Magic Johnson biography
Magic Johnson, byname of Earvin Johnson, Jr., (born August 14, 1959, Lansing, Michigan, U.S.), American basketball participant who led the National Basketball Association (NBA) Los Angeles Lakers to 5 championships.
The son of an autoworker, Johnson earned his nickname “Magic” in highschool for his inventive and entertaining ballhandling. He was an intense competitor who led his highschool workforce to a state championship in 1977 and led Michigan State University to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship in 1979—handing Larry Bird and Indiana State its solely defeat of that season. Johnson left Michigan State after his sophomore season and was chosen by the Lakers with the primary general decide within the 1979 NBA draft.
Johnson achieved his best success within the skilled ranks, the place he guided the Lakers to NBA championships in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988. His first championship got here in his rookie season, and within the sixth and title-clinching recreation of the 1979–80 NBA finals Johnson remarkably performed all 5 positions to safe the Lakers’ championship, serving to him turn out to be the primary rookie to win the NBA finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. He was additionally named the league MVP in 1987, 1989, and 1990. He performed level guard and introduced new versatility to that place. At 6 ft 9 inches (2.06 metres), he was a harmful scorer from anyplace on the court docket and a succesful rebounder, averaging 19.5 factors and seven.2 rebounds per recreation over his 13-year profession. However, he was finest recognized for modern no-look and bounce passes and a knack for making large performs within the clutch. The battles for league supremacy between Johnson’s Lakers and Bird’s Boston Celtics spurred a brand new period of fan curiosity and NBA prosperity.
On November 7, 1991, Johnson shocked the basketball world—and made headlines across the globe—when he introduced that he was HIV-positive and was instantly retiring from the game. At the time of his preliminary retirement, Johnson was the NBA’s all-time chief in assists (9,921; damaged in 1995 by John Stockton). He returned to basketball to take part within the 1992 All-Star Game (of which he was the MVP) and within the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, the place he helped the NBA-superstar-laden “Dream Team” seize the lads’s basketball gold medal. Later he served briefly as head coach of the Lakers (1994), and he additionally performed with the workforce for a portion of the 1995–96 season. He was a minority proprietor of the franchise from 1994 to 2010.
After his retirement from basketball, Johnson grew to become an especially profitable entrepreneur—with estimated holdings of roughly $500 million as of 2015—and a outstanding HIV/AIDS activist. In 2012 he was a part of an possession group that bought the Los Angeles Dodgers. He rejoined the Lakers franchise as an adviser to Jeanie Buss, the workforce’s proprietor, in 2017. After spending simply weeks in that function, he was promoted to president of basketball operations, giving Johnson management of the Lakers’ entrance workplace. After a brief and lacklustre tenure, he surprisingly resigned on the finish of the 2018–19 season, stating that he would slightly spend his time as an envoy of the game. Johnson was named one of many 50 best gamers in NBA historical past in 1996, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.