Magic Johnson ESPN SportsCentury

[Music] wherever he went he won in just four years he led three themes to Championships at three different levels high school college and the pros and along the way he charmed us all flashing a smile bright enough to light the city of Los Angeles Magic Johnson turned a laid-back show me culture into a college crowd that lived and died with each Laker game it was a love affair they called it Showtime magic played 12 full seasons in the NBA leading the Lakers to five titles and nine appearances in the finals as a 69 guard he revolutionized the position and resurrected the triple-double then one day in 1991 he stepped the line and announced it was all over because of the HIV virus that I have attained I will have to retire from the Lakers today [Music] [Music] you talk about letting the air out of the balloons having a crash landing and there's no words to define what that meant to disfranchise but that meant to those of us who were so close to him we do not even want to yield joy and you know we want to now give him all the love and support and prayers and all the other people that are afflicted by this insidious disease he was synonymous with death and I think that's immediately what everybody fears that magic was going to die everyone was afraid for him personally I just didn't want to see this bubbly enthusiastic guy suddenly not be that way and that was my greatest concern for him it wasn't the basketball tournament at the time that Magic Johnson announced that he was HIV positive the prevailing medical intelligence was that by this time Magic Johnson would not to be apathetic dying man barely recognizable physically but he'd already be dead it was just like knowing someone who's got cancer if cancer that's run throughout their entire body you you know they're gonna die I asked the Lord to pray for my son don't take it like a shock waves from Magic's disclosure radiated well beyond the sports world he was left with an even more painful task the emotional disengagement from the laker Brotherhood and the game that had always sustained him the hardest thing Pervin that day was not speaking for the prep and telling the world it was going downstairs to the locker room and telling his fellow teammate he's not going to be there anymore for them he's not going to be on the court that was the only time I saw Ervin Johnson break down magic calls the night before and told me that he had something then very important he wanted to say to me into meeting at the forum and that's when he told me and all I can do is cry because we could have the movie supposed to end you know the good guys I was hooked it ride off in the sunset the day that we found out it just seemed like the end of the world we cried and we thought that it was over even with this devastation he just said you know what was a faceless thing and I was like okay let's do it in fact this possibility good and he smiled as usual everything he said I'm going to do it the way I've always done it which is exactly the way in handle of today directly honestly and an extraordinarily upbeat fashion which is just magic my father taught me sterner and I that's what I am I'm too strong I don't worry about that if keep them it was this unshakable optimism that carried a new and penetrating message about aids to a nation in denial to have a man like Magic Johnson come out and say yeah I'm HIV positive and and watch me continue with my life let's a lot of people realize that this is not the end of life if the end was unclear magic story started with the little boy a basketball and a dream [Music] follow from the ravages of his social disease he was born in Lansing Michigan to Christine and Earvin Johnson in 1959 one of 10 of children when he was about she used to roll up socks and go around the house and pretending with the basketball he would usually a clothes basket and he would shoot these Fox playing one along with the socks he will be Wilt Chamberlain I would do what Frazier but I just had to do what I had to do taking the school the youngest of four boys Ervin rarely felt the luxurious coach of new clothes my brothers fans went down a man and so on as you look back it kind of worried because you didn't you couldn't dress the way the other kids dress but like I said have a big family learn how to to appreciate what you have but urban appreciated most was not a hand-me-down but a brand-new object it was round and one day would fit in his hand like a king's scepter he they bought him his first basketball that was the highlight of his life if you could see the smile on his face he was thought it was Christmas it didn't matter whether what time did there was he could be going in school to catch the ball you'll dribble basketball the neighbors would have to come and cut it up early in the morning you hear a ball dribbling going down the street and the neighbors used to get so mad at him dribbled it to the store downtown back just around the block let's show the inches right there this is what he don't do he not only wanted to play the game but she wanted to change the game his legend grew from playing on the playground today everybody would see this kid come off and he complained and they tell somebody else and then it just got all over town and they started looking for him and asked in formless play let's play in 1974 Irvin took his playground game to Everett high school I could see the greatness of urban Johnson he was about 14 years old coming into high school once we got in a game he would always include everybody he wanted to win that meant if he had a score 50 he would but if he had to score 20 and get everybody else involved that's