Magic Johnson – An Athlete With Style
Magic “Earvin” Johnson, Jr. was born on August 14, 1959 in Landing, Michigan. His career began at Everett High School in Lansing and he went on to Michigan State before being drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1979. Magic had nine brothers and sisters and his father worked for General Motors while his mother was a school custodian. In his own words, Magic would say as a kid, “I practiced all day and I dribbled to the store with my right hand and back with my left-I even slept with my basketball.”
It was while still in high school that Johnson acquired his famous nickname. A sportswriter covering a high school game felt that no other word could adequately describe Johnson’s skill with the ball. Johnson wanted to stay near his family after high school, so he attended Michigan State also in East Lansing. Even on the Michigan State Spartans, he achieved some notoriety, with scores of up to 17 in a single game. With Johnson, the Spartans took a Big Ten conference title and racked up a 25-5 record! In his second year on the team, the Spartans took on Indiana State (then featuring Larry Bird) to won the national title in what was one of the most highly followed NCAA games of all time.
Opting the pro route, Johnson joined the 1979 draft, where the Lakers picked him up. With a new coach in hand in Jack McKinney and a new owner (Dr. Jerry Buss), the fans couldn’t wait to see one of the best college players in their Lakers uniform. Players from all teams saw the Magic of Johnson and although the NBA rookie of the year went to Larry Bird, the Lakers won the NBA Championship in 1979 with a 60-22 record. When coach McKinney was replaced by Paul Westhead the following year, Magic’s numbers matched his college efforts at 18 ppg, 7.7 rpg, and 73 apg. Proudly, he was the first rookie to start in an NBA All-Star Game-something that hadn’t been done in eleven years!
In the 1980 NBA finals, Johnson scored an incredible 42 points, 15 board, 7 assists and three steals against the Philadelphia 76ers. Johnson was the first rookie to win the MVP award in the NBA finals. Magic Johnson is a modest sort, saying only of his achievement: “I just wanted to do whatever the (Lakers) needed to do to win. I was having fun.” Sadly, torn cartilage in his knee would keep him on the sidelines for 45 games in the following season.
Johnson recovered from his injury and the Lakers came back in a big way for the 1981-1982 season. The Lakers handily won their division title and again took on the 76ers in the finals, with another win for the Lakers and another MVP award for Johnson. While Johnson took some heat for the comments he made about Lakers coach Paul Westhead (who was replaced by the now legendary Pat Riley and left himself for the Chicago Bulls), he never let the criticism get to him and his performance in the game was never less than astounding.
Johnson signed another contract with the Lakers in 1984 – this time for $25 million and led the team to three NBA titles in the next four years. Johnson even scored 38 points in one game (against Houston) and 46 points (against Sacramento) in the 86-87 season. Johnson also achieved a career high scoring average – 23.9 points per game! Johnson would be named the NBA’s MVP for this season, an award he would also win in 1989 and 1990.
Before the beginning of the 1991-1992 season, Johnson announced that he has been diagnosed with HIV and would retire from the game. He didn’t leave the game without making his exit in style, however – Johnson played in the 1991 All-Star game, winning the MVP award. However, he had found a new focus: outreach and educating the public about HIV/AIDS. Johnson received the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award from the NBA for his work in this field. Johnson also played on the US Olympic Basketball team in the 1992 Olympics, wrote a book on safe sex and started up philanthropic foundations. He also was an NBC sports commentator and served as head coach of the Lakers for part of the 1993-1994 season. And all of this was before he returned to the Lakers in 1996 where he played 32 more games before retiring from the game for good – unless he elects to make another comeback.
Magic Johnson, in his thirteen NBA seasons came away with 17,707 points, 19.5 points per game average, 6,559 rebounds, and 10,141 assists. He also had an impressive 1,724 steals placing him at ninth place on the all-time list. In 1996-97, he was invited to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team and in 2002, he entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Magic was a star in basketball and perhaps a former NBA player who knew him best, said it best-”Magic is head-and-shoulders above everybody else. I’ve never seen anybody as good as him,”-Larry Bird.
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