Category — Magic Johnson

What would you expect him to say?
It’s only July, but by the time the NBA season rolls around in October, LeBron James and his new teammates in Miami will have plenty of bulletin board material. Fans, writers, broadcasters and others have piled on with criticism of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh for banding together in Miami.
Magic Johnson, who owns a small stake in the Lakers and offered some candid remarks recently about James bolting to the Heat, says Miami won’t win the NBA title next summer. That probably isn’t news to the Heat.
Johnson said the Lakers will win their 3rd straight championship because “The Lakers still have the most talent. They’re the best team in the NBA.”
L.A. Times

The King has left his kingdom. His castle moves to South Beach. His court is now empty.
In reality, the King is dead.
LeBron James, the basketball icon that made up his own nickname “King James” when he was just learning how to drive, has taken a giant step in his career. Backward.
He has decided to leave the comforts of home to become just another basketball warrior. From icon to mercenary with the swipe of a pen and a huge paycheck.
As he revealed his final decision on national television, James showed he was more mouse than man. He never told the 5 clubs he was turning them down, letting his show on TV do that for him.
In other words, he wasn’t man enough to stand up for his decision.
Not even his hometown of Cleveland got that much respect from him. So we now know this was all about James.
And did we need an hour-long show to hear 5 or 6 words?
Maybe this shows why his teams have bowed out of the playoffs. Just like in the most recent post-season, James looked meek, tired and quite honestly, almost uninterested during his made-for-TV special.
Ironically, James is going to a city where one of the greatest players in sports played without winning a championship and is loved for it. He can learn from Dan Marino.
One thing we’ve learned for sure is you can never again compare James to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or even Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. At best, he is Moses Malone, a great player who had to travel to Philly to win a ring.
And James may have become the most hated man in the NBA after the way he handled this past week.
That is not the legacy he is banking on and you wonder if he didn’t hurt his commercial appeal to Madison Avenue, which seems more important to him than his basketball skills.
James tossed his top gun status to the side to go play 2nd fiddle with Dwyane Wade on South Beach.
Back when Bird and Magic were battling each other for titles, Miami wasn’t even in the Association. Now, that city is center stage after having the best summer of any NBA franchise. Keeping Wade and getting James along with Chris Bosh makes the Heat an extremely hot property.
But is this is 3 friends creating their own frat so they can throw parties for all their buddies? Kegger party at D-Wade’s.
Championships? Those are harder to suck up than these guys think.
I remember an unbeatable team from Los Angeles experts said could never lose. It lost in 5 games to the Detroit Pistons in the Finals and had to be blown up afterward.
It makes sense for James to go to Miami and join a power team. But he loses an awful lot in the process. He sold his soul for a title and there is no guarantee he’ll win one.
But don’t call the Heat his team. Miami is Wade’s town. This is his show.
Even if they play together for the next 10 years and win 7 titles together, Wade will have won 8.
He can never win more than Wade if they play together. Ever.
This is why it makes no sense if James really wants to be King of the basketball world. You can’t be King if you don’t have the most jewels in your crown. And you surely can’t be King without any rings.
Think Bird would have left the Celtics to go play with the Lakers just for a ring? Or Magic to the C’s? Just the thought is nauseous.
Jordan never left Chicago to win a title elsewhere. Before he won, he struggled through bad teams and tough times, but nobody won more with less than Jordan. Nobody.
James is not Jordan.
More importantly, we all lose.
James and Wade, 2 of the 3 best talents in the game, will both have to change their styles some to play together.
It was believed when this summer started that James was in a no-lose situation. Now it seems like even if he does capture a few titles in Miami, he can’t win.
And if he fails, he’ll always be remembered as the King with no rings.

One of the most memorable championships of the 15 the Lakers have won came in 1985, when for the first time in franchise history they beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals. They also beat the Celtics for the title in 1987, but none was sweeter than the ’85 victory. Making it much more sweeter for L.A. fans was the Lakers winning the title on Boston’s famed parquet floor in the old Garden. Eight Hall of Famers played in the series and 2 more (Pat Riley and K.C. Jones) served as coaches.
O.C. Register

Magic Johnson’s attempt to buy Johnson Publishing Co., which owns Jet and Ebony magazines, have fallen through. “Recently, an affiliate of Magic Johnson Enterprises and Johnson Publishing Company were in advanced discussions to do business together, but unfortunately we were unable to reach a definitive agreement,” Johnson said Monday. “We will continue to look for opportunities to invest in African-American media.”
Folio Magazine

Magic Johnson is in discussions to possibly acquire Johnson Publishing Co., the Chicago-based owner of two of the most prominent magazines in the African American community. It would be Johnson’s first venture into media ownership and it could provide some much-needed life into the two publications, which have struggled significantly because of the economy and in-house fighting.
Bloomberg