the greatest thing that I appreciated about Earth I just the plan get out there you know hoping I'd be win if I'm playing pickleball whenever I want to win in his first season Johnson pulled the Everett Vikings out of the doldrums of losing basketball as they became state championship contenders for the first time in the process he became the darling of the press the guy came in and said I gotta give you a nickname never seen anything like this and I said I'm 15 I started giggling I'm a boy they giggling to idea okay if my nickname so he says somebody's called dr. de mi has the name biggie hey can I call you magic idea right so the next day in the paper back home every Magic Johnson dubbed magic his fame spread through Michigan even if you didn't go to ever they know who it was all the girls would say well you know can you tell your brother to call them like no I can't tell my brother to call you know there were just things like that you know I you think you could get me some tickets you know no I can barely get my own ticket he had this huge afro and it happened but if Apple had to be in place he used to ask one of us if we had so many girls could get with the greatest hair he had to be picked out and blown out and it had to be shake it had to be looking good you know he he didn't play with us Rowand so we could good care of him in his senior year magic averaged 29 points and let Everett to where it had never gone for this team ever in high school who really didn't have a history of basketball to win the state title you know it was just like who's every and also hit a are and they couldn't be stopped recruited by over a hundred schools nationwide the hometown heroes stayed put in attended Michigan State he wanted to be a guard from day one even though he was 6-8 this first game he scored seven points and had seven turnovers and there were people had said well Judd is ruining Magic Johnson playing him out of position but magic quickly adjusted to his new position and by midseason the Spartan stood in the glare of the national spotlight that's what I remember about Michigan State the fact that we got chance to change college basketball innocence and we did it with style we're in an unbelievable basketball i.q he was the the leader he was to take charge guy from the day walked on the court as Michigan State's resident basketball genius magic had clearly found a new home he also found cookie his future wife we totally fell in love at first sight I had a boyfriend at the time and when I decided to go to Michigan State you know you can't go to Michigan State I'm like I can't I go to Miss consent you know he's like you're going to meet magic you're going to meet that to get married that's the true that's a true story and I at the time I had no clue we was he had the whole world at his feet at 18 he came to different people when he was with me he was urban but the minute we stepped out by that door he became magic and I liked magic necklace but Johnson's magic side prevailed in 1979 as the Spartans improved each game soon they would face the ultimate test the run for the national championship at the end of the 1970s college basketball was still in recovery from several crippling point-shaving scandals dating back to the 50s college basketball was not a national sport and the network's didn't cover the final four or the final game the way they would later it was not the hype there was not the media attention there's nothing newspaper attention aided by forward Greg Keller magic led the Spartans into the Final Four if the nation took interest the Michigan State student body was a quiver with joy Michigan State had had a winning team like that in a long time and you know to make it to the Final Four you know it was it was great and it was very exciting I mean it was the tension on campus it was just like you know about to blow over meanwhile across the southern state line Larry Bird's sycamores of Indiana State savored their unbeaten season we were totally shocked they wouldn't watch them all year long along and we kind of thought you know well as soon as they get to the tournament and we'll find out the real thing and they somehow they just kept winning Michigan State wasn't a dropkick than either I mean back then it was believed that magic was great but oh he couldn't shoot and so it was a foregone conclusion that we see magic in and Larry in the final and then the unlikely occurred magic and bird would meet the national title their differences were striking when Larry Bird's played against Magic Johnson in the 1979 NCAA plan you would have thought that there couldn't be two people less alike in the world I do not like labor he didn't like me because we were both going after the same thing I want to be the best that he wanted to be the better so it's like two old gunslingers saying meet me out front and you know only one could survive all of a sudden you had a college basketball game that felt like a heavyweight championship fight this thing picked up momentum picked up momentum and and here you had this jazzy kid from East Lansing and the hick from French Lick and one kid with a team of four players that you knew wouldn't be able to get a pickup game soon as the tournament was over and then this team that had to be flashing because they had to keep up with magic it was ali/frazier it's all it was as it turned out they were evany and ivory twins they were they were the same guy they were small town guys who grew up on of their local hard courts where they could spend five hours seven hours a day just playing basketball and the only thing that cared about was winning the game I see Michigan State play the Russians