YouTube Gold: Magic Johnson’s First Game
The reaction was almost better than the win.
When Magic Johnson got to the NBA, people mostly thought he’d be very good but no one really knew what to make of him.
He had a spectacular two-year run at Michigan State, culminating with a legendary championship game win against Larry Bird’s undefeated Indiana State team.
People weren't at all sure about a 6-9 point guard though and though Johnson was a superb basketball player, he looked awkward at times and slower than his rivals.
But he had a superb court awareness, a brilliant mind for passing the basketball and an endless desire to win.
In his first game, the Los Angeles Lakers struggled with the San Diego Clippers and were on the verge of losing. They got the ball into Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for a deep skyhook with two seconds left and he hit it to salt the game away.
What happened next must have been strange for Kareem: Johnson rushed over and hugged him like, as Brent Musberger said, was “celebrating like they’d just won the NCAA championship.”
At that stage of his career, Kareem was somewhat jaded and it was just one more season opener. To have a rookie react like that was odd, but the world would soon come to understand that for Johnson, winning was what mattered.