Earvin “Magic” Johnson is a cult figure in Los Angeles. So beloved he might easily run for governor of California.
A legend of basketball and an ambassador of the league, he has done so much for the game of basketball and for the world. Los Angeles Lakers fans, in particular, worship him as one of the greatest Lakers of all time, having brought five championship and great success to the franchise owned for the last 40 years by the Buss family.
Magic is widely considered to be one of the best point guards in the history of the league. He was the leader of the Lakers since he entered the league in 1979 and won the Finals MVP. In his tenure in Los Angeles until his retirement for the HIV virus, he averaged 19.7 points, 11.4 assists and 7.3 rebounds, conducting the team to nine finals appearances through the 80s and the beginning of the 90s.
Furthermore, when he made a comeback during the 1995-96 season, after four seasons away from the pros, at 36 years old and playing the power forward, he averaged 14.6 points, 6.9 assists and 5.7 rebounds. A true legend.
Even after his final retirement, he remained a central figure for the Los Angeles Lakers, thanks to his bond to the owning Buss family. Besides a short stint as head coach between the two retirements, he later became a minority owner and finally President of Basketball Operations. He is a prominent personality in Los Angeles sports, as much as he was as a player.
Johnson is a self-made man, who rose from son of a worker of General Motors in Michigan to become a basketball superstar and an accomplished businessman. From Earvin to Magic to Magic Johnson Enterprises.
Obviously, the way to such accomplishments is not an easy one with only success and victories to celebrate. There is plenty of hard moments, obstacles, setbacks. What we can safely say is that Magic has always faced those adversities with courage and determination and has overcome most of them.
There has been tough times in which Earvin had to take a step back, decide to sacrifice something of himself or go against what he would have preferred to do for the benefit of the Lakers and of the NBA. Such was his greatness, he knew the best course of action and did not shy away from acting accordingly.
We take a look at five times that Magic Johnson sacrificed himself for the sake of the Los Angeles Lakers and/or the NBA.
Gave up his number
In 1992, Magic Johnson received medical clearance, attempted a comeback to the NBA, playing several preseason games.
Many players and executives spoke against his return. One of those voices arose prominently. That of Karl Malone, the same that a few months earlier had been his teammate on the Dream Team. He complained to be constantly subject to cuts during games and that he would not feel free to play unbound against Magic. The fear to be infected would always be on his mind.
Earvin ultimately decided to cancel his return to the NBA.
Anyway, many years later, in 2004, the Los Angeles Lakers pulled off one of the biggest free agent moves of their recent history, bringing in Karl Malone and Gary Payton to complement Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal in the hunt for another title. The Lakers automatically became the favorite to the championship.
In the introductory press conference of the two future Hall of Famers, Magic announced that he would give his retired 32 to Malone, who had worn the same number in Utah his whole career. The jersey was even presented.
Despite what Malone had said about him in the past, Magic did not hesitate to offer his symbol in the history of the franchise to the new star coming in. He never said a word about his detrimental past declarations during The Mailman’s tenure in LA. Malone, at the same time, was respectful enough to refuse to take the 32 off the rafters and opted to wear his Olympic number, 11.
Playing center in Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals
During Game 5 of the 1980 NBA Finals, the unfathomable happened. The Lakers, on the verge of taking a 3-2 advantage over the Philadelphia 76ers, lost their MVP, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, from an ankle injury. Although he managed to finish the game and grab the victory, he was ruled out for Game 6, a game that would be played in Philadelphia.
A rookie Magic Johnson, already an All-Star starting point guard of the Western Conference, decided to take the place of the captain Jabbar and fill the void he had left at the center position.
The player that was leading the Lakers in the playoffs with 9.4 assists, playing point guard, would move to the five in the decisive Game 6. Magic needed to make up for Kareem’s missing scoring, who was averaging 31.9 points and 12.1 rebounds in the playoffs.
Johnson finished the game with 42 points, 15 rebounds and 7 assists, leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the championship and earning Finals MVP honors. The only reason he did not get a triple-double was that he did not handle the ball as he used to do.
For this game, Magic sacrificed his playing style turning into a scorer, delegating the point guard duties entirely to Norm Nixon and Michael Cooper.
This was early proof of Earvin’s versatility and willingness to take the role he was needed to win.