on cable TV one of my humans were over my apartment watching the game and after we watched found on more than half the game I've seen Michigan State's best team to country going one at all this year Birds Idol prediction proved all too real magic flew over the Sycamore scoring 24 points while a beleaguered burg remained on the ground magic had a tremendous advantage of guards of that era and even guards of today is that he could see the whole court he can see over people because of his height and then his great ability to handle the ball and pass he could just do more things because he was a six eight point guard magic was a smile off him the way he gets the ball forward and dribbled off and make the play seemed like he had attained and everything Oh that was a Seminole game it brought a lot of non-college spins to the game he then became college basketball fan I've got a chance to turn the she was sit around and make him a basketball power we were not winning the national championship after the NCAA somebody else would have just been happy with winning that and just gloated on that and it only took him that long to say oh okay I'm moving on to the next step and I'm going to take this other place to the next level with the stage set for a new era two players would dominate national attention for the next decade the Magic Bird College game changed the NBA and colleges it made the Final Four so popular and then it's totally turned around the NBA because that's where the show was going next and it was magic leading the way it was big then because it was a highest-rated college basketball game of all time if you wrote this scripted it and then trying to make it a movie people were saying to shade but in real life we really embrace it loved it the league needed that the NBA a time struggling that was begin to describe with the NBA was we hoped the glow that attached to their season would attach to us you played your last college game and that you're heading away from Michigan State the rumors were fact magic took his show to a land where dreams are only outnumbered by tragedy [Music] scorned by nearly a decade of violence drugs and shoddy play the NBA looks desperately for someone to lead it out of the wilderness help came out of the east bearing gifts the Los Angeles Lakers select service magic they say to undermine [Music] the Lakers needed a player that was a leader they need a rebounder and they got him one player he was a breath of fresh air for the demon for the league I would not impose upon anybody and all the professionals for the cost to you I want you to know that this man has a smile that lights up a television screen from here to Fang you're made the Lakers is dead in the waters not winning it's not happening this kid shows up we all remember that first game [Applause] frankerz win [Applause] magic the random exuberant through both arms both legs to run for him to start hugging her even never seen anything like that before I'm joking you shot only one you know he was holding him and hugging him and he said hey we got started yet we got a long season ago he's confronted with his kids jumping up into his own celebrating this victory and the look at his face said we know what he said to him later he said young fella don't ever do that again so we got a tease one more game I live back up at him I said if you hit a shot like that eighty one more time you're gonna be getting 81 more I think when he saw this kid out there and he was a kid with this enormous amount of energy I think it rejuvenated his interest in the game it was a wonderful combination because abdul-jabbar probably needed the burden relieved from him out there every night having to do it by himself if you came with the perfect time to my career because I had lost a lot of enthusiasm if skill and expertise was what the team was like he improved so much and made it easy for me to smile there was something magnetic about this game not only played but that smile the personality he did everything right you had to follow magic took the once dispirited Lakers into the 1980 finals versus the 76ers but when an injury not Kareem abdul-jabbar out of Game five it appeared the Lakers 3su advantage was over I think the six itself to the game was like practice obviously they were going to win I mean you can't come to Philadelphia and win without cream so you could play magic and center you get into anything you want you just want to go out and compete winning was the last thing on our mind so when we come out to the Center for magic step into Center and I think it's on Philadelphia magic played brilliantly feeling seven assists grabbing 15 rebounds and scoring a season-high 42 points the Lakers won their first NBA title in eight 1:07 his performance taking vitamin wanted to greatest of all time 42 points he shot a hook shot a jump shot he'd go for the basket he black a couple shots I mean you know I've never liked Magic Johnson at all by the way here's a guy that should have stayed in college and got in his college degree at least stay for one more year with junior and we would have gotten another one I listened and I guess that's the thing I go in think we can win any game that I play in sight you know green one in and we want to say hey we did it for you because because you got us you know we're doing we don't want to fake nonetheless there's a lot of people really weren't sure whether or not you were going to be making in this league and making it bigger you certainly made a believer out of me I haven't seen you play that much you're absolutely fantastic I believe Kareem not playing it was the worst thing that could have happened to 70 fixtures in that