The 1980 Boston Celtics were the team the franchise’s great fan base had been waiting for. The team, the NBA’s standard-bearer from 1957-76 when they won fourteen championships, had gone through two miserable years, at 32-50 and 29-53. But in the 1978 NBA draft, team president Red Auerbach made the far-sighted decision to draft Larry […]
Magic Johnson and Larry Bird arrived for the 1980 NBA season and the league would never be the same.
This is part of a series of sports history articles aimed at preserving the best moments of the modern sports era, from 1976 to the present. The focus is team sports—college & pro basketball and football, major league baseball and hockey. This article offers a snapshot of 1980 sports, a year that dynasties end in the NHL & college football, Magic Johnson electrify the NBA as a rookie and the Philadelphia Phillies complete a memorable ride to a World Series title.