Surprising Facts That Shed New Light On The Life And Career Of Magic Johnson
Before LeBron James and before Michael Jordan, Earvin "Magic" Johnson was regarded by many as the greatest basketball player ever to play the game.
Even today, decades after his retirement, Johnson continues to be an influential figure whose legacy looms large not just over the basketball world, but also over the wider sports world.
He grew up in a working-class family.
Earvin Johnson Jr. was born to Earvin Sr. and Christine Johnson — a General Motors worker and school janitor respectively — in Lansing, Michigan.
Young Earvin grew up with six siblings and three half-siblings, and was profoundly influenced by his parents' strong work ethic.
He loved basketball from a young age.
Johnson was a big fan of Bill Russell, Marques Haynes, and Earl "the Pearl" Monroe, three dominant pro players of his youth.
As he grew, he started turning heads for his basketball ability and looked forward to playing basketball at nearby Sexton High School, an institution with a strong basketball program.
Johnson wound up going to a predominantly white high school.
Instead of going to his first choice, Sexton High School, Johnson would attend Everett High School, a mostly white high school that he had to take the bus to.
His time at Everett was challenging, as he dealt with racism and prejudice, with players on the basketball team refusing to pass him the ball. This soon changed.
When he was 15, he became Magic.
After a dominant high school performance at the age of 15 in which he scored 36 points, 18 rebounds and 16 assists for a triple-double, Johnson was dubbed "Magic" by a sports writer from the Lansing State Journal.
In his senior season, Everett cruised to a 27-1 record, with Magic averaging 28.8 points and 16.8 rebounds per game en route to a state championship.
He stayed close to home for college.
Johnson essentially had his choice of scholarship offers coming out of his senior year, but he wanted to stay close to his home in Lansing.
After narrowing his decision to two schools — Michigan and Michigan State — he decided to play collegiate ball for the Michigan State Spartans in East Lansing, Michigan.
He was big for a point guard.
Johnson has always been a somewhat unconventional player because he was exceptionally large, at 6'9", for the point guard position, which usually favors smaller players.
Part of Johnson's choice to attend Michigan State, aside from geography, was the fact that coach Jud Heathcote said he could play point guard, rather than being switched to power or small forward.
He first squared off with Larry Bird in 1979.
The rivalry that would come to define the NBA in the '80s saw its first chapter at the end of the 1978-79 college season, when Johnson's Spartans took on Larry Bird's Indiana State Sycamores.
In the most-watched college basketball game ever, Johnson led the Spartans to victory, winning the national championship and raising his stock for the upcoming NBA draft.
He was selected first overall by the Lakers.
The Los Angeles Lakers were a strong team that had been built around the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Despite their promise, this core had been unable to win a championship.
With the first pick in the 1979 NBA Draft, the Lakers opted to pick the talented point guard out of Michigan State.
Johnson turned down a lucrative shoe deal.
Before Nike became the biggest name in shoes, they were a struggling upstart company — and they focused their early efforts on securing a Magic Johnson endorsement.
Johnson instead accepted a deal with Converse that paid him $100,000 a year. If he'd selected Nike's deal of $1 per pair of shoes sold, plus 100,000 shares in company stock, it would have been worth billions long-term.
Success was immediate.
With Johnson playing point guard, the Lakers cruised to a 60-22 regular season record and made it to the 1980 NBA Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Lakers prevailed in six games, largely on the back of Johnson, who had to fill in at center after an injury to Abdul-Jabbar. In his first season, Johnson had won an NBA championship, an NBA Finals MVP, an all-star game nod, and a place on the NBA All-Rookie Team.
His sophomore season wasn't as smooth.
A nagging cartilage issue in his left knee caused Johnson to miss 45 games in 1980-81. The Lakers were surprisingly upset by the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.
Despite his injury, Lakers owner Jerry Buss recognized Johnson's bright future, and signed him to a 25-year, $25 million contract — the richest contract in sports history at that point.
He may have gotten his coach fired.
In 1981-82, an increasingly discontented Johnson feuded with Lakers coach Paul Westhead, to the point that he demanded a trade out of Los Angeles.
Lakers owner Buss decided he'd rather lose his coach than his phenom, so he fired Westhead and replaced him with assistant coach Pat Riley. This move suited Johnson fine, and set up the coach who would be synonymous with the "Showtime" Lakers.
Success with Pat Riley was almost immediate.
The Lakers returned to the NBA Finals in 1982 and 1983, both times against the Philadelphia 76ers.
While they won the championship in 1982, they were unable to repeat their heroics the following season. Still, this run of success meant that Magic had two championships, and three Finals appearances, in just his first four seasons.
Showtime was underway.
During the first few seasons of their respective NBA careers, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had only faced off during the regular season. But in 1984, Johnson's Lakers and Bird's Celtics would face off in the NBA Finals.
This represented a chapter in a larger rivalry as well, as 1984 was the eighth time the Lakers and Celtics had played in the Finals. In that time, the Lakers had only won one championship.
The season ended in heartbreak.
After winning the first game, the Lakers fumbled away a prime opportunity to win Game 2. This put the team off-balance, and they would drop the series in seven games to the Celtics.