series 20 years old I won a state championship as a championship on our world championship [Music] by the end of his rookie season magic had roused a basketball town that was slumbering [Music] [Music] [Music] wife was in the fast lane all the time Matt Johnson with the key that turned the engine that ran that force that went up and down the Hollywood you we wanted some razzle dazzle a Showtime team magic was perfect for them he was born for that playing in the form I guess like an audition in Hollywood I mean before I became a Laker competing against him it's like when they stepped out on the court it was just instant entertainment he had to walk past rows of special limos in the parking lot it was like the Academy Awards every night every Hollywood celebrity wants to be a famous athlete about Fletch let's take a look cs65 with the Afro 69 it could happen only in Los Angeles where all the great stars came out all the fun the whole LA deal Jack Nicholson dying in Cannon you knew you were watching something that doesn't happen all the time you just knew it you just knew you were in the presence of greatness and you relished [Music] before you major I bet you lose 6:9 and handle the ball the way you can handle it Magic Johnson had tremendous basketball intelligence like a great base runner knowing as he comes around first baseman why this can be a triple and not a double you just sees the whole series of possibilities in front of them I remember getting in the head perfect in practice just to show me that I can get the ball to if you want it open up that eye on the side of your head he brought the playground back into basketball high five and something up and down and join everything want to get the people involved in the game it's just refreshing to have anybody to come along with that type of enthusiasm that love for the game you can't help but get caught up in that he had to have fun got to be fun to him it couldn't just all be worked and drudgery seriously I mean he was the most serious fun person I have ever been around in my life urban being the Poincare knew that he had to conduct a team when they were down he had to psych him up when they were too high he had to bring him down he was really a coach on the court Magic Castle was different and it was evident and clear when he had the ball that things were going on people hadn't seen he can do anything on the basketball court he could be a power forward he could be the world's tallest point guard he can be the world's shortest seven-point-seven if you go to the worst seat in the arena there's only a few that we found if Magic Johnson reaches all the way to that top row but if anyone could dim Showtime dazzle it was Larry burden company three times in four years the NBA's two leading lights met in the final and they heat generated by their rivalry was felt across the nation Lakers Moe Celtics really didn't like each other and it kept fans attracted to it it kept fans control and the fact that that every time they were asked to perform magic and bird really did only heightened it it was the East Coast version of the West Coast Celtic pride versus Laker tradition bird versus magic the most hellacious competitors going at each other they'll kill each other on the court whatever it takes to win magic always needed that we needed each other we made each other get better and better we made each other have to go practice in the summertime because I knew Larry Bird was shooting to 300 jumpers a day so that made me have to do it [Music] hired coppers made a pair of bird shoe but Lackey is MVP yep when they made a pair magic few but this years MVP okay magic tell me what you've got it was great I mean everywhere you win it was either you know Celtics love or Celtics haters Laker lovers Laker haters and it was very unique specially being on one coast and the other you know I know la players don't want to admit this but we used to look in the papers see what the Lakers were doing in 1984 the Celtics claim first championship blood from the Lakers in the war between magic and bird while the Boston stars 27 point average lifted his team to a 7 game victory Johnson made ill-advised decisions in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime losses in games two and four entry here at was at all we go hit Boston this year I think it became even more so in 84 we had them on the ropes and it turned out to our dismay and I always remember sitting in Boston guards in the shower man we were like and we had that but you know what fun thing about this rivalry in this game that there's always next year in 1985 LA beat Boston in six games the inferior private war between magic and bird she had no light on who was better Johnson recorded a pair of triple doubles and dished out of finals record 84 assists while bird averaged 24 points was the easy stopping Showtime you know hey when they got run it wasn't a whole lot you could do when they got out and got their group it was just a just racehorses basketball at his best and magic was just a great guy build a break make a great decision keep pressure on your defense all the time with their head-to-head championship series tied at one series of feat magic and bird played the rubber match in 1987 the Lakers trailed by one in the closing seconds of Game four when Johnson took matters into his own hands Tom drew nine o'clock is going down down and so I just take like I was gonna go baseline went to the middle McHale and parish jumped out at me so I was like only shot I could shoot with a hook shot so I let it go back got it five seconds left daddy got the middle just right bottom hook shot at 12 degree bass that's where he's the