one on one. three on one.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2yaRk2u7sE This is a great clip of Larry Bird lighting up Doctor J. Dropped 42 points 17 of 23 shooting in 29 minutes.

Bird and Dr. J were trading elbows for a couple of possessions, at 4:06 you can hear Bird tell him "J, you and I...now!" and then proceeds to score on him. Fight happens on the ensuing possession.

Check out the 7 minute mark. Bird being held by Malone and Chuck while Dr J just throw jabs at Bird.

You know what happened? Each player were fined 7500 and that was it. The league back then was tough, raw and AWESOME (cats who think Kobe face tougher defense now than Jordan did are fools. Late 80s and early 90s NBA was rough and raw). If this same fight breaks out today, J, Chuck and Malone are probably suspended for half the season. But back in the 80s? Showing emotion and throwing punches aint no biggie.

I mean shit, J and Bird didn't mind, they buddies now. Probably were playing a two man game at next year's All Star Game.

Larry Bird. Everyone calls him the greatest white player ever. That's an insult; he's more than that.

He's the second greatest player of all time behind you-know-who. He's the SGOAT.

(yes he's better than Magic even though Magic has more rings. Reason is because Magic had a slightly better supporting cast while playing in a significantly weaker conference throughout the 80s. Bird was also the best player on the C's from day one while Magic didn't become the Lakers' best player until maybe his 4th or 5th year. Factor all that and that's enough to cancel out Magic's two ring advantage over Bird.)

Anyway, Bird and Doc appeared in a video game together years before.

One on one in basketball. Three on one in a fight.

Bet you they were okay off the court the next day. In sports, elbows, punches, shoves, chokes, are all just heat-of-the-moment things men should get over.

I spent all day today working on my streetball in Hong Kong feature for SCMP. Every player I've talked to (all North Americans based in HK) so far have told me some variation of "Hong Kong local players are soft. They don't have the same fire or intensity on the court. They don't like to get physical when they play".

Damn straight. I want to send these quotes over to my former coworkers who had problems with my outbursts on the courts. They'd tell me "calm down, it's just a game." They thought I was crazy.

I ain't loco. They just local.