Earvin Magic Johnson is a retired American basketball player and entrepreneur with a net worth of $1.6 billion, known for his successful career with the Los Angeles Lakers and his various business ventures. He is a former president of basketball operations for the Lakers and has been involved in several other sports franchises and business investments.
Earvin Magic Johnson Jr., a renowned retired American basketball player and entrepreneur, boasts an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion. Following his victories in high school and college basketball championships, he was chosen as the first overall player in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he played as a point guard for 13 seasons. In his rookie season, Johnson won the NBA Championship and the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award, and he later served as the former president of basketball operations for the Lakers. Magic Johnson's NBA career commenced when he was selected as the first overall pick by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1979 NBA Draft, and over the course of his 13-year tenure with the team, he participated in 12 All-Star Games, secured five NBA championships, and was named the NBA Most Valuable Player three times. Johnson was celebrated for his exceptional versatility, as he played all five positions during the NBA Finals and redefined the point guard role with his distinctive blend of size and court vision, and his on-court rivalry with Larry Bird is regarded as one of the greatest in basketball history, contributing to the sport's increased popularity during the 1980s. Upon retiring from basketball in 1991 due to his HIV diagnosis, although he made a brief comeback in 1996, Johnson shifted his focus towards business and entrepreneurship, founding Magic Johnson Enterprises, a conglomerate that invests in various industries such as entertainment, real estate, and healthcare. Johnson's involvement in sports extended beyond his playing career, as he has been part of ownership groups for several sports franchises, including a significant stake in the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, and his influence also extends to his work as an ambassador for HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. A popular legend, which was featured in a season 2 episode of the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, suggests that Magic Johnson turned down an offer from Nike in the late 1970s that would have made him a multi-billionaire. According to this legend, in mid-1979, after winning the NCAA Final with Michigan State, Magic was approached by major shoe companies with lucrative offers, with Converse offering to pay him $100,000 per year, equivalent to approximately $420,000 today. However, it is unlikely that this legend is true, as Magic had already signed with Converse by July 1979, just four months after winning the NCAA Championship and a few weeks after his sophomore year ended, when he decided to turn professional. Magic Johnson was born on August 14th, 1959, in Lansing, Michigan, to Earvin Sr., who worked on a General Motors assembly line, and Christine, a school janitor, and he developed a passion for basketball at a young age, inspired by his heroes such as Earl Monroe. Johnson attended Everett High School, where he joined the basketball team and earned the nickname Magic when, at the age of 15, he scored a triple-double with 36 points, 18 rebounds, and 16 assists, and the name was solidified in his senior year when he led his team to the state championship. Magic's career was cut short by his contraction of HIV in 1991. Magic Johnson returned to the NBA as the coach of the Lakers near the end of the 1993-94 NBA season, replacing Randy Pfund and Bill Bertka at the urging of team owner Jerry Buss, and although the Lakers initially performed well under Johnson's coaching, winning five of their first six games, he announced his resignation as coach after the season, following a five-game losing streak, and the Lakers finished the season on a ten-game losing streak, with Johnson's final record as a head coach being 5–11. He stated that coaching was never his dream, and instead, he purchased a 5% share of the team in June 1994. During the 1995-96 season, then 36-year-old Magic Johnson attempted a comeback as a player and rejoined the Lakers for that season, and the team had a record of 22–10 in the games Johnson played, leading him to consider his final comeback a success, before retiring permanently after the Lakers lost to the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs. Throughout his 905 NBA games, Johnson accumulated 17,707 points, 6,559 rebounds, and 10,141 assists, averaging 19.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 11.2 assists per game, the highest assists per game average in NBA history, and he shares the single-game playoff record for assists, holds the Finals record for assists in a game, and has the most playoff assists. He is the only player to average 12 assists in an NBA Finals series, achieving this feat six times, and holds the All-Star Game single-game record for assists and the All-Star Game record for career assists. After announcing his HIV infection in November 1991, Johnson created the Magic Johnson Foundation to combat HIV, and he has been an advocate for HIV/AIDS prevention and safe sex, as well as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and broadcaster, and his public announcement of his HIV-positive status in 1991 helped dispel the stereotype that HIV was a gay disease that heterosexuals did not have to worry about. In 2014, Johnson was involved in the purchase of the Los Angeles Sparks WNBA team, and he announced his co-ownership of the Major League Soccer expansion franchise, Los Angeles Football Club, and in 2015, he acquired a controlling interest in EquiTrust Life Insurance Company, which manages $14.5 billion in annuities, life insurance, and other products. Magic Johnson is an investor in aXiomatic eSports, the ownership company of Team Liquid. During his playing career, Magic earned just over $18 million in salary and several million more in endorsements, and Magic Johnson and his wife own a home in Beverly Hills in the gated section known as Beverly Park, as well as a Tuscan-style beach house in Dana Point, in Orange County, California, having previously owned a house in Napili, Hawaii, which they swapped for the beach house due to its proximity to their children. Johnson's Bel-Air estate, which he called home from 1981 through 1990, was listed for sale in 2022 for $14.5 million before being reduced to $11.5 million in 2023, and Magic Johnson originally bought the home for $600,000 the year after winning his first NBA championship and sold it for $2 million.