Magic Johnson

Background:Ending more than 4 1/2 years of retirement after having contracted the HIV virus, Earvin "Magic" Johnson returned to the NBA on January 30, 1996. When Johnson took the court in his familiar No. 32 for the Los Angeles Lakers against the Golden State Warriors, it marked his first official NBA competition since the end of the 1990-91 season.

Even in retirement, Johnson was never far from the game he loved. He made a dramatic playing comeback in the 1992 All-Star Game in Orlando, scoring 25 points and capturing MVP honors. He played for the Dream Team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He coached the Lakers for 16 games at the end of the 1993-94 season. He served as a broadcaster for the NBA on NBC. He purchased a minority share of the Lakers franchise and often was at the Great Western Forum, occasionally working out with the team. And he spent much of his time organizing and playing for "Magic Johnson's All-Stars," a group of former NBA and college players that played basketball around the world.

Despite all that, Johnson still longed to compete in the NBA.

"I'm back in my element," he said, explaining his reason for returning to the Lakers' active roster. "I'm a basketball player. That's what God blessed me with. That's what I do and that's what I'm going to do now. It's now or never. I should have been back a long time ago."

Before Johnson rejoined the Lakers on Jan. 29, 1996, they were 24-18. After Johnson's return, they went 29-11, but were eliminated by Houston in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

The Lakers renounced their rights to Johnson on July 16, 1996, as they created room under the salary cap in order to sign Shaquille O'Neal. While Johnson had spoken again of retiring and was a free agent, the arrival of O'Neal had him hinting that he might like to rejoin the Lakers sometime in the 1996-97 season.

Just how great a basketball player was Johnson? So great, perhaps, that future generations of hoop fans may wish they had entered the world years earlier, just so they could have seen Magic play in person instead of watching him only in highlight films.

He was what Bob Cousy was to the 1950s, what Oscar Robertson was to the 1960s, what Julius Erving was to the 1970s. Still, Earvin Johnson was even more than a revolutionary player who, at 6-9, was the tallest point guard in league history. His sublime talent elicited wonder and admiration from even the most casual basketball fan.

Whether it was a behind-the-back pass to a streaking James Worthy, a half-court swish at the buzzer, or a smile that illuminated an arena, everyone who saw Johnson play took with them an indelible memory of what they had witnessed. From the moment he stepped onto the court, people pondered: How could a man so big do so many things with the ball and with his body? It was Magic.

Johnson accomplished virtually everything a player could dream of during his 13-year NBA career, all of which was spent with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was a member of five championship teams. He won the Most Valuable Player Award and the Finals MVP Award three times each. He was a 12-time All-Star and a nine-time member of the All-NBA First Team. He surpassed Robertson's seemingly unbreakable career assists record, eventually passing the leadership on to John Stockton. His all-around play inspired the addition of the "triple-double" to basketball's lexicon. And he did all of this while maintaining a childlike enthusiasm born of a pure love of sport and competition. Beyond all the money, success, and fame, Johnson was just happy to be playing basketball.

If there was one aspect of Johnson's game that awed people the most, it was his brilliant passing skills. He dazzled fans and dumbfounded opponents with no-look passes off the fast break, pinpoint alley-oops from half court, spinning feeds, and overhand bullets under the basket through triple teams. When defenders expected him to pass, he shot. When they expected him to shoot, he passed. Said former Lakers swingman 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."

Born on August 14, 1959, Earvin Johnson Jr. grew up in Lansing, Michigan, with nine brothers and sisters. His father worked in a General Motors plant; his mother was a school custodian. Young Earvin passed the time by singing on street corners with his buddies and, of course, by playing basketball. "Junior," or "June Bug" as his neighbors called him, was on the court by 7:30 many mornings. "I practiced all day," Johnson told USA Weekend. "I dribbled to the store with my right hand and back with my left. Then I slept with my basketball."

Johnson was first called "Magic" when he was a star at Everett High School. He was given the nickname by a sportswriter who had just seen the 15-year-old prepster notch 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 16 assists. (Johnson's mother, a devout Christian, thought the nickname was blasphemous.) 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 enrolled at 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. As an All-America sophomore Johnson directed his team to the national title in 1979, beating Larry Bird's Indiana State squad in perhaps the most anticipated NCAA Championship Game ever played.

Having accomplished all he wanted to on the college level, Johnson passed up his final two seasons and entered the 1979 NBA Draft. The Utah Jazz were supposed to draft in the first position, but the Jazz had conveyed their 1979 first-round pick to the Los Angeles Lakers three years earlier as compensation for the free-agent signing of Gail Goodrich. Thus the Lakers took Johnson with the first overall pick.

