Original subtitles

[newscaster 1] Over the next hour, we'll unveil the ten players

who will represent America in the 1992 Olympics.

There's been much speculation about who will play and who won't.

I was already thinking about what my next move was going to be

when Commissioner Stern called me and said,

"Hey, Earvin. We want you to play in the Olympics."

[newscaster 2] If you're going to put together a team,

you should start with a great team leader.

And who better than a player who has led his team to five NBA championships?

Magic Johnson.

[Magic] I got so excited, so we talked about that.

And then he said, "But we're having one problem."

And I said, "What is that?"

"Larry and Michael."

Yeah, I called Larry, and I said, "Listen, LB. This is our last hurrah.

We gotta play, man. You gotta play."

[Bird] I told him I probably wouldn't do it.

I'm just trying to get through this season.

I don't know if I can make it.

[Magic] He said, "Earvin, my back," and "I don't know."

I said, "All you have to do is go stand in the corner

or stand at the top of the key.

You don't have to do nothing else. I'm gonna get you the ball.

You just shoot it and make it."

[chuckles] "You can still do that, can't you?"

"Oh, I can do that with my eyes closed, yeah."

I gotta do it.

Whether I can play or not, I gotta be on that team.

[Magic] Finally, he said yes.

And then the hard one was Michael.

[audience member] Michael, I was wondering if you made a definite decision

on whether you will or will not play in those Olympics?

Uh, I would love to do it, but I think it w-would take so much away

from what I have to do for the Chicago Bulls.

So right now, I-- I don't think I'm gonna participate.

Well, I said, "Listen, man.

It's been on my bucket list to play with you and Larry.

And we're going to have fun being with each other

'cause we've never really hung out like that."

I had to work on him some, but finally he said yes.

[Bay] The Dream Team.

A basketball machine with names like Magic and Michael and Ewing and Bird.

The NBA's best.

It was electric because that star power.

The world went crazy.

[crowd cheering]

He brought Showtime to Barcelona.

[crowd cheering]

Magic! Magic!

[Magic] I never wanted them to think like they had to carry me,

the other nine guys.

And so, the practices was probably the best basketball I've ever played

in-- in my life.

He's like the baby-faced assassin.

That was like a dogfight every single day.

He wanted to prove that he was back.

I wanted to prove to him that there's new kids on the block.

We spent a lot of time together, and I think it bonded all of us together.

I was in Barcelona playing cards with Magic, Charles Barkley and MJ.

It was just like a bunch of brothers talking shit.

'Cause Michael is probably the greatest shit-talker of all time,

and Magic was not having any of it.

[Magic] Here's these two competitive guys who didn't want to lose.

We were gonna play.

We're gonna play hard, and I was coming in there to win.

A dream team for America. A nightmare for its opposition.

[crowd cheering]

[Magic] If we can maintain this level of intensity,

then we feel that we have a-- a great chance to win.

There's no doubt Magic added that little special sauce

to the '92 Olympic team.

[commentator] They have, as expected, won the gold here in Barcelona.

I needed the Dream Team to validate into my own mind that,

"Hey, Earvin, you're gonna be okay.

You're gonna be here for a long time.

You can still play. Your body is okay."

Because by then I had adjusted to the medicine.

He was giving confidence to tens of millions of people

who had a similar diagnosis,

who would see Magic out there playing at an incredibly high level.

And so during that time, that-- that period,

Magic had begun a discussion with David about his desire to return to the league.

When you leave sports, it's really not about the games.

It's about you're one of the guys.

And I needed to be one of the guys one more time.

[Brokaw] It was less than a year ago

it seemed that we'd seen the last of Magic Johnson on the basketball floor.

The Lakers star was retiring because of the virus that causes AIDS.

But then Magic on the Dream Team, an Olympic gold medal

and now Magic back in the NBA.

[Magic] I didn't go out the way I wanted to go out,

and that's not the perfect ending.

John Wayne always rode out the way he wanna ride out.

That's John Wayne's way.

[sighs] Finally.

This is a great day for me.

Been working extremely hard to, uh, come back,

and, uh, I'm just happy to be back, um…

So, that's all I have to say. [laughs]

For selfish reasons, I wanted him to play.

