The orange ball in black and white

I didn’t like Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics when I was growing up in the 1980s. While I also disliked the “Bad Boy” Pistons, race was at the center of my disdain for Bird. It wasn’t that I disliked him because he was white; I disliked what white people said about Bird in comparison to Black players, especially Magic Johnson. Bird was nearly always described as being a “smart player” or one who had a “high basketball IQ.” He played “from the neck up.” He was “hardworking” as opposed to being “athletically gifted.” By contrast, Magic Johnson was “a great athlete” who was blessed with an abundance of “physical abilities.” He was a “natural talent.” He probably practiced a fair amount, but his “gifts” obviated the need to be a gym rat. In short, Johnson was in many ways the antithesis of Bird. The difference in the descriptions of the rivals was as obvious as black and white. This was a frequent topic among Black men in my family, at church, in barbershops and elsewhere. In watching their historic matchups, the picture of the predominately white Celtics was quite a contrast to the predominantly Black Lakers. I recall a...