Happy 50th Birthday Magic
The greatest Laker of all time, his biggest legacy in Los Angeles may be off the court.
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Lakers fans will always remember Magic this way.
Happy 50th birthday Magic, from all of Los Angeles. And thank you.
Fans tend to picture Magic as the brilliant 6’9” point guard in the short-shorts of the 1980s, the man who seemed to have eyes in the back of his head on the court, the man who played the game with a smile on his face the whole time. The “Showtime” era was as much about the pure joy of the game as it was fast breaks and championships, but with Magic at the helm all three of those things blended together seamlessly.
Fans remember his first game as a Laker, when the team won and Magic ran over and hugged a stunned Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who seemed to have a look on his face saying, “you know we play 81 more games this season, right?” But that enthusiasm carried over to his first championship later that year, when Magic essentially played center for the Lakers against Philadelphia because Kareem was out, and Magic dominated the game like no rookie should.
Or, there was the baby skyhook that defeated the hated Boston Celtics in Boston in 1985. There was the Dream Team.
Really, the list of highlights could go on for days. But Magic’s biggest legacies in Los Angeles may well be off the court.
It was November 7, 1991, when Magic told the world he had HIV. At that time, in the public consciousness at the time was thought of as a death sentence. He vowed to fight it and in that process changed the perception of people with the disease and what they could do. His activism and energy also changed the fight against the disease that still goes on today.
After Magic left the Lakers he did not leave Los Angeles, — he invested in it. He formed a company that worked to bring quality retail projects and more to the urban, poor neighborhoods that nobody else would. Through years of work in boardrooms and meeting rooms harder than anything he faced on a basketball court, he convinced name businesses to join him in the effort. He showed corporations they could make money in areas that before they had feared to tread.
That may be his biggest legacy — places like Staples Center and LA Live might not exist if Magic Johnson had not started changing the face of Los Angeles by encouraging investment in the inner city, in the forgotten areas of town.
And that may be a bigger legacy in Los Angeles than anything he ever did on the court.
Kurt Helin lives in Los Angeles where he is runs the NBA/Lakers blog Forum Blue & Gold (which you can also follow in twitter).