You know, we had a chance of winning it again with Magic.

We can get back to the Finals.

To come out again leading the Lakers out like old times. [chuckles]

Right now it's sending chills up my spine, right now just talking about it.

[Rosen] But it was controversial when Earvin came back.

There was players all over the league that didn't feel comfortable.

Karl Malone came out publicly.

If I get in a collision with a guy-- It don't have to be Magic.

It could be Joe Schmo.

But the fact of the matter is, if you got the AIDS virus,

it'll be hard for me to play as hard as I'm capable of playing.

And if people can't respect my decision, that's tough.

For such a prominent player to make those remarks

were really difficult to get past.

[Magic] Man, I just played with Karl.

We did the All-Star Game, now we did the Dream Team,

and now you've got an issue playing against me during the regular season?

It was sort of like he stabbed me in the back.

Now you have this huge distraction.

We go to North Carolina to play a preseason game,

and unfortunately, he gets this fingernail scratch.

There's a time-out.

And when he comes to the bench,

I look up and all eyes and cameras are upon me.

[Scott] I could see the look on players' face

where they wasn't comfortable.

You could see guys' whole demeanor change.

The nonverbal communication that's going on in that particular moment,

and you're like, "Why is everyone staring?"

I remember hearing the reporters saying, "Oh, my God. Oh, my God."

You know, "Magic got scratched." You know, "He's bleeding."

Um, "What are they gonna do?"

[Vitti] I have the gloves in my back pocket.

We have a protocol. I wrote the protocol.

There's no way that I could put these gloves on.

Putting the gloves on would be the epitome of a mixed message

'cause we're telling you, you can't get it from him.

So if you can't get it, then why are you putting the gloves on?

[Magic] You could see the fear upon people face,

and it just keep on drawing attention to it.

So, it's just too much.

It's gonna happen all year long.

Magic Johnson's comeback is over before it began.

The basketball superstar said today that he is retiring for good

because of the controversy over his decision to play

while infected with the AIDS virus.

There had been so much bad press.

The joy was gone,

but I felt for Magic 'cause he still had basketball left to play.

You said when you were here that God created you to play basketball.

I don't know now what you think about that statement.

I would think this is very disappointing for you.

People don't understand this what we as young kids--

I mean, it's all we thought about, you know, was basketball.

And that was our whole life at the time.

[Wallace] You said that you wanted to go out like John Wayne.

-Yeah. -You wanted to do it your way.

Exactly.

Now you're not gonna get that chance.

The perfect ending would've been me playing this season.

But my movie will have no ending.

Man, I tell you, Cookie and I, we'd been together on and off

since we were 18 years old, and now we're married.

Now we're about to have a baby.

We had Andre.

Her and Andre have a-- a special bond.

And then, you know, it was just a special moment for us.

When you think about the Johnson family was about to expand.

[Albert] Magic, the vital statistics for Earvin Johnson III,

seven pounds, 15 ounces. Congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.

[Cookie] When EJ was born, it was just such a relief to me

because they always just said, "From what we understand with the disease

if the mother doesn't have it, the baby doesn't have it."

But in the back of your mind, you're wondering,

"Is he gonna come out okay? Is he gonna look okay?"

You know, "Will he be sick?"

And he came out, and he was just beautiful.

And he was super healthy and a big blessing for us.

Sup.

-[Oprah] Hey, you look good. -Mmm.

-Stop. -[Oprah] Bring him out. Earvin III.

Magic says this in the book-- Oh, he's just so funny.

When the baby was coming, Magic was in the room,

and Cookie was pushing.

And when he saw the head come out-- What did you do?

I-- I told everybody, "Stop."

-[audience laughing] -He did.

And they look around, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

I said, "I gotta have my baby born to Luther Vandross."

[audience laughs]

Even though we had a new baby, and Earvin was really great,

what was hard was there was a little sense of being lost.

I'm not playing the game that I love, and that hurt me.

Not being a part of the locker room, not being a part of the bus ride,

not going to war every single night with my guys.

I'm consumed with basketball.

I'm consumed with being the best.

I'm consumed with winning championships my whole life.

