in there I include myself
- Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got. Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved - no more, no less. It's being able to take it as well as dish it out. That's the only way you're going to get respect from the players.
- As a kid I always thought I was behind and I needed that extra hour to catch up. Jim Jones once told me, "No matter how many shots you take, somewhere there's a kid out there taking one more. If you dribble a million times a day, someone is dribbling a million and one." Whenever I'd get read to call it a day, I'd think about that other kid. There are many times when you're better off practicing than playing, but most people just don't understand that.
- Surround yourself with good people and good things will happen
What I got out of it
- Perseverance, hard work, freaky memory, honest and straightforward, empathetic, and the consummate team player
