Just reading his name puts a smile on your face. That’s what Magic was all about...and is all about. Making smiles. His grin is the most famous, most contagious smile in the history of sports.
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But Michael was more about awe. He left you hanging with your mouth open. Magic was about fun. He made you laugh out loud, high-five your buddy (back when high-fiving was considered cool), and made you let out actual whoops of delight during those five champagne-soaked NBA Championship celebrations with his Los Angeles Lakers.
I can hear his laugh now. Something between a ha-ha and a cackle. It was a trademark. When Magic entered a room, you could tell his No. 1 goal was to make everyone around him happy. When he stepped onto the 94-foot hardwood, his objective was exactly the same.
From NBA Day 1—back in November ’79—until now, nothing has changed.
“He was the same from that first game against the Clippers when he jumped into my arms after the victory, as he was at the end of all the championships we won together,” says former teammate and Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. “He was all about having fun and winning.”
He was so about winning. “Winnin’ Time,” as he called it.
Five NBA Championships in the ’80s, and nine NBA Finals appearances in his 13-year pro career. Hall of Fame induction in ’02. Lifetime near-triple-double averages of 20 points, a still-NBA-per-game-record of 11 assists per game, along with seven rebounds per game—Oscar Robertson may have averaged a triple-double one season, but Magic was the one who brought it into public consciousness. Career field-goal and free-throw percentages of 52 and 85, respectively, that made him as keen a shooter as he was a passer.
“Magic was one of the smartest players ever to play this game,” says New Jersey Net All-Star guard Jason Kidd, who used to wear Magic’s No. 32 in his high-school days. “I studied him as a teenager, probably more than I studied some of my classes. When me and Gary Payton used to play, growing up in Oakland, we would use what we learned from Magic, and use it in games against each other. Like posting people up. Both Gary and I like to do that, and we got that from Magic. He was a rare point guard who ran the offense from the post.”
 Magic had the size and wingspan to create mismatches against a variety of players. Walter Iooss, Jr./NBAE/Getty Images |
“Magic was all about finding mismatches,” says perennial All-Star Gary Payton. “If your team had a weak link, where say your small forward couldn’t guard his, he would attack and attack and attack until you took your player to the bench.”
Hall of Famer and former Laker small forward James Worthy says, “It’s a cliché by now, but everybody knows Magic made everyone around him better. Kareem, myself, Byron Scott, everyone.”
The numbers don’t lie. Abdul-Jabbar, who won the last of his six NBA MVPs in ’80 at age 33, was re-energized by his rookie teammate enough to play nine more years and earn eight more NBA All-Star Game trips before finally retiring in ‘89 at age 42. Worthy, who was only 30 years old when Magic first retired in ’91, saw his 21-point average and 49-percent shooting drop immediately the next three seasons (20 ppg and 45 percent, 15 ppg and 45 percent and 10 ppg and 41 percent) before he, too, retired; Scott, also 30, was not the same as well, steadily dropping from 15 ppg and 48 percent to 15 ppg and 46 percent, 14 ppg and 45 percent and then 10 ppg averages with other teams his last three seasons before he called it a career.
And the beat goes on...Magic turned Pat Riley into a coaching legend. Jerry West on the road to GM genius status. Jerry Buss a successful team owner. Jamaal Wilkes a career 50 percent shooter (he was 47 percent without Magic; 52 percent with). Michael Cooper an inspired, defensive specialist (perhaps the most famous defender, thanks in part to Magic’s constant praise of him to the media). Norm Nixon and Bob McAdoo champions. A.C. Green an NBA All-Star. Kurt Rambis a household name. Vlade Divac the first legit Euro big man.
He created basketball vernacular: Winnin’ Time; no-look pass; Coop-a-loop; triple-double; back-to-back.
 Magic still holds the NBA record for highest career assist average at 11.2 per game. Mike Powell/NBAE/Getty Images |
He, along with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, gave the historic 1992 Olympic Dream Team heart. Without those three, who knows how many fewer foreign players would be in the League today?
“It also influenced me,” says retired San Antonio Spur and former Dream Teamer David Robinson. “That’s where I learned what it takes to be the best. I really started to learn that mentality and that attitude in the ’92 Olympics, being on the original team with guys like Michael, Magic and Larry. I learned by seeing how intense they were about their sport, about their training and about their commitment to what they do.