[West] The only thing he knew was to compete in basketball.

What does this genius with a ball in his hand want to do with his life,

in the prime of his career as a player,

what's he gonna do to satisfy that passion to play this game?

[Thomas] Those were our conversations daily.

Who are you, and what are you going to be?

Because you just can't be this.

[Magic] I just had to take a step back and say,

"Hey, Earvin. Okay, let me try to figure it out."

I grew up poor, but I didn't have poor dreams.

I was always dreaming outside my zip code, outside my area code,

outside my community.

When I was growing up, this famous Camay commercial

used to come on TV all the time.

Some girls think it's enough to be clean.

I like to feel more than clean.

[Magic] They had this big round bathtub, and I said,

"I'm gonna have that bathtub one day."

I used to tell everybody that.

They said, "Boy, you crazy."

You know, as little kids, you're just like, "Boy, shut up.

You ain't gonna, you know, h-have that tub."

Or, "You ain't gonna do this or you-- How you gonna do that?"

Because you didn't-- you didn't see it.

And the people that you saw that did have it didn't look like us.

[Ferguson] Lansing was like-- If you saw the movie The Help.

Let's give a nice round of applause for the help.

[applause]

We were at the country club as young people working

and we end up teasing each other because, uh, he worked inside shining shoes,

and I worked outside caddying and so forth.

And, uh, he later told me that I was, uh, a field hand,

and, uh, he worked in the big house.

This is how Lansing was.

[Magic] But you know what?

I've always dreamed big.

When I said I was gonna do something, I did it.

And whatever it-- it was that I wanted, my father said, "You gotta work for it."

And my father worked at General Motors,

and he worked two or three jobs all the time.

He would work at Shell's gas station,

and then he would go to General Motors for eight hours that-- that night.

[Magic] He had a trash hauling service, so we would go pick up people's trash.

My brothers, they were kind of embarrassed when they had to work on the truck

'cause their friends would see us, you know.

We used to be ashamed.

Our friends back then as kids, you know, always pick on 857

because that was the number on the side of the truck.

And I got in a lot of fights behind that, you know, but--

I didn't care if my friends saw me on the truck.

I just cared about hanging with my father.

You know, he was my idol.

[Eaton] I was a block and a half from 'em, so I watched him come up

from when he was almost born, I guess.

He learned a lot from his dad.

And-- And the values that Earvin has in his life are his parents'.

[Magic] I remember this like it was yesterday.

I said, "Hey, Dad, I'd like some money.

Godzilla is playing at the theater."

And everybody in the neighborhood wanted to go see Godzilla

at the movie theater downtown.

And he said, "I don't have a dollar to give you."

He said, "But come with me." I said, "Okay."

So I followed my father to the garage, and he said,

"Meet Mr. Shovel, Mr. Rake and Mr. Lawn Mower."

I said--

He said, "Now, if you want a dollar,

you go use one of those tools to go make a dollar."

I would pray for the snow to come in Lansing, Michigan,

so I could go out and make some money.

So I was always hustling in the neighborhood some kind of way.

You know, I-I was always in business all his life.

He's never knew me when I wasn't in business.

Uh, Earvin would work with him in the summertime.

A little part-time job for, uh, Greg Eaton.

Earvin came on time and left when everything was--

that you asked him to do was completed.

He-- He doesn't know how to "half do."

Um, we would, you know, dump the trash, kind of straighten up the office.

And, uh, I remember vividly that, uh,

Earvin would go, uh, sit at the desk.

Would put his feet up on the desk.

That's when he was at my desk with his feet up on my desk

when I come in.

And I go, "What is this?" "Oh, I'm playing you.

I'm being you right now." [chuckling] We laughed.

And he really kind of envisioned himself being a businessman.

That was the thing he used to talk about all the time

when we would be talking about what we're gonna do after basketball.

We used to sit on the back of the bus.

And they said, "Buck, what do you wanna be?"

'Cause they used to call me Buck.

I said, "I'm gonna own my own business and be a businessman."

But at the same time, I didn't know even where to start.

And so Dr. Jerry Buss, he was the first call I made,

and I went to see him.

He wanted to know, "What you want to do besides basketball?"