While it was a disappointing end to the season, Magic and the Lakers wouldn't have to wait long before clashing with their rivals once again.
In 1985, the Lakers were back with a vengeance.
For the third season in a row, the Lakers returned to the NBA Finals, once again facing off with Bird and the Celtics.
Even though the Lakers surrendered an embarrassing 148 points in a Game 1 loss, they rebounded and were able to take home the championship in six games.
More championships followed, but the rivalry was dying down.
Two years later, the Lakers beat the Celtics once more in the 1987 NBA Finals, giving Johnson a 2-1 edge over Bird in NBA Finals head-to-head appearances.
The following year, in 1988, the Lakers won another championship, this one against the "Bad Boys" Detroit Pistons. This would mark the fifth and final NBA Championship for Magic Johnson.
In his final seasons, the Lakers would square off with ascendant dynasties.
1989 saw a rematch of the 1988 Finals, only this time the Pistons bested the Lakers in seven games.
In 1991, the Lakers reached the finals for the final time during the Magic era. They played the Chicago Bulls, who were led by Michael Jordan. While the Lakers weren't necessarily seen as a favorite, they were soundly trounced by Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and the Bulls.
In 1991 came a shock announcement.
During a routine physical exam prior to the 1991-92 season, Johnson found that he'd tested positive for HIV.
Johnson at first said he didn't know how he'd contracted the disease, but later acknowledged that it was likely from having unsafe heterosexual sex with many partners during his career, referencing the "harems of women" that he'd slept with.
He retired — and then reunited with an old rival.
Even though Johnson didn't play in the 1991-92 season, he was still voted as a starter for the 1992 NBA All-Star Game.
Later that year, he was selected to the U.S. national team — known as the "Dream Team" - for the 1992 Summer Olympics. The Dream Team cruised to a gold medal thanks to the star power of players like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird.
He attempted a comeback.
Even though he was dealing with HIV treatment, Johnson always had an eye on an NBA comeback. In 1994, he was named Lakers coach, but found that he didn't enjoy the job.
In 1995, at the age of 36, Johnson finally made his comeback. He had a strong season, but the Lakers were not a strong team, and they were knocked out of the playoffs by the Houston Rockets.
He became a staunch HIV activist.
Now fully retired from playing, Johnson focused his efforts on educating the public about the risks of HIV. He was part of the Bush Administration's National Commission on AIDS, spoke at the United Nations on World AIDS Day, and served as a UN Messenger of Peace.
His efforts gave rise to the "Magic Johnson Effect," which is the notion that Johnson's public acknowledgement of the disease helped to educate the general public.
His honors speak for themselves.
Johnson retired with five championships, three MVP Awards, and 12 All-Star appearances. He was honored with a statue outside the arena, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players in 1996.
Off the court, Johnson won the 1992 Jackie Robinson Sports Award and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025.
He's stayed in the spotlight since retiring.
While Johnson has undeniable charisma, he found out the hard way that these talents don't necessarily mesh well with TV hosting. He was given his own talk show, The Magic Hour, in 1998.
Unfortunately, Johnson was awkward in the role and didn't improve much. The series ran from June to September of 1998, and was not renewed.
He's somewhat of a sports mogul.
While he missed out on a deal potentially worth billions with Nike, Johnson was still a very wealthy man by the end of his playing days.
In the 2000s, he turned his attention to sports ownership. A group led by Johnson along with movie executives submitted a successful bid to buy baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers for $2 billion in 2012.
With the Dodgers came more championships.
Johnson is just one member of the Dodgers' ownership group, but is its most famous — and public-facing — face.
It took some time for the Dodgers to find success under this regime, but they did eventually win the World Series in 2020 and again in 2024. Today, they're one of baseball's best and most valuable teams.
He's gotten involved in football as well.
In 2023, the Washington Commanders of the NFL were sold to an ownership group led by billionaire investor Josh Harris, along with Magic Johnson, for $6.05 billion.
This represented the second top-flight pro team Johnson was a co-owner of. He said the Commanders purchase was the greatest achievement of his business career.
He's been married to his wife for more than 30 years.
Johnson and his wife Earlitha "Cookie" Johnson had been an on-again, off-again item ever since his college days in Lansing.
In 1991, the couple finally made it official and tied the knot in a small ceremony in Lansing. They're still married to this day.
His son is an influencer.
Johnson fathered a son with another woman, Melissa Mitchell, in 1981. In 1992, he and Cookie welcomed their first child together, a son named Earvin III, or EJ for short. They later adopted a daughter.
EJ Johnson is a minor celebrity in his own right, best known for starring on the reality show Rich Kids of Beverly Hills.
He's truly lived the American Dream.
Johnson started out as a blue-collar kid with undeniable basketball talent. Along the way, he revolutionized the point guard position and became an integral part of one of the NBA's legacy teams.
The chapters of Johnson's life that include his HIV diagnosis and subsequent activism, coupled with his entrepreneurial spirit, showcase the remarkable journey of Earvin "Magic" Johnson.
Dan Gray