“Up until that time, I always enjoyed basketball, but I always looked at it as a sport,” says Robinson, who would go on to lead the ’99 and ’03 championship Spurs teams. “The game was fun, but that was it. Those guys took it to a whole other level. Seeing the responsibility you have for your teammates. Seeing how the other guys look into your eyes, and how they feed off of what energy you have. That’s what I think I learned from them—how to pursue perfection. There’s an attitude that goes with excellence, and those guys had it.”
See? Magic not only made everyone around him better, he even made those who opposed him better.
When he retired early in the ’91 season after contracting the HIV virus, the League, the fans and the players were in unison about having him play in the ’92 NBA All-Star Game, an unprecedented move since he had retired more than three months prior to that. No matter, he came out and showed the world he was OK, stealing the game with a 25-point, nine-assist performance that included his memorable game-ending shootout with Isiah Thomas to close the show. With that, Magic was named NBA All-Star Game MVP for the second time in his career...to go with his three NBA MVP trophies and three NBA Finals MVP awards.
Even when one of his beloved Dream Team peers crossed him—like Karl Malone did in ’92 when he publicly worried for players’ safety in coming into contact with an HIV-carrying Johnson when Magic was making a comeback from retirement in the ’95-96 season—Magic took the high road...and kept smiling.
“Karl said what he said, and I admit, it hurt,” says Johnson. “But we more than made up for that a long time ago.”
Malone adds, “I can’t tell you how good that made me feel, when he forgave me. And then to think that when the Lakers wanted me last summer, he was willing to let me wear his retired No. 32 jersey because it was the number I wore on the Jazz. Well, I can’t tell you how that made me feel. I love that guy.”
Magic brought the love, the passion, the fun...the life to the party.
Shaquille O’Neal, who currently reigns over the sports world and entertainment industry as the undisputed King of L.A., says, “I knew when I first came here, there was gonna be a lot of pressure against me because this was the place Magic and Kareem played...and they got five championships together. I knew there would be a lot of pressure on me, but it was something I wanted to do, and that’s why I came here, it was the place I needed to be.
 In addition to serving as a Lakers vice-president, Magic is a successful businessman and philanthropist. M. David Leeds/NBAE/Getty Images |
Shaq then flashes his Magic smile.
It is exactly that image which has made Magic Johnson one of the most successful athlete-turned-businessmen in the world. The 44-year-old entrepreneur and his 12-year-old Johnson Development Corporation have an estimated worth of half-a-billion dollars, according to Forbes, ranking Magic 33rd on their list of most powerful black executives today.
His name has become a business brand: Magic Johnson Theaters (in L.A., Houston, Atlanta, Cleveland and New York) to Magic Johnson Shopping Centers (in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Las Vegas) to Magic Johnson Starbucks (39 coffeehouses in 13 states) to Magic Johnson TGI Fridays (in L.A. and Atlanta) to Magic Johnson 24 Hour Fitness (in L.A.).
His likeness is on everything. You see him sitting with Charles, Ernie and Kenny on TNT’s Inside The NBA Monday and Thursday telecasts. His name is plastered all over Hollywood—with his MTV reality show Who’s Got Game?, his Magic Johnson Music record label or his film companies Magic Johnson Enterprises (that produced the ’02 film Brown Sugar) and Magic Hallway Pictures, which just signed with Warner Bros. to produce 10 teen movies in the next four years.
Lest we forget, his most famous brand is the Magic Johnson Foundation. His party of all parties, Midsummer Night’s Magic, has gone on 18 years strong and has raised millions for numerous charities, put 200 teenagers through college, built many tech centers and clinics— including the Magic Johnson Clinic in Alameda County, CA, where HIV and AIDS patients receive treatment.
“We’ve only tapped the surface of what we’re about to do,” says Johnson Development Corp. president Kenneth Lombard, Magic’s right-hand man since the company’s inception a dozen years ago. “We couldn’t have scripted a better team. Our skills perfectly match each other. We have trust, we’re good friends and we’re united in executing this plan for the long term.
“We knew when we first embarked on this business venture that the opportunity was there because there was such wide-open territory in the areas that we’ve seen growth in. He used his business skills and the things he learned about people from his basketball days and made this work. I’m just happy to be associated with him.”
The feeling is unanimous...whether you played with him, against him, or watched him from afar. We’re just happy to be associated with Magic. Makes ya wanna just smile.
