Bird and Magic. Magic and Bird. Their names are forever linked, largely because of many memorable battles during their days in the NBA. But that rivalry has its roots in college basketball. Thirty years ago this month, Larry Bird of Indiana State and Earvin "Magic" Johnson of Michigan State embarked on a path through the NCAA tournament that would take them to the Final Four and the championship game, a showdown that remains television's highest-rated college basketball game. Michigan State won 75-64 on March 26, 1979. USA TODAY asked former staffers Malcolm Moran and David DuPree, both of whom covered the event, to share their memories.

For Moran, then at "The New York Times", this was the first of 26 Final Fours he would cover. DuPree, then at "The Washington Post", later began covering the NBA, where he observed firsthand the Bird-Magic mystique many more times.

Witnesses to rivalry's tip-off

By DAVID DUPREE

Special for USA TODAY

Magic's smile and Bird's deadpan look.

That's what comes to mind when I think of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird just before the 1979 NCAA basketball championship final. I remember critics questioning what they were seeing Bird do as he led Indiana State to a 33-0 record and the nation's top ranking. Even back then, he couldn't care less what people thought.

"I'm just a guy," he said the first time I interviewed him.

Johnson, on the other hand, with his razzle-dazzle style, had captured America's imagination, in many ways overshadowing Bird. Johnson had been anointed the second coming of Oscar Robertson. Bird, it seemed, was just another great white hope.

They looked at their showdown completely differently. Johnson looked at it as the biggest challenge of his basketball life, and he was excited.

Bird presented the air that it was just like any other game. He was there to take care of business, simple as that.

"This probably means a lot more to my teammates and school than it does to me," Bird said in a story I wrote for "The Washington Post" on the eve of the final. "I thought we should have been here last year. It doesn't matter if we win or lose. I'll still get my money."

I came to realize, in the years I would get to know Bird, that he was only half-serious. He "was" going to get his money, but it mattered a great deal to him. He had that air of confidence. He knew he could do what he had to do, and his play spoke for him.

The game was really a much anticipated event, but no one at the time had any idea that it would be a watershed moment for an entire sport. In the pre-ESPN and Internet days, most people outside the Big Ten or Indiana had only seen clips of Johnson and Bird. So much about them was simply word of mouth or what you read.

The debate of who was better broke down along racial lines. My black basketball buddies swore Bird was a fluke, overrated and had no business being compared with Johnson. Even my white friends would ask me, ""Is that goofy-looking white dude named Bird really that good?"

I did a story on Bird when his team was 21-0. I saw him play for the first time and can compare it with when I went to see LeBron James play in high school nearly 25 years later. I was stunned by Bird's brilliance. I sounded like a groupie as I sang his praises. Larry Bird was the man, and no matter what you had heard about the competition, about his being slow and looking like a hick, he could play him some basketball.

I think it was the anticipation of "is this guy for real and can he lead a Cinderella team to an undefeated season and an NCAA championship?" that made this game such an attractive one.

His nemesis was the most likeable guy, a big-time player from a big-time school.

Bird had fractured his left thumb 3 1/2 weeks earlier against New Mexico State in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. Yet, he still managed to dominate throughout the tournament. In the semifinals against DePaul, he had 35 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists.

The championship game was tense and played close to the vest. The matchup zone was too much for Indiana State, however, and Bird had a bad shooting night. Magic orchestrated things to perfection, and Michigan State won. But the game in many ways was anticlimactic and didn't settle any debates. It just set the stage for many, many more that have continued.

I pulled out another clip of an interview with Johnson on the day before the big game. He was as giddy as ever. A dream had come true. "I got to pretend I was Larry Bird," he said of the Spartans' last practice before the game. He said he zinged passes all over the place and dropped in 23-footers at will.

"We are a lot alike, you know," Johnson said. "He's just more quiet than I am. ... Do you think he imitated me in their practice?"

Bird's reply: "No."