Q & A with Magic Johnson

Recently enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame and the executive producer of the current film Brown Sugar, the immortal Laker now prepares to join Charles Barkley & Co. on Thursday nights as an NBA studio analyst for TNT.

Magic Johnson  Mark J. Terrill/AP

SI: On a day-to-day basis, how healthy do you feel?

Johnson: I feel great. I haven't had a bad day. I love life. I love living. I work out every morning. By 7:30 I'm up banging the weights and running.

SI: Will you get any airtime sitting next to Charles?

Johnson: Probably very little.

SI: If Charles asked to borrow one of your championship rings, would you loan it to him?

Johnson: For sure. I’d let him keep for a month or maybe a year just so he knows what it’s like.

SI: In your current role as an NBA analyst, can you honestly criticize the Lakers, a team you own a percentage of?

Johnson: Oh, yeah. I’ve done that in the past and that won’t be a problem. If they’re not playing well or doing what they’re supposed to doing, I will criticize them. I do it now already so it’s easy.

SI: Did your premature retirement and HIV status motivate you to become more successful in business?

Johnson: I don't think it motivated me more, because I was already motivated. I think it just jump-started the process. My dream was to be a businessman. That was true even while I was playing.

SI: You’re planning to open six new Starbucks a month. Do you actually drink coffee?

Johnson: I’m a big tea drinker. Tea, assam and hot chocolate. Those are the three things I drink at Starbucks.

SI: Of all your business enterprises, what are you most proud of?

Johnson: Probably the Starbucks.

SI: Do you find you get more respect now as a businessman or when you were considered the best basketball player on the planet?

Johnson: It’s probably even. When people first approach me it’s about basketball and getting my autograph and talking basketball. And then they segue into: "Man, you’ve become a great businessman." You get both.

SI: What business tycoon do you admire the most?

Johnson: I have a few guys. Bill Gates. BET’s Bob Johnson. [Warren] Buffet. I can go on and on. The list would be long. Everyone that has achieved their goal and gone out and worked hard at being a CEO, that’s who I admire -- and there’s a lot of guys like that.

SI: You recently produced the movie Brown Sugar -- your first as an executive producer. Will Magic Johnson ever do a cameo in a Magic Johnson film?

Johnson: No. I just want to be a producer. I don’t want to be in front of the camera.

SI: Looking back, just how bad was The Magic Hour on Fox?

Johnson: Very bad. [Laughs.] It’s a part of life and it didn’t work out and you just pick yourself back off the ground and keep going. One thing about me: I don’t have a problem laughing at myself or criticizing myself. That’s just who I am.

SI: If you were counseling LeBron James, what would you tell him?

Johnson: Number one, I’d tell him, "Stay being who you are and what got you to who you are -- keep doing those things. Don’t change with all this press that you’re getting and all the success that you’ve had so far." That’s they key. We need him to be a nice, humble young man with great personality. That’s what I would tell him.

SI: Is Kobe better than Michael was at age 24?

Johnson: Michael fundamentally was so sound and was physically so much stronger than everybody else that right now Kobe is not there yet. It may take him a year or two, but right now, no.

SI: What would have happened if one of your players had tried to choke you while you were an NBA coach?

Johnson: He'd probably still be lying in a hospital.

SI: Would you ever coach in the NBA again?

Johnson: No. You don't have to worry about that.

SI: What would be your ideal job in the NBA?

Johnson: Owner/President. Running a team, I could definitely do that.

SI: We know how Allen Iverson feels about practice. How did you feel about practice during your playing career?

Johnson: I love to practice. You get a lot accomplished in practice and when you’re struggling, you get to work on your game in terms of getting it back on track. I improved because of practice; every day I used to shoot threes against Byron Scott and Michael Cooper. And they used to beat me. But they helped me to improve. If I hadn't been doing that, I would have never become a better three-point shooter. Same thing with free throws, and the same thing with my hook shot. I worked on that with Kareem. Those things helped me a lot. And it got the team on the same page, and that’s important, especially when you talk about big games.

SI: Does acting like a thug off the court sell merchandise off the court?

Johnson: I don’t know. We’re in a different generation and I think people think it’s cool to be like that. But I can’t say that’s what sells merchandise. You’d have to ask somebody younger than me.

SI: If you had to build a franchise around one player today, who would you build it around?

Johnson: It would have to be Shaq. Or maybe Jason Kidd.

SI: How much basketball do you play these days?

Johnson: Last week I played every day, but I probably play two weeks out of a month.

SI: Your Showtime Lakers trail the Shaq-Kobe Lakers by one with 10 seconds left. What play do you call?

Johnson: I call a Fist Up, which is a clear-out for Kareem and myself. Then I decide: If Kareem has great position, I throw it to him. If he's not open, then I take it one-on-one myself.

SI: So that means you're taking it one-on-one against Derek Fisher. I think I like your chances.

Johnson: [Laughs.] Yeah, exactly.

SI: Right now, who wins the title this year?

Johnson: If I had to take somebody right now, I’ll still take the Lakers. You always take the defending champions until someone proves that they are mentally and physically strong enough to beat them. It’s not about talent. Sacramento's got probably more talent than we have but mentally they don’t know how to beat us. A team has to be mentally tough and we have to see who that team is. Is it Sacramento? New Jersey? Dallas? We have to see.

SI: Is there any person on earth whom you'd like to meet that you haven't already met?

Johnson: Not really. The beautiful thing about being in L.A. and being a part of the Lakers is that you get to meet everybody.

SI: How do you want to be remembered?

Johnson: As a good person, a guy who loved challenges, loved to meet challenges, and a guy who wanted to be more than just an athlete. And I think I have achieved that.

—Richard Deitsch

Issue date: Nov. 4, 2002

 

Related information

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video