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‘Magic/Bird’ bounces from rivalry to friendship

In the 1980s, there were really only two teams in basketball -- the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers -- and only two players: the Celtics' Larry Bird and the Lakers' Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Lovers of hoops agree the modern-day NBA would not be what it is without the way they defined the sport and reinvigorated the fan base with their Hall of Fame rivalry.

The two didn't become friends on the court. There, they were vehement competitors from the time they met in college.

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‘Magic/Bird’

WHEN — 8 p.m. today & Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; again June 18-21

WHERE — Rogers Little Theater, 116 S. Second St. in Rogers

COST — $17-$48

INFO — 631-8988

"We're so competitive anyway that there was a dislike there," Johnson told NPR's Michele Norris in a 2009 interview. "I even hated him more because I knew he could beat me."

And then, in 1985, the two agreed to tape a Converse commercial in Bird's hometown of French Lick, Ind., and Bird's mother invited Johnson for lunch.

"His mom gave me the biggest hug and hello, and right then she had me," Johnson told NPR. "Then Larry and I sat down for lunch, and I tell you, we figured out we're so much alike. We're both from the Midwest, we grew up poor, our families [are] everything to us, basketball is everything to us. So that changed my whole outlook on Larry Bird.

"Believe me," he added. "Everybody was shocked."

The two might have been just as surprised when Eric Simonson, the author of "Lombardi," wanted to write "Magic/Bird," a play about the NBA's greatest rivalry, the friendship that came out of it and how both men reacted to Johnson's announcement he was HIV positive.

"I thought it was a joke," Bird told the New York Times when the show debuted on Broadway in 2012. And Johnson added, "If somebody said, 'Man, can you believe they want to do about play about you and Larry?' I'd say 'No way.' We're still in disbelief."

The play did modestly on Broadway, running for just 38 shows, but it's been popular around the country ever since.

"When we were looking at shows for this season, we noticed that Eric Simonson had this play available," says Brenda Nemec, who helmed the production opening tonight at Rogers Little Theater. "We loved producing ['Lombardi'] a couple of seasons ago. So we decided to take a chance on this one, and here it is!"

Nemec, who came to the role of director with plenty of experience, also had a love for the sport.

"I have been a basketball fan since high school and was actually was our scorer/bookkeeper for my high school," she says. "But I have never followed professional basketball. I did have to bone up on the professional game and players."

But, she adds, knowing the difference between a screen and a pick and roll isn't necessary.

"The show uses basketball to talk about friendships and relationships," she says. "Even if you start out as enemies, sometimes circumstances in life will bring you together as friends. Sometimes it takes a tragic event in our lives to discover who our real friends are."

"It has all of the aspects that make a great story," agrees Ty Wagner, another RLT veteran, who plays Bird. "Basketball is just the platform. But what makes it great is that it is true, and the characters can still be seen living out the story.

"I have always been a fan of the game," Wagner says. "I remember watching Larry and Magic as a very young kid and trying to imitate their shots on my Fisher-Price basketball goal that I would drag into the living room. Unfortunately, Bird and Magic were actually making their exit from the NBA as I was in the middle of my elementary career, and Michael Jordan became the real focus of my generation.

"I have definitely spoken with my dad about the rivalry between Magic and Bird," he adds, "and the friendship that developed out of it. The more I find out, the more it astonishes me that this is a real story. It seems like its too perfect to not have been fabricated. The feud, the competition, the similarities and the trials of tragedy and victory seems too good to be true."

NAN What's Up on 06/12/2015

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