best I've ever seen you know I unbelievable and I'm good he doesn't make that shot the series is tied 2-2 if the Celtics win at home in Game five they take a 3-2 lead back to LA and they just need to get one of the remaining two games and they might they might well have done it that's the biggest basket of Magic Johnson's career the Lakers went on to win the title in six game they repeated the next year and in 1989 closed out the 80s losing to Detroit in the finals by 1991 magic had eclipsed Oscar Robertson all-time assists record and a joint bird is a three-time MVP thanks to Johnson and his East Coast antagonist the NBA was never help you from 18 feet this is World News Tonight with Peter Jennings but evenings we begin tonight with the fate of a single in the basketball star Magic Johnson confirmed a short while ago that he has the AIDS virus and he will retire from the Los Angeles Lakers it was almost like hearing he had been in a car crash and killed in a car crash it was that kind of a shock MAGIX could have died when it became clear that Johnson's life was not immediately at risk the public focus shifted from the candor of his announcement to the cause of his condition magic image did not bear up under this new light Magic Johnson was not a hero he admitted his lifestyle and anybody with that kind of lifestyle really is an arrow here we were glorifying him when he was coming out saying at that time that you had HIV and that he had very unfaithful and had push himself his own interests Cora's family I lost some respect respect I you know there's a lot of madness you know it was like you know the parties and then you know the girls and you know whatever are all that most of that kind I wasn't here that's why I wasn't here his partying could always been legendary Franklin imagined such a good guy such a nice guy there's almost like a Babe Ruth and a lot of things that happened off the court just weren't written about it was a room at the forum sort of a side room that belonged there like a sauna and that room kind of belonged to tomorrow after game and you know he would have I guess he'd have women come in after the game done wine that way and when Kemal retired that room got the crease to med and so magic would have his guys from what I understand what had these guys she would find a woman in the audience kind of suited him or he had some woman who was coming to the game and they would him in this room after the game in magic she's always the last guy locker room always have a smile on his face there's an infidelity in pro sports there's a I think an acceptance that is really disturbing because these guys are so-called superheroes' they're supposed to be superheroes sexually to me that's just the way life is I mean women are attracted to athletes wouldn't attract the good-looking men women are attracted to guys who's got money not just normal but for some reason a sleaze get all the play for everything the bad happen in the world yeah it's out there a sense of entitlement a sense of sex as as part of the spoils of fame through athletics what his situation be able to get open the eyes to everybody else in the league and I think everybody who's winning that title espy Johnson struggled to explain the way his infidelity on national television sex in an elevator you know different women have different fantasies and you wanted to make sure they reach their fantasies I was that was my thing but I mean you were Magic Johnson like I said women have different fantasy some want to be with two three at a time you know one time I had six at one time that's just sex with a six women that's their fantasy or your fantasy that was both I'm probably most mostly mine his sort of information that somehow he had been victimized by a woman or women he basically said hey guys I'm telling you you know keep it in your pants because otherwise this is what happens well that's not you know that's simply not true and it conveyed us guilt on to some unseen woman and I felt that that was unfair I think magic made a lot of mistakes off the basketball court and know is that he made a lot of mistakes off the basketball court and tried to justify them tried to rationalize and try to talk to me but that was not his strong suit but civilian clothes didn't quite suit magic his game hadn't changed his physical strength was uncompromised and his will to win remain firm three months after announcing he was HIV positive he took the floor at the 1992 all-star game but it wouldn't be a smooth return there were players like like Karl Malone like Mark Price who weren't sure that it was safe for magic to play they didn't know what is what the risks were for playing with somebody who had the HIV virus but I think Magic Johnson overpowered that tension with his great joy and you can see it in his face getting out there and playing in typical magic fashion he would own the day scoring twenty five point and winning the MVP seeing everybody embrace magic at the end of the day I think that did a lot for people's understanding and awareness of HIV he comforted other people that don't worry about me I'm gonna be fine I'm gonna deal with this and he was he was still urban Zaki was not you know broken by this the reaction to magic at the all-star game and a gold medal performance in the Olympics that summer convinced Johnson to rejoin the Lakers the following preseason when he wanted to come back there were people talking about whether they could play against him it was a great debate by getting a collision with a guy it don't have to be magic they can be Joe smoke but the fact of the matter is if you got the AIDS virus it would be for me to play as hard as