The team had just undergone big changes: a new coach in Jack McKinney, a new owner in Dr. Jerry Buss, and seven new faces on the court. With the country's most exciting college player in a Lakers uniform, Buss hoped the normally reserved Forum crowds would get up off their hands and onto their feet. "Showtime" was born.

Fans attending Johnson's first game witnessed the sort of exuberance he would display throughout his entire career. After a buzzer-beating shot by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to defeat the San Diego Clippers on opening night, Johnson went berserk, distributing bone-jarring high-fives and bear hugs. At this rate, most observers thought, the kid would burn out in no time.

That season's NBA Rookie of the Year Award went to Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics. But the NBA champion was Los Angeles. The Lakers rolled to the Western Division title with a 60-22 record, the league's second best. (Paul Westhead took over as coach after McKinney was seriously hurt in a bicycle crash 14 games into the season.) In 77 games Johnson's numbers mirrored those of his days at Michigan State (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.

In the 1980 NBA Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers, Johnson's performance in the series-clinching sixth game was the stuff of legend. Abdul-Jabbar was sidelined with a badly sprained ankle sustained during his 40-point effort in Game 5. Up three games to two, the Lakers could wrap things up on the 76ers' home court.

Enter Johnson, the 20-year-old rookie. Assuming Abdul-Jabbar's position at center, Johnson sky-hooked and rebounded the Lakers to victory with 42 points, 15 boards, 7 assists and 3 steals. He even jumped for the opening tap. Johnson became the first rookie ever to win the Finals MVP Award. The stunning effort exemplified his uncanny ability to do whatever the Lakers needed in order to win.

In the Los Angeles Times, Westhead said of his amazing rookie: "We all thought he was a movie-star player, but we found out he wears a hard hat. It's like finding a great orthopedic s

Transactions:Selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the first overall pick of the 1979 draft.

1995-96: Johnson rejoined the Lakers on Jan. 29, 1996 and appeared in 32 of their remaining 40 games, making nine starts. He averaged 14.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and tied Nick Van Exel for the team-high with 6.9 assists in 29.9 minutes per game. Johnson, Grant Hill of Detroit and Jason Kidd of Dallas were the only players in the league to average at least 14.0 points, 6.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds.

He flirted with a triple-double in his first game back, getting 19 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds against Golden State on Jan. 30. He then posted his 138th career triple-double with 15 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds against Atlanta on Feb. 14. He missed two other triple-doubles by one rebound and one assist.

Johnsone came off the bench to hand out 13 assists, matching the league high for a reserve in 1995-96, in his triple-double game against Atlanta on Feb. 14. He had 10 or more assists eight times and he joined John Stockton as the only players to reach 10,000 career assists at Sacramento on March 27, as he finished the season with 10,141.

He scored a season-high 30 points against Dallas on Feb. 16 and grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds three times. He led the team in scoring seven times and assists 19 times.

In the Lakers' four-game playoff series against Houston, Johnson averaged 15.3 points, a team-high 8.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game.

Magic Johnson

Sea.	Team	G	Min.	FG	3Pt.	FT	Reb.	Ast.	Stl.	Blk.	Tot.	PPG
79-80:	L.A. Lakers	77	2795	.530	.225	.809	166	563	187	41	1387	18.0
80-81:	L.A. Lakers	37	1371	.531	.176	.76	101	317	127	27	798	21.5
81-82:	L.A. Lakers	78	2991	.536	.206	.759	252	743	208	34	1447	18.5
82-83:	L.A. Lakers	79	2907	.547		.8	214	829	176	47	1326	16.7
83-84:	L.A. Lakers	67	2567	.565	.206	.810	99	875	150	49	1178	17.5
84-85:	L.A. Lakers	77	2781	.560	.189	.842	90	968	113	25	1406	18.2
85-86:	L.A. Lakers	72	2578	.526	.232	.870	85	907	113	16	1354	18.8
86-87:	L.A. Lakers	80	2904	.522	.205	.847	122	977	138	36	1909	23.8
87-88:	L.A. Lakers	72	2637	.491	.196	.852	88	858	114	13	1408	19.5
88-89:	L.A. Lakers	77	2886	.509	.313	.911	111	988	138	22	1730	22.4
89-90:	L.A. Lakers	79	2937	.479	.384	.890	128	907	132	34	1765	22.3
90-91:	L.A. Lakers	79	2933	.477	.32	.905	105	989	102	17	1531	19.3
95-96:		32	958	.465	.379	.855	40	220	26	13	468	14.6
Career Totals:		906	33245	.519	.302	.847	1601	10141	1724	374	17707	19.5
Playoff Totals:		190	7538	.505	.240	.838	349	2346	358	64	3701	19.4
All-Star Totals:		11	331	.488	.476	.904	21	127	21	7	176	16

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