Magic Johnson

Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Jr. (born August 14, 1959 in Lansing, Michigan) is an American former basketball player, who was one of the greatest, most clutch, and most revolutionary players in the game's history. Known for his ability to make the players around him better, he won championships at every level of competition - high school, collegiate, professional, and international. Statues of him have been erected in front of the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California and at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center in Lansing, Michigan. His college career at Michigan State University reinvigorated the game of basketball.

The 1979 National Championship between Michigan State and Larry Bird's Indiana State, with Michigan State winning the NCAA Championship, was the most-watched college basketball game in history. His professional career consisted of 13 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he won five NBA championships, was named to the NBA All-Star team 12 times, was league MVP three times, and NBA Finals MVP three times. He was in the NBA Finals 9 times and was a participant in the most-watched regular season NBA game ever and the most-watched NBA All-Star Game ever.

In both cases, he was the reason for the bump in ratings - the regular season game was his second game back during his 1996 NBA comeback, and the All-Star Game was his final one. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, and was voted to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996. In 1991 he became one of the first sports celebrities to announce his HIV-seropositivity, and as one of the most well-known public figures to be HIV positive, he has continually worked to educate and raise awareness of the disease.

1980s: Controversy, championships, and the rivalry
Due to a knee injury, Magic missed most of a disappointing 1980-81 campaign where the Lakers failed to defend their title, losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Houston Rockets, but the Lakers started off the 1981-82 season winning. But under Head Coach Paul Westhead the fast-breaking style of the previous years appeared to be replaced by a more deliberate offensive game plan focusing on the half-court effectiveness of Abdul-Jabbar. While far from being the only player critical of the new offense, Johnson was the first to voice his concerns publicly. After a road win against the Utah Jazz, Johnson, who had earlier had a verbal altercation with Westhead, demanded a trade from the team. Lakers owner Jerry Buss instead fired Westhead, inviting league-wide scorn. For perhaps the first time in his career, Johnson found himself being booed by fans across the league, even in Los Angeles. The controversy was short-lived; Westhead was replaced by Assistant Coach and former broadcaster Pat Riley, and Johnson and the Lakers went on to win the 1982 NBA Title.

Part of the reason Magic wasn't traded was the pact he signed in 1981, which guaranteed his NBA services to the Los Angeles Lakers for 25 years for $25 million dollars. It is the longest player contract ever written in professional sports history, and helped him play for the Lakers in two comeback attempts.

Throughout the 1970s the NBA had suffered through low attendance and minimal television viewership. Interest in the NBA had declined to the point where it was common opinion that the team-oriented college game was more exciting than the individual superstar-emphasized, and violently physical pro game of the era. The NBA was a distant third in popularity among pro sports behind the NFL and Major League Baseball. But with the rising popularity of Johnson and Boston Celtics' Larry Bird in the 1980s the NBA began enjoying a resurgence.

Their first three years in the league produced three championships, two for Magic (1979-80, 1981-82) and one for Bird (1980-81). Ever since their highly publicized match-up in the 1979 NCAA Championship game, Johnson and Bird had been inextricably linked as rivals. Their quick success only helped to fuel the rivalry, as did a long-held historical rift between the teams, who had met six times previously for the NBA title in the 1960's, with the Celtics emerging victorious all six times.

Contests between Bird's Celtics and Johnson's Lakers — both during the regular season and in the Finals — attracted enormous television audiences. Not since Boston's Bill Russell squared off against the Lakers' Wilt Chamberlain had professional basketball enjoyed such a marquee matchup. The apparent contrast between the two players and their respective teams seemed scripted for television: Bird, the introverted small-town hero with the blue-collar work ethic, fit perfectly with the throwback, hard-nosed style of the Celtics, while the stylish, gregarious Johnson ran the Lakers' fast-paced "Showtime" offense amidst the bright lights and celebrities of Los Angeles.

A 1984 Converse commercial for its "Weapon" line of basketball shoes (endorsed by both Bird and Johnson) reflected the perceived dichotomy between the two players. In the commercial, Bird is practicing alone on a rural basketball court when Johnson pulls up in a sleek limousine and challenges him to a one-on-one match. In fact, their playing styles were not that dissimilar; both relied on knowledge of the game more than pure athletic ability, each made a point of involving his entire team, and both were remarkable passers.

Despite the intensity of their rivalry, Bird and Johnson became friends off the court. Their friendship blossomed when the two players worked together to film the 1984 Converse commercial, which depicted them as archenemies. Johnson appeared at Bird's retirement ceremony in 1992 and emotionally described Bird as a "friend forever."

When the two teams met in 1984 for the NBA Championship, many Los Angeles Lakers looked at it as a chance to give the franchise what it never had before – a victory over the Boston Celtics. In one of the more memorable series in NBA history, the Celtics won the championship in seven games. The Lakers were plagued by mistakes at key moments in the series and Johnson made his share of errors. Bird excelled and was named Finals MVP.

The Lakers were devastated by the loss, Johnson particularly so. There was a perception after that series that while Johnson was the flashier player, it was Bird and the Celtics who possessed a work ethic that defeated the more stylistic Lakers. Deeply chastened by the defeat (Celtic forward Kevin McHale had come up with the nickname "Tragic" to describe Johnson's moodiness in the off-season), the Lakers recommitted themselves and won the 1985 championship against the Celtics. Many of the Lakers said that winning the championship in game six on the Boston Garden floor was the biggest thrill of their careers.

