YouTube Gold: Larry Bird vs. Dr. J In the 1980 Playoffs

BOSTON - 1980: Julius Erving #6 of the Philadelphia 76ers drives to the basket against Larry Bird #33 of the Boston Celtics during a 1980 NBA game at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1980 NBAE (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images

The 1980s were defined by the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson rivalry, as those two greats led the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers to repeated trips to the Finals.

For the Celtics though, their first great challenge in the early part of the 1980s was always the Philadelphia 76ers.

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By 1980, the Sixers had almost all the pieces in place for an historically great team: Julius Erving, Bobby Jones, Doug Collins,and Maurice Cheeks. They would get Andrew Toney in the 1980 draft, and would trade for Moses Malone in 1982.

In 1980, though, they had enough to knock off Bird’s Celtics, 4-1, in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Bird was just a rookie, but he helped guide Boston to a massive turnaround, finishing 61-21 after a 29-53 record the year before. At the time it was the best single-season turnaround in NBA history (the record belongs to Bossston again, after a +42 game turnaround in 2006-07).

In this video of Game 5, you see the mature brilliance of Erving, and the rising star that was Bird.

There were also three Duke connections here: Jim Spanarkel was a 76er, while Doug Collins would later send his son Chris to Duke, as did Boston’s Gerald Henderson, as Gerald Jr. also chose the Brotherhood.

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