Stepped down as President of Basketball Operations
In 2017, the city of Los Angeles rejoiced when controlling owner Jeanie Buss fired her brother Jimmy from his role of top executive of the Los Angeles Lakers (along with Mitch Kupchak) and appointed long-time legend Johnson as the President of Basketball Operations. He was set to spark a new era in LA after years of struggle under Buss’s managing.
His first move was to hire a new General Manager to help him in the job, and he chose former Kobe Bryant’s agent Rob Pelinka.
He knew he would face some tough times in the beginning and that success was not around the corner due to the mess left by the previous front office. So he worked to reassess the situation and he did pretty well, setting the path in a little more than a year, for great stars to come to LA.
He managed to take rid of the ridiculous contracts given to Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng. Although at the expense of many young players collected through hard years, Magic paved the way for the greatest player in the world to join the Lakers. In the summer of 2018, he signed LeBron James to a four-year contract.
President Johnson seemed to have done everything that was expected from him and brought the Lakers back on a course of great success for the years to come, but in April 2019, he unexpectedly resigned from his role as President of Basketball Operations.
Many reasons were given for the decision, both officially and unofficially.
Magic cited his need to return to his role as ambassador of the NBA, something the executive role would not allow him with all the restrictions over tampering. He hinted to some back-stabbing, probably referred to Rob Pelinka, who, people said, was aiming to the ultimate decision power in the front office.
Differences with Jeanie Buss, with whom he did not want to fight, for the vision of the franchise have been cited as a reason for his resignation.
Other claims pointed to him being too tough on employees, who felt too much pressure, and reports cited him never showing up in his office, taking his duties as a part-time job.
Whatever the reasons were, he felt it was better for himself and for the success of the team to leave his assignment and leave the handling of the roster to Rob Pelinka.
Right or wrong about his decision, Pelinka succeeded masterfully, acquiring Anthony Davis a few months later and building a championship-caliber team.
Walked away from a first comeback
As already said, in 1992 Magic was ready to return to the Los Angeles Lakers and reprise his NBA career. He worked out and played in many preseason games. But during one of these, the basketball world froze when he sustained a cut on his arm. The Athletic Trainer made a big statement act, treating the cut without gloves to show the world the minimum risk to get infected.
But the event sparked new criticism about his return. Many players and executives, including his own Los Angeles Lakers and Dream Team teammates, spoke against his return to the game, most notably Karl Malone, A.C. Green and Byron Scott.
Following the backlash from those declarations, Johnson decided to pull back from his return. As he declared years later he “did not want to hurt the game”.
Magic said that if he had known what he knows today, he would have never retired. He would have fought against his detractors to prove there was no risk in playing with him. And that is what he did years later in his 1996 real comeback.
In the early 90s, there was not much awareness about the disease, and although the league had received assurance from doctors that there was not a risk of spreading the virus, people were still skeptical. Magic made his best in the following years to raise consciousness regarding it and teaching that infected people were not to be stigmatized.
A real shame he did not return to play in the 1992-93 season. In those years the Lakers were still a very good team, and with him at the lead, who knows what they could have accomplished.
Of course, the Chicago Bulls were dominating the league, but a deeper playoff run than a first-round exit would have been a better satisfaction for the fans in Los Angeles, and in the 1994-1995 Michael Jordan-less seasons, they might have been a threat to the eventual champions Houston Rockets with a good chance at the championship.
First retirement
On November 7, 1991, Magic Johnson shocked the world announcing he had contracted the HIV virus.
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He obviously had to automatically retire as its effects on his short-term health were still unknown and he could not take the chance to infect other players.
A hard blow for the NBA, which was losing one of his icons, and for the fans all over the world who idolized the 6’9″ smiling point guard who electrified the game with his dazzling passes.
The little knowledge about the AIDS disease and the HIV virus at the time made him a walking dead man in the public eye. Instead, he became the living proof and testimonial of how low-life threatening the virus was if properly treated while leaving the freedom to live a normal life.
Obviously, there was much concern for the contagion around the league and it was the safer and sounder move to retire, but as of our knowledge of the virus today, a player would never need to retire.
God had a plan for Magic, and that was to use his success as a basketball legend to make him an even more important figure out of the court, becoming the face of the disease, representing and improving the lives of all who suffered it around the world.
This is the ultimate legacy of Magic Johnson. Not the championships. Not the MVPs. Not the Los Angeles Lakers’ success. The millions of lives he changed with his work, his power, his enthusiasm and his love for life.