About book When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball (2009)
I tell people that this game was the first game I ever watched on TV, and as far as I can remember, I'm not lying. I lived in Bloomington, Indiana when this game was played, and was a staunch Larry Bird fan (and continue to root for the Celtics to this day). The rivalry that this game birthed gave hoops fans a decade of basketball bliss.I didn't learn much more about Bird or Magic from this book, but what little I learned was worth the read. The bigger win was learning more about Heathcote, Hodges, Nicks, Kelser--the other people involved in that amazing season that led to this game. I never realized, for example, that this was Hodges' absolute basketball zenith, and that hoops never panned out for him after this. Or that Indiana State has largely disowned that magical season.Hoops fans should all read this book. Bird or Magic fans? It's a must-read. I started following professional basketball when Michael Jordan was transcending the game with his dominating talent. But he only inherited an NBA already defined by the rivalry of two personalities, Magic and Bird. The games of these two superstars where they go head to head, especially in the NBA Finals are legendary. This started when they both were college basketball stars, in the 1979 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game.The book details the events that lead to the 1979 Final Four and the main game itself. The writer, Seth Davis, argues that this was the most important game in basketball, collegiate and professional. This garnered the highest ever television rating for a basketball game, an achievement never duplicated, and changed the game forever. The rivalry of Magic and Bird is no small part responsible.Part of the mystique that enamored America, besides the final game that featured Magic’s storied Spartan of the Michigan State University basketball program and Bird’s Middle American Indiana State University Sycamores was the disparate backgrounds of the two stars. Both were basketball prodigies, not as athletically gifted as their peers and successors in the game but blessed with an uncanny basketball sense and unique ability get the best out of their teammates. That is where there similarities end. Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson honed his skill in the city of Lansing, Michigan and with his megawatt smile was destined for the limelight and comfortable with the attention his gifts brought him. While Larry Bird grew up in rural Indiana as “the hick from French Lick” and was known to be painfully shy. He found his sanctuary in the court and let his game do the talking.Eventually, there can be only one winner. No spoilers here, the better team won.The book is adequately written, as a sports memoir it is as I expected. It is similar from what you will find in a special report in Sports Illustrated, only this one has a proper epilogue. This is not surprising as the author is a regular contributor to the magazine.What I enjoyed about the book is that I get to read about one of the best rivalries in sports ever. Magic and Bird are like Ali and Frazier of boxing or DiMaggio and Williams of baseball. I get to read how it all started and their motivations as the championship game beckoned.This is a must read for any sports fan.
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Davis does a good job of covering both players' lives and the scale of their accomplishments.
—aimee
1979 changed big-time college hoops forever. To think it all began in Utah.
—Erika