In the 1986-87 season, Magic Johnson had the best season of his career. He led the Lakers with 23.9 PPG and 12.2 APG. The Lakers finished the 1987 season with a league-leading 65-17 win-loss record and Johnson was later named the NBA's Most Valuable Player. In the post-season the Lakers cruised to an amazing 11-1 record before they met the Celtics in the NBA Finals once again. The Lakers would eventually win the series 4-2 and Magic would end up with the NBA Finals MVP. The Lakers would go on to repeat their win in the 1988 NBA Finals, winning a hard fought series against an injury-slowed Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons that went all seven games.

The following season, with both Magic and Byron Scott hampered by hamstring injuries during the Finals, Detroit swept a depleted Laker squad (who had gone 11-0 in the first three rounds of the playoffs) to deny Johnson and the Lakers their three-peat as NBA Champions.

During the 1980s, the Celtics or the Lakers appeared in every NBA finals, with Johnson and Bird capturing eight championships between the two of them, Magic and the Lakers winning five while Larry Bird and the Celtics took home three. Their legacies and talent cemented them and their teams as one of the greatest rivalries in sports, and catapulted the NBA back into popularity, drawing in millions of new fans. Through the decade Johnson continued to improve his all-around game. Johnson was a consistent statistical leader, leading the Lakers in scoring three times (1986-87, 1988-89, and 1989-90) and in rebounding twice (1981-82 and 1982-83), as well as leading the league in assists four times and in steals in two consecutive seasons.

Statistics, awards/honors

• Games: 905
• PTS: 17,707
• ASTS: 10,141
• STLS: 1,724
• BLOCKS: 374
• PPG: 19.5
• APG: 11.2
• RPG: 7.1
• FG%: .520
• FT%: .848
• 3-time NBA Most Valuable Player: 1986-87, 1988-89, 1989-90
• 5-time NBA Champion: 1979-80, 1981-82, 1984-85, 1986-87, 1987-88
• 3-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player: 1980, 1982, 1987
• 12-time NBA All-Star: 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 (did not play), 1990, 1991, 1992
• 2-time NBA All-Star Game MVP: 1990, 1992
• 9-time All-NBA First Team: 1982-83, 1983-84, 1984-85, 1985-86, 1986-87, 1987-88, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1990-91
• All-NBA Second Team: 1981-82
• NBA All-Rookie Team: 1979-80
• IBM Award for all-around contributions to team’s success: (1983-84)
• J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award (1991-92)
• Member of 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team: Gold Medalist
• Youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double in the playoffs (13 points, 12 rebounds, 16 assists; 1980)
• One of only three players in NBA history to record a triple-double in his playoff debut (joining Johnny McCarthy and later joined by LeBron James)

Player profile
Few athletes are truly unique, changing the way their sport is played with their singular skills.
— introductory line of Johnson's nba.com biography.
The 6-9, 255 lbs. Johnson played the point guard position and is considered as one of the most successful and unique players to play the game. He is a 12-time All-Star, earned ten All-NBA callups and won each three time MVP and three-time Finals MVP and averaged 19.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 11.2 assists per game. His career total for assists is the third highest (John Stockton is the leader with 15,806), and has the career playoff record for most assists with 2,346.

Johnson is regarded as one of the best ball handlers and passers of all time; nba.com writes "he dazzled fans and dumbfounded opponents with no-look passes off the fastbreak, pinpoint alley-oops from halfcourt, spinning feeds and overhand bullets under the basket through triple teams. When defenders expected him to pass, he shot. When they expected him to shoot, he passed." Johnson led the legendary "Showtime" fast break of the 80s Los Angeles Lakers, astonishing opponents and team mates alike with his trademark "no-look" passes. Colleague Michael Cooper said: "There have been times when he has thrown passes and I wasn't sure where he was going. Then one of our guys catches the ball and scores, and I run back up the floor convinced that he must've thrown it through somebody."

Johnson was a unique player because he played point guard despite being 6-9, a size reserved normally for frontcourt players. He combined the size of a power forward, the one-on-one skills of a swingman and the ball handling talent of a guard, making him one of the most dangerous triple-double threats of all time: his 138 triple-double-games are only second to Oscar Robertson. Statistically, Johnson's offensive production ranks among the game's best. Assuming every assist creates 2 points, he created 54.85 points per 48 minutes, compared to Michael Jordan's 50.98 or Wilt Chamberlain's 40.82.

Magic also gained reputation for playing all five positions well. This is especially showcased in Game 6 in the NBA Finals of his rookie season, where he subbed as center for the injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and delivered one of the finest playoff performances of all time. Johnson established the term "oversized point guard".

Johnson's game had few weaknesses. He was exceptionally strong and conditioned, regularly bench pressing over 300 pounds for reps, which allowed him to control smaller players when he needed to guard them. In fact, after the retirement of Michael Cooper, Johnson was usually the one who defended the opposing team's best player. He retired in the top 10 in steals, having averaged 2 steals per game. His ability to perform in the clutch was confirmed early on, as he was named NBA Finals MVP in his rookie season.

Johnson was voted as one of the 50 Greatest Players of All Time by the NBA. On May 11, 2006, ESPN.com rated Johnson the greatest point guard of all time.

 Magic Johnson. (2007, January 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:08, January 12, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Magic_Johnson&oldid=99915912

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