Magic Johnson

Starting from his first days playing the game at Everett High School in Lansing, Johnson was a unique player. He earned the nickname "Magic" when he was only 15, from local sports writer Fred Stabley Jr., who watched him put up 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 16 assists in one game. In 1977, Magic's senior year, he led Everett High School to a 27-1 record and a state championship, averaging 28.8 points and 16.8 rebounds for the year.

At 6'9", he was as tall as some centers yet played the point guard position (he still remains the tallest dedicated point guard in NBA history). Choosing a college close to home, Johnson put up impressive numbers his freshman year, and helped Michigan State University earn a Big Ten Conference title; the Spartans lost in the Mideast Region final to eventual champions Kentucky. His sophomore year in college, Johnson took the team even farther, winning the NCAA national title in 1979, beating player-of-the-year Larry Bird's Indiana State University. It remains the most widely watched title game in history.

Leaving college after his sophomore year, Johnson was the first overall pick in the 1979 NBA Draft, chosen by the Los Angeles Lakers. Johnson's impact was immediate. The Lakers were a talented team and featured one of the game's greatest centers in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but Kareem had been unable to get the Lakers to the championship series in his previous two seasons. Many observers felt that it was Johnson who pushed the Lakers from being a good team to a great one. He combined the skills of the "true" point guard with those of a forward and a center, and fit in well with the Lakers scheme. Featuring a fast-breaking style with often dazzling passes, the Lakers were winning games in such an exciting fashion they were dubbed "Showtime" by fans and the media. Johnson played with a great joy that was infectious, and the Lakers not only became a fun team to watch, but a team that seemed to be having fun playing. Only the Boston Celtics, featuring eventual Rookie of the Year Larry Bird, and the Philadelphia 76ers, with the dynamic Julius "Dr. J." Erving, matched the Lakers in fan popularity.

In Johnson's first NBA post-season, the Lakers met the 76ers in the NBA Finals. As had been true throughout the season, Abdul-Jabbar was the key to the Lakers' success. However, in a game five victory, the Laker center suffered a severely sprained ankle. The Lakers led the best-of-seven series three-games-to-two, but were traveling to Philadelphia for game six without their best player and that year's league MVP (the sixth time Kareem had won the award). In a move that shocked and delighted fans outside of Philadelphia, point guard Magic Johnson, still not yet age 21, started the game as center in Abdul-Jabbar's place, and eventually played every position on the floor, delivering arguably the finest game of his NBA career, scoring 42 points, pulling down 15 rebounds, and passing out 7 assists. The Lakers won game six and with it the NBA championship. Johnson was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, being the only rookie to have ever won the award. Johnson is also one of only four players to win NCAA and NBA championships in consecutive years.

Bryce is lame!

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.

1988's repeat championship would also be the last of Magic Johnson's career, though in the following seasons he and the Lakers would continue to perform strongly. Johnson garnered his third MVP award in the 1989-90 season and maintained his string of years being named to the All-Star team, a consecutive 11 times (12 total) extending from 1982 to the year after his retirement in 1992.

After losing to the Detroit Pistons in the 1989 NBA Finals, The Lakers continued their reign of the Pacific Division, earning division titles every year until Johnson's last 1990-91 season, which broke a nine-year streak of division titles (10 total during Johnson's career). The Lakers still finished that year with a respectable 58-24 record, and that season saw Magic Johnson surpass Oscar Robertson as the all time assists leader (John Stockton would surpass Johnson's record in 1995). Though the Lakers came in second to the Portland Trailblazers in the regular season, they would go on to beat them in the Western Conference Finals, giving the Lakers their 9th Conference title championsip in 12 full seasons Johnson played. The Lakers lost the 1991 NBA Finals 4-1 to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, the first of their eventual six championships.

On November 7, 1991 Magic Johnson shocked the nation, announcing that he was HIV-positive, and that after twelve years with the Lakers would retire immediately from the game of basketball. Despite having retired and not playing a single game of the 1991-92 regular season, he returned to play his final All-Star game after being voted to the team in 1992. Johnson and the West routed the East team 153-113, and Johnson's 25 points and 9 assists earned him his second All-Star MVP award.