He always asked me that.

He said, "Earvin, what's-- what's your goals? What's your dreams?"

And then, "How are you going to accomplish that goal or dream?

What's your strategy to get to where you wanna go?"

Earvin had this plan that, you know, "I'm going to use my fame

and meet people in the business world."

[operator] A/B common mark.

There were people that taught him a lot about business,

and he would take their knowledge.

Jerry Buss taught him a lot about business.

Michael Ovitz taught him a lot about business.

And when we met Michael Ovitz,

he really schooled Earvin in a lot of things.

[Ovitz] He came in, and he sat there. And we talked about what he could do.

To his credit, he started the conversation

by saying, "I want to not be 40,

retired athlete with nothing to do and open a few car dealerships.

I want to be in business."

And I told him it was a real uphill fight.

The first thing I did is I got him subscriptions

to The Wall Street Journal, to Fortune,

to BusinessWeek, to Forbes.

[Rosen] It was a learning period for him.

W-We'd call up, you know, the head of Coca-Cola.

"Hey, can we meet with you? Magic Johnson wants to meet with you."

And "I want to meet with the head of PepsiCo."

We'll meet with Pepsi. And meet with-- He did this around the country.

[Chenault] He would call me periodically, ask for advice.

What Earvin said is, "There are a set of skills that I have to acquire.

And I have to take the time

and have to demonstrate the dedication

to learn those skills."

[Ovitz] But I think Earvin was always sensitive

to the fact that he was a superstar in sports.

And I think that he thought that his image in sports

overwhelmed what he might be able to do in business.

And I think that deep down he was always worried

that he'd never be taken seriously.

He'd be looked at as a jock.

[Magic] It was a hard adjustment.

People don't understand this about an athlete.

Every single day, your day is mapped out.

So now there's nobody there to tell me to do something.

You know, it's all, "Okay."

I-- I didn't have purpose.

The Lakers were my purpose, and I needed to pour my energy,

uh, and my passion and love into something other than basketball.

So I needed to know, uh, how to get started

and-- and, uh, what direction to go in.

[crowd cheering]

[sports commentator] We're live here at the Great Western Forum.

[Cookie] I remember being at a game at The Forum.

Earvin and I had went to the game that night.

[sports commentator] Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

[Cookie] The game was over, we're about to go home

and they make a huge announcement.

You cannot leave the sta-stadium.

[announcer] …heading towards the Culver City area.

[commentator] The crowd has gotten very still now,

and I'll tell you why.

They've got some riots going on around the city of Los Angeles.

Quite close to The Forum, within about two miles.

[Cookie] And I remember they said,

"There has been a riot that broke-- has broken out close to here.

We would advise no one leave the stadium at this time

until we can find out if it's safe to leave."

When they finally let us out, Earvin put us in the car,

and as we're driving, yeah, my heart just sank.

[Rather] The jury in the Los Angeles police brutality trial

has just reached its verdicts this evening.

The four police officers who were videotaped

repeatedly beating an unarmed man

were found not guilty on all but one count.

We were dead center in the middle of Los Angeles.

We were dead in the middle of the riots.

And looking back at it…

[sirens wailing]

…every action causes a reaction.

And we, for so long, have never reacted.

We've always turned the other cheek and accepted it,

and that was our day to say, "Fuck that."

[Magic] When I think about Rodney King and the rioting--

And what I didn't like is that we tore up our own community.

The Black community, you know, we set our own businesses on fire,

and that hurt South Central, Compton.

It hurt so many communities.

[community member] Not only were the stores burned,

but the jobs were lost.

I saw employees coming to work in a lot of these places

and standing there in tears because their jobs were not there.

A lot of the Black leaders started calling me saying,

"Hey, we need you.

You've got the biggest voice, so people will listen to you.

So you got to get involved."

The whole segment of the population that have been left out,

left behind and just lip service, uh--

Done a little here, a little there, uh, will not matter.

Uh, we need to do much more.

[Magic] That was the start of something for me that had to change.

I said, "Okay, I gotta build my business in urban America."

If you don't make a difference in the Black community,

that doesn't matter that you winning all those championships.

So, we gotta go out and, um, you know, ask people to now start rebuilding.