I'm capable playing and if people can't respect my decision that's tough MAGIX return ended before the regular season began Magic Johnson is retired from basketball again this time he says he will not change his mind Johnson's decision to retire again appears of an influence very much by what has happened in the intervening month in 1994 Johnson grew restless from the game of basketball and accepted an offer to coach the Lakers magic went into coaching because he always felt I think even as a player that I can change it he can always control it as a player I can change it I can make us win I can make the play work I can make him a better player don't worry I can handle it because he was in control of it I was going to dictate how to take care of it and then when he became a coach and he put that responsibility in the hands of immature not as talented players and tires very frustrating I don't think at that time he was properly prepared and of course we lost 10 games in a row which would with a record of 5 and 11 magic stepped down after just 16 games but the thought that he might be done with basketball was unacceptable to him prompting a comeback as a player in 1996 32 games later however he knew that the curtain had rung down on Showtime it took away a little bit from what he had accomplished it wasn't just a matter of coming back once and having it not worked out it was coming back retiring coming back retiring coming back retiring even if he wasn't doing it he was talking about it I don't think there's any question that had he not done the seesaw thing that he would be held in high regard once he quit he should stay quit because to come back in after he did was such a distraction he should just be magic and be a master but he couldn't and they started a TV show and that was a nightmare it [Applause] [Music] even when he engages in something that is an abysmal failure like his late night television program which only lasted a couple of months he seems to be having fun doing I'm very good at it you know that's why I don't play basketball and he shouldn't try to do late night show as magic public persona grew increasingly strained he took his attention elsewhere soon becoming the most potent voice in the HIV community he has a killer subsequent life following his disclosure of HIV infection in putting this message the cause she chose to trial coming back into a standard stuff - until plus to use the platform of his plan on celebrity and transparent power I'm warned the loss to the game and then I thought when he went out and talked about it and told people don't do what I did he was reminding us of something that was very deep that is that in all of us are self-destructive impulses live right alongside those things were most proud of I want to help other people I knew that it was a lot of you to live like I was living so it may be hopefully I could say some people lives they needed a spokesperson they need somebody to really fight and stand up talk about it work hard or the whole ewh I've done and I will continue to do that Johnson continues an active and productive life thanks to breakthroughs and AIDS research when Durbin was diagnosed we only had a couple medications to use against HIV and those were not powerful drugs so at most we were prolonging lives by a matter of months not years his virus with minor exceptions has been totally controlled and that his immune system is many times better than back in 1991 and consequently you see a very healthy man beyond the political and social circumstances of MAGIX disease he will be remembered as a basketball player of a rare quality the thing that characterized his game was a Greek word called enthusiasm the gift of giving the best with enthusiasm that's what he did every game I thank him for spreading the cord out in and making you go did you see that I thank him for making a team bigger than a tie it's not like that now you taught me how to run my VCR because you never want to miss the magic game you know utter exuberance in playing the game was contagious changing venues from passing lanes to Wall Street magic had turned himself into a new kind of role model his real estate only developed property in minority neighborhoods and his movie bidders rank among the most profitable in the country I'm so used to win it I don't know not to them and I knew nothing else back then he hates to lose he hates to lose at anything they may be better players but there never be better winners and that's what my whole goal was to win all the nicknames probably as good as in is Magic Johnson Magic is exactly what he was all we can hope for as we go through the new millennium is that there'll be a Magic Johnson he works out at dawn drinks the cocktail of three drugs twice a day and tells us the AIDS virus is all but gone from his blood as if to prove it it plays in quality pick up games with the same firery displayed at the forum Earvin Johnson will never get basketball out of his flood 3fn classic sports century I'm Chris out French team leader who compared to Bill Russell as an inside scorer he rivaled Kareem abdul-jabbar and as a

Channel: JD71andOnly

Views: 193,051

Rating: 4.6758895 out of 5

Keywords: ESPN, Sportscentury, Larry Bird, Boston, Celtics, Dynasty, State, Greatest, Boston Garden, Magic, Johnson, Michigan, Point Guard, Earvin, Spartans, East Lansing, Lansing, Everett, High, Kareem, Abdul Jabbar, Worthy, Wilkes, Shaq, Kobe, HIV, Lakers, Los Angeles, L.A., Forum, Nicholson, Jack, All-Time, NBA, NCAA, Final Four, Championship, NBC, Gumbel, Enberg, Packer, McGuire

Id: E6uX5_646Zk

Length: 41min 49sec (2509 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 26 2017