Larry Bird and Magic Johnson’s rivalry is one such tale that truly redefined the sport of basketball. It began during their collegiate career and continued in the NBA as they spearheaded two of the most winningest franchises, the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. They were even part of the Dream Team of the famous 92 Olympics and have cherished their bond after retirement. However, despite the bond, the Lakers legend ignored the plea to revisit the rivalry.

Interestingly, the admission of the refusal did not come from the NBA icon, but from Bill Simmons. Apart from being a longtime Celtics fan, he is also the executive producer for the recent nine-part documentary, Celtics City. It explores the team’s journey, struggles, triumphs, and its deep connection with the city of Boston and American history. One of the stalwarts of that team was Larry Bird. During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Simmons explained why he wasn’t able to get everyone for the interviews.

“What happened is the guys on the other teams, they don’t want to be the villains in the sports movies anymore. They’ve figured this out with sports documentaries. We didn’t get Magic.” Simmons’ statement makes sense, since the documentary is about the Celtics, the other players automatically become rivals. But he doesn’t have bitter feelings towards Magic Johnson.

“If you asked Magic right now to do your show, he’d probably march through the door.” Simmons continued, “Magic would do anything, and he was like ‘no, I can’t do it’. We didn’t get Magic, we didn’t get [Charles] Barkley, we didn’t get Isiah [Thomas], but we basically got all the Celtics.” So, not only Magic Johnson but Charles Barkley and Pistons legend Isiah Thomas also refused to be part of HBO’s documentary.

Currently, HBO is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company whose market cap is $19.91 billion as per StockAnalysis. One can understand Thomas backing out after his experience with The Last Dance, which he has openly criticized. Also, it wasn’t the first time Magic Johnson had apparently refused to do a role with Larry Bird.

Magic Johnson allegedly backed out of a project featuring Larry Bird, as per the former Knicks star

This was during their heyday, and the Lakers legend was part of the Converse family. In fact, even rival Larry Bird was part of the iconic shoe brand. Converse signed another star in Larry Johnson and had huge plans for the first commercial. During the live show, the former Knicks star explained the plot of the initial ad.“It’s going to be two doctors. One is going to be Magic Johnson, and the other doctor is going to be Larry Bird.”

Their role was to create a perfect basketball player. “And Larry says his name gotta be Larry, then Magic says no, Johnson. ‘Larry, Johnson, Larry, Johnson’. And I rise up and the commercial goes off.” This commercial, which was originally pitched to the former Knicks star, changed in a month.“I said ‘What happened to the commercial with me and Magic and Larry?’ They said one of them didn’t want to do it.” Larry Johnson gave a cheeky hint about who refused to do the project.

“No, no, I never knew which one didn’t want to do it… Larry Loved me. You all get what I’m saying?” It was a $1 million project for Larry Johnson, with or without Magic Johnson, he still got paid.