Double Dribble

Abstract

Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird's fabled rivalry began in the 1979 NCAA basketball championship, a contest that still stands as the highest-rated basketball game of all time. This rivalry featured East versus West, traditional versus modern and, more implicitly, black versus white. Johnson and Bird are now largely considered extremely similar players who, together, brought the National Basketball Association an increased and sustainable popularity during the 1980s. But while both Johnson and Bird are considered similar players now, it wasn't always this way. This study examines news media coverage of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird from the Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times. Researchers analyzed texts to assess whether journalists employed common stereotypes when describing the two athletes. The newspapers examined created an image of Johnson and Bird as classic stereotypical characters that represented what it was like to be black and white in America during this period.

“For the other America, it was Larry Bird.

For the African America, it was Magic Johnson“¹

—Derrick Z. Jackson

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patrick Ferrucci

PATRICK FERRUCCI (Ph.D. University of Missouri) is an assistant professor in the department of journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder. His work has been published in Journalism, Electronic Journalism, Howard Journal of Communications, and other peer-reviewed journals.

Earnest Perry

EARNEST PERRY (Ph.D. University of Missouri) is an associate professor and chair of the journalism studies emphasis area at the Missouri School of Journalism. Perry is a member of the AEJMC Research Council and has served in several leadership capacities for the American Journalism Historians Association.