If you’re an NBA fan of a certain age, say 45 (like me), it will come as a shock that this June marks the 30th anniversary of Magic Johnson floating his legendary “junior junior skyhook” over Kevin McHale, propelling the Lakers on to the 1987 chip over the Celtics. To this day, the 1980s are defined by the championships between Boston and Los Angeles, to the point where ESPN has an upcoming two-part 30 For 30 on the bloodspot tet-a-tet.

As big a deal as it was, it should be noted that the teams never made it to the Finals three years in a row. It’s never happened in the Association’s history, which is why all eyes will be on the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors for the next two months. Turner Sports NBA analyst Kevin McHale will certainly be watching. And as one of the few people on the planet who knows what it’s like to be on the inside of a highly-anticipated Eastern vs. Western Big Dog Rubber Match Showdown, we thought it would be a good time to catch up with “The Black Hole.”

Prior to calling Game One in the shockingly Bulls-centric series against his former Celtics squad—Game Three is Friday night in Chicago—McHale spoke to GQ about his choice for MVP, butting heads with The Beard, tall dudes hoisting treys, and the red-light genius of Sam Malone & Co.

GQ: As a Sixers fan going back to the Celtics rivalry in the 80s, this feels somewhat illicit…

Kevin McHale: As I tell everybody, someone had to kick their ass, it might have well as been us. [laughs]

Fine. Let’s move along to the discussion every NBA fan is having, who is your MVP?

Russell Westbrook. A quarter of the way into the season he was averaging a trouble-double. Around the 20 game mark, I said if he keeps it up through 82 games, and his team makes the playoffs, how can he not be the MVP? I said that while also thinking there was no way he could do it. To do something that Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James never did? Four of the best who ever played? It’s also the way Westbrook plays. It’s an absolute downhill cutthroat attack-you-on-every-possession style. Russell put up those numbers up and drove his team to the playoffs, so I’m not going back on what I said. He’s the MVP.

The triple-double mark has overshadowed the fact that the Thunder getting the six seed is remarkable in itself. Prior to the season, they seemed like a fringe playoff team at best…

When Durant left, everybody wrote off OKC as any kind of factor in the Western Conference. I had no idea where the Thunder would land, but I knew you wouldn’t want Russell Westbrook walking through your door. There’s not a lot of guys in our league who play better pissed off; Russ has a big chip on his shoulder. If you make Westbrook mad? Oh man, you’ve got a tiger by the tail. Be ready to fight. He’s going to bring it.

I feel like the offensive flow of the NBA right now has the league in a great place, and I certainly don’t long for mid-90s Knicks v. Heat 76-73 slugfests, but I do miss the bad blood of the 1980s when offense was good and teams still hated one another. Do you feel like something is missing from today’s game?

The NBA is too friendly in some respects, a lot in part because there’s more spacing and it’s less physical. In a seven-game series when I played, you knew something would happen that would get everyone off the bench. Somebody would get in somebody’s face, get teams standing shoulder-to-shoulder, and then just about everyone joined in on the trash-talking. It was on.