[older Magic] I said, "You know what's going to help me?

I gotta get a office."

Now I'm going to the office every day. I'm back on schedule again.

[Brown] I remember my first interview like it was yesterday.

I walked right into his office actually,

and immediately he was Earvin Johnson.

He was no longer Magic Johnson.

That was left on the court.

Earvin, he saw something in me

that I actually didn't recognize in myself.

And he saw the way I spoke about the community in which I-- I grew up.

I grew up in, um, South Central LA.

I was living in LA during the riots and, uh, it was all around me.

I could walk out the door and see flames.

But, uh, I loved my neighborhood, loved the community, and--

Even though it was tough.

The neighborhood where I grew up was definitely underserved.

There were no major coffee shops.

There were no first-rate movie theaters.

[Magic] We saw how, uh, the Black community

as well as the Latino community,

always the first thing they wanted to do was be able to take their-- their families

to a movie,

and that's the most affordable thing that they could still do.

But we had to drive outside our community to go to the movies.

You're talking about 30, 40 minutes just to go to a first-run movie theater.

Films, movies have always been a part of my life with Cookie.

That's our-- One of our first dates were at the movie.

And it's funny. To this day that's, like, our date night.

To go to the movies on Friday nights.

[Magic] I met with Ken Lombard.

Ken, he had the expertise in the theater business.

Earvin made it clear that he loved the movie theater side of the business,

and this was something that he had interest in.

And so this was going to be my first big investment of my own money.

[Lombard] It was an opportunity for us to get in a lane,

build a business around the minority communities

that really no one was doing at the time.

I walked out of that meeting,

um, convinced that Earvin was the right partner.

[paparazzi] Peter! Peter!

[Guber] He came with Ken Lombard.

They said, "But, hey, we know that you're in the exhibition business,

and you wanna be where audiences are.

Well, we know a country where moviegoing is the first most important priority

for those people.

And it's a really progressive and dynamic moviegoing audience,

and you can make a ton of money."

So I think, "That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

'Cause we were expanding around the world.

I said, "S-So where do we have to go?"

He said, "Five miles from here to Baldwin Hills."

You could merge economic necessity, economic desire, creative opportunity

and purposefulness in the community.

That was a very powerful statement.

And I really did this, he'll tell you.

I reached across the table, I said, "I'm in."

[Magic] We knew what everybody else was thinking.

It's in the middle of the Bloods and the Crips.

It kinda sits in the junction of a number of different gang lands

that go from Rollin' 60s, further down Crenshaw to the Jungle,

which is the P. Stones.

[Magic] One incident could destroy our business.

And everybody was thinking that it was going to happen.

That's what really made me mad, so I had to prove them wrong.

And so I said, "Ken, call the heads.

I want to have breakfast with both heads of the Crips and heads of the Bloods."

He said, "Okay. You sure?"

And I said, "Yeah."

[Lombard] We went.

And I had about six or seven guys with me.

They showed up with about 35 people.

[Magic] I said, "I'm not here to disrespect either one of you.

What I'm here for is to say,

this theater is gonna help the entire Black community.

I want you to come.

I want your family to come.

But you guys got to agree that we can't have violence

outside or inside that theater.

And I'm creating jobs.

So if you guys got some guys who want to work, I will employ them."

Everyone respected him.

No one knew him as a businessman, of course,

but they respected everything about it.

And-- And in LA, you know, all these guys are basketball fans

or Laker fans.

So they obviously, you know, they-- they loved Earvin.

And then we were off to the races.

Before Magic started, um, building theaters,

I didn't give two shakes from a rat's rectum about it.

Now Magic becomes a hero because he lives up to his word.

Giving jobs to people that, you know, were-- were-- were written off

in some aspect was-- It was-- It was huge.

Movies may play a big role in our popular culture,

but in some of our neighborhoods, they play no role at all.

But thanks to some movie magic, that's changing.

This is a movie complex built by Magic Johnson,

right in the center of the Crenshaw District in LA.

[crowd cheering]

[Brown] The opening was a celebration.

I lived around the corner.

The-- The entire neighborhood was going.

