Showtime

Recently finished the book Showtime by Jeff Pearlman. Bought and read the book because of all the hype around the HBO show Winning Time which I will not watch because of the way they portray and treat Jerry West.

A short synopsis of the book would go something like this; Magic Johnson is drafted, is very good at basketball but then he "attains" the AIDS virus. In between Pat Riley is a coach who was good at first but then just went too far (and yes the dictator joke was intentional).

I was a huge NBA fan during the 1980's, so it was fun to relive those series and that period of time. There was one thing that I read that made me slightly change my perception of the NBA though.

I used to firmly believe that Red Auerbach's trade of basically Joe Barry Carrol for Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale was perhaps the best in NBA history but the Lakers' trade of aging Gail Goodrich to the New Orleans Jazz (they hadn't moved to Utah yet) for the Jazz's first round picks in 1977 and 1979 now seems a close second. The 1979 pick was used to draft Magic Johnson.

Still say Red's trade was better because the draft picks were a matter of luck. The Lakers didn't know they were getting Magic. They easily could have been getting another Kenny Carr (who they drafted with the 1977 pick from the Jazz).