Johnson
April 2, 2009 by Denise I Smithson
Filed under Sports
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.”
Johnson became known as “Magic” while still playing on his high school basketball team. A reporter covering a game could find no other way to convey the skill with which Johnson played. After graduating from high school, Johnson chose to attend Michigan State in East Lansing, MI in order to stay close to home. While in college, Johnson played on the school team, the well known Spartans. While a Spartan, Johnson led the team to a 25-5 record and a Big Ten conference title in his first year! His record the following year was no less impressive; the Spartans defeated Larry Bird’s Indiana State team to capture the national title in one of the most closely watched NCAA games ever.
Deciding to go professional, Johnson decided to declare his eligibility for the draft in 1979, where he was snapped up by the Lakers. Lakers fans were incredibly excited to see one of the nations’ best college players on their team. Larry Byrd ended up winning the NBA Rookie of the year award, the Lakers did capture the NBA championship in Johnson’s first year on the team with a 60-22 record. The next year, Johnson and the Lakers performed even better, with Johnson matching his college records – he was the first rookie to start in an all star game since 1969.
The 1980 NBA finals saw another amazing performance from Johnson against the Philadelphia 76ers. Johnson scored 42 points, 15 boards, 7 assists and 3 steals in the series. Magic became the first rookie ever to win the MVP award in the finals. Magic was modest as usual about his achievement: “I just wanted to do whatever the (Lakers) needed to do to win. I was having fun.” However, the next year would see Johnson sidelined for 45 games due to torn cartilage in his knee.
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.
In 1984, Magic signed a $25 million dollar contract with the Lakers and they won three NBA titles in the following four years. In the 1986-87 season, he scored an astounding 38 points against Houston and 46 points against the Sacramento Kings-a career high. During this season, he also achieved a career-high average of 23.9 points per game- and Johnson was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player of the Year. He would win this award again 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 made some incredible achievements in his 13 season career in the NBA. He scored 17, 707 points, 6.559 rebounds, 10,141 assists and 1,724 steals. Johnson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hal of Fame in 2002. He remains focused on his charitable work and his own companies; but even after years off the court he is still one of the biggest names in basketball. As his longtime rival and admirer Larry Byrd says of him: : Magic is head-and-shoulders above everybody else. I’ve never seen anybody as good as him.
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