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Home Fitness and Sports Sport Magic Johnson - An Athlete With Style
Magic Johnson - An Athlete With Style PDF Print E-mail
Written by Denise I Smithson   
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."
by DeniseISmithson


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.

Johnson made the decision to go professional and entered into the 1979 draft. Johnson was quickly drafted by the LA Lakers. LA fans were eager to see this famed college player wear the Lakers uniform and he didn't disappoint them. While the NBA's Rookie if the year award went to Larry Bird that year, Magic Johnson did help the Lakers to win the NBA championship in his first season, achieving an impressive 60-22 record. The Lakers were unstoppable the next season as well, with Johnson becoming the first rookie to start in an All Star game since the late sixties.

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.

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.

In his 13 season NBA career, Magic Johnson achieved an astounding 17,707 points ( a 19.5 point per game average), 6,559 rebounds and 10,141 assists. This is in addition to his 1,724 steals (Johnson holds the record for ninth most steals in an NBA career). Johnson was also invited to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time team in 1997 and entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. Johnson remains as modest as ever and continues to focus on his philanthropic work, but he is indisputably a living legend in the game of basket ball. As one of his fiercest rivals and greatest admirers, Larry Bird says of Johnson: Magic is head-and-shoulders above everybody else. I've never seen anybody as good as him.

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