Remember Indiana State's Larry Bird tussling with Michigan State's Magic Johnson in the 1979 championship game (which Magic's team won)?

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The two channels are also working with retired basketball superstar Earvin (Magic) Johnson's production company to create a movie and a series about the hip-hop industry.

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This isn't great filmmaking, but, under Rick Famuyiwa's direction, it's more than good enough. (The executive producer is Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who ensured that a basketball subplot made the final cut.) Ms. Lathan's work is impeccable, and always appealing.

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And basketball legend Magic Johnson retold the time he went to Jackson's for lunch and watched Michael being served a bucket of fried chicken.

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That's probably why, in the NBA, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers teams of the '80s, led by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, respectively, rate higher than the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls clubs of the 1990s.

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That wasn't worth much at first, but thanks to Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and, eventually, Michael Jordan, the NBA exploded in popularity in the 1980s and '90s.

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Mr. EDWARDS: Now, that's an example, and you have another example where Magic Johnson and another basketball player had a similar experience on an elevator, and when you multiply these things out over the lifespan of a person, people become pretty sensitive to that.

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Magic Johnson in his prime would be too slow to play point guard in today's locomotive landscape, just as Larry Bird would be too slow to guard any of today's elite small forwards.

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And that's with the advantage of nostalgia as an added selling tool, thanks to a matchup invoking memories of the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson battles of the 1980s (the three L.A.-Boston finals of the '80s averaged a 30 share, as did the six Michael Jordan-led Bulls series in the '90s).

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