?I Was Going to Find a Way to Kill Him?: Magic Johnson?s Lakers Break Silence on ?Street Fight? With Larry Bird?s Celtics

The Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson and his former Lakers teammates have broken their silence on the ‘street fight’ incident with the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals series in 1984. The rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics has ebbed and flowed since the 1959 Finals. The Celtics and Lakers rivalry heated up in 1980 when Magic Johnson debuted for LA while Larry Bird arrived in Boston.?

Johnson took up the point guard responsibilities quickly at the Lakers alongside Kareem Adbul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and Kurt Rambis among other stars. He played a crucial role in leading the team to the NBA Finals in 1984 against the Boston Celtics, averaging 17.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 13.1 assists per game. Finally, the moment that every Laker had been dreaming of since 1969 came when LA met Boston in the 1984 Finals.

Lakers-Celtics street fight

During the Finals, Boston’s Kevin McHale took out Los Angeles Lakers veteran Kurt Rambis by clotheslining him in Game 4. The incident resulted in a street fight between the two teams and the referees had to halt the game.

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Magic Johnson and his former Lakers team recently opened up about McHale’s clotheslining incident on Kurt Rambis in his recent docu-series, ‘They Call Me Magic’.?Johnson stated,?“When Kevin McHale took Kurt out, we started fighting instead of playing.”

The five-time NBA champ shared that the Lakers team stood out for Rambis and fought against the Celtics team after the incident.

The Rambis-McHale clotheslining incident from 1984

The four-time NBA champ got up after being thrashed on the floor by McHale. He walked in anger toward McHale. In the docu-series, Rambis said, “That’s just a dirty play. I was going to find a way to kill him.”

The Lakers started the series with a victory on the road against Boston. The Celtics won the second game by a near margin, before being thrashed away by the Lakers in Game 3. As a result, the C’s were under a lot of pressure at the Forum.

During a quick play, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar passed the ball to Worth, who passed it to Rambis. As the Lakers veteran ran toward the hoop, McHale clotheslined him. Rambis got up and ran towards McHale.

But luckily, Worthy came in and pushed Rambis in a different direction. Soon after, Larry Bird came in and picked Rambis up, who had calmed down till then. The incident between Rambis and McHale broke up a massive fight between the two teams

The then-head coach Pat Riley also shared his perspective on the 1984 street fight with the Celtics. The former NBA coach won four championships with the Lakers. Riley said,?“McHale clotheslines him and takes him out. All hell broke loose.”

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Thus, Larry Bird’s Celtis got in big trouble against the Lakers in 1984 due to a dirty play. However, they managed to win the game by 129-125 and eventually the championship by 4-3 in Game 7.