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Home Classic Players Magic Johnson Guestbook
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Born on August 14, 1959, Earvin Johnson Jr. grew up in Lansing, Michigan, with nine brothers and sisters. Young Earvin passed the time by playing basketball.He said "I practiced all day and slept with my basketball." Ervin Johnson was first called "Magic" when he was a star at Everett High School. He was given the nickname by a sports writer who had just seen the 15-year-old prepster notch 36 points, 16 rebounds and 16 assists. As a senior, Johnson led Everett to a 27-1 record and the state title while averaging 28.8 points and 16.8 rebounds. Johnson wanted to attend college close to home, so he chose Michigan State in East Lansing. He put up impressive numbers as a freshman (17.0 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 7.4 apg), leading the Spartans to a 25-5 record and the Big Ten Conference title. In 1979 ,Johnson beating Larry Bird's Indiana Stateand won the NCAA Championship . Showtime In the 1979 Draft,the Lakers took Johnson with the first overall pick. And "Showtime" was born. In Magic Rookie season,he averaged 18.0 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 7.3 apg.He became the first rookie to start in an NBA All-Star Game since Elvin Hayes 11 years earlier.Led the Lakers won Western Division title with a 60-22 record, the league's second best. But that season's NBA Rookie of the Year Award went to Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics.In 1980 NBA Final game 6,the 20-year-old rookie. Assuming Abdul-Jabbar's position at center, he had 42 points, 15 boards, 7 assists and 3 steals and helped the lakers won the champion. Johnson became the first rookie ever to win the Finals MVP Award.But it just the first part of the " Showtimes".During 80-90,the Lakers won five NBA championships (1980, '82, '85, '87, '88) .And Magic won three Season ward(1987, 1989, 1990) and IBM award in 1984. End of the show In 1988-89,Lakers Super center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was retired.And in the next year Lakers losing to the Phoenix Suns in the Conference Semifinals. In 1990-91 NBA Final,Lakers lost to the Chicago Bulls in five games. It was the ninth time Johnson had reached the Finals in his 12 seasons. Before the 1991-92 campaign Johnson stunned the world with the announcement that he had tested positive for the HIV virus and was retiring from the NBA. He made a triumphant appearance at the All-Star Game that season, however, earning the game's MVP Award and leading the West to a 153-113 victory. He also began a campaign to promote AIDS awareness, an effort for which he received the league's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. In off season,Johnson went on to play for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team, write a book about safe sex, run several businesses he had started as a player, work for NBC as a television commentator and explore the possibility of purchasing an NBA franchise. With 16 games left to play in the 1993-94 season, he replaced Randy Pfund as the head coach of the Lakers In the 1995-96 season , Magic came back and playing the final 32 games of the regular season for the Lakers. By then he had bulked up to 255 pounds, and did as much of his playing at power forward as he did at guard. After the Lakers were ousted by Houston in the First Round of the 1996 playoffs, Johnson retired once again. Career In his 13 NBA seasons Johnson compiled 17,707 points (19.5 ppg), 6,559 rebounds (7.2 rpg) and 10,141 assists (11.2 apg) in addition to 1,724 steals, good for ninth place on the all-time list. He also holds the top marks for most All-Star Game assists (127) and three-point baskets (10). and won three times NBA MVP (1987, 1989, 1990), IBM Award winner (1984), Citizenship Award (1992), All-NBA first team (1983-91), All-NBA second team (1982) and NBA All-Rookie team (1980). The Lakers won five NBA championships (1980, '82, '85, '87, '88) with Johnson in the lineup. Three times Final MVP(80,82,87) He also played in a dozen All-Star Games and was named MVP twice (1990, '92). Statistics
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| Larry Bird
"Magic is head and shoulders above everybody else," "I've never seen [anybody] as good as him." Michael Cooper"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." |
Career Honors
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996) Member of five NBA championship teams (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988) Participated in 11 NBA All-Star Games (1980, 1982-88, 1990-92) Member of gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic team (1992) Awards
Records
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