The NBA was on the cusp of being unsustainable before Bird and Magic came along.
Maybe you are too young to remember when NBA finals games were not sold out and were televised on tape delay after the 11PM news. A switch was flipped. Then Jordan came along and we have forgotten that the switch had ever needed to be flipped.
There have been stars before (Cheryl Miller, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Sue Bird, as a few). Maybe they were the Wilt/ Russell/ Kareem? CC may be the Bird/Magic equivalent, and maybe we will need a Jordan-like gal to make us forget that, way back when, people didn't watch or care.