We got big, big, big, big screens

stadium seating, you got popcorn shrimp,

chicken and some hot sauce.

And the whole thing. Oh, they're gonna tear it up.

They go-- It's gonna be a lot of shooting, a lot of fighting, you know.

That never happened.

We were able to dispel a lot of myths about the Black customer.

[McIntyre] This is Magic Johnson's newest movie theater.

He's got three or four of 'em all over the country.

Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, and this is the latest one right here

in North Randall, the greater Cleveland area.

There were no movies in Central Harlem.

Now we have nine screens here.

[newscaster 1] Another benefit is that 80% of the theater's staff

lives in the neighborhood it serves.

And it wasn't about money.

It was about change.

Changing the community and revitalizing that community

i-in a different way that I had ever seen before.

Once the theaters was successful

and people, they had their, you know, magnifying glasses, uh, out,

looking like, "Is this is really going to work in these communities?

Are you sure it's gonna work?"

And not only did it work, but it expanded quickly.

And from the theaters came Starbucks.

I think I was in New York, and I saw this line.

And I saw the Starbucks, but I didn't know what it was, you know, at that time.

I said, "Them people waiting in line for coffee?"

And this is Black people in line too.

Man, I'm sitting there. I'm saying, "Wow.

This may be the next thing I gotta do."

[newscaster] Meet the guy you could call the new Mr. Coffee.

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks and the brains behind the brew.

You go to a city like New York City, and you're quite amazed

that a city as sophisticated as New York

with great food and great art,

you can't get a good cup of coffee.

I was a little suspect.

You know, what could Magic do with Starbucks

that would be significant and authentic and relevant?

And so, I think at the time, I was just intrigued to meet Magic Johnson.

The question was,

if you put a Starbucks in South Central LA are people gonna spend four dollars?

And Earvin's response was, "We buy Gucci."

Anytime that somebody is skeptical,

and Howard was, uh, and he had a reason to be,

you've got to take 'em to the deal.

So Waiting to Exhale, Whitney Houston's first movie, was coming out.

Howard Schultz decided he wanted to come down on that Friday.

And I tell you, he was shocked.

It was crazy.

I mean, a thousand people showed up in the lobby.

[Magic chuckles] You know, he looked at the line.

He looked at all the conversations going on around the concession stand.

He's seeing us spending a lot of money.

He said, "Let's go inside." I said, "Okay."

The movie starts, and of course, Whitney's having problems with her man.

I mean, so, what do you think, Robin?

I've loved this man forever, and now that we've got another chance,

I don't wanna blow it by making him think I don't have any faith in him.

Every woman and their girl, "Dump him. Why you still with him?"

You know, they're talking to the screen.

This audience was heavily engaged,

uh, viscerally with the movie.

And Magic was encouraging the fact, "Look what's going on here.

This is happening because we're giving people a platform

to interact with the movie.

And this is the community that I want to create with you at Starbucks."

Starbucks is expanding with a little bit of a "magic" touch.

The popular company is teaming up with Magic Johnson

to put new locations in neighborhoods across the country.

Lo and behold, it turns out

that Black folks drink coffee too,

and they watch an awful lot of movies.

Are we ready?

[Obama] It wasn't charity.

In fact, it could do very well for investors.

[Magic] All the things that I was on the basketball court,

I am as a businessman.

Discipline, focus, building a strategy,

execution, excellence.

[people in street cheering]

Earvin constantly focused on always wanting to get better.

We gotta keep growing. We gotta keep doing.

He's gobbling up one of LA's oldest hamburger chains.

Yeah, Fatburger. Yes.

[Magic] Yeah.

[newscaster 3] With a snip of a ribbon, another new business.

A 24 Hour Fitness gym near Oakland,

the latest Magic Johnson investment in urban neighborhoods.

We found out that there was a shortage of housing and retail in urban America.

So let's do something about it.

This project is not only gonna be a great project,

but a much-needed project.

[Lombard] The primary goal was, uh, real estate opportunities

in minority communities across the country.

[Magic] Well, institutional capital was not ready.

We got more noes than yeses.

But we proved everybody wrong.

Brand new buildings right in the hood.

Condominiums on top and retail on the bottom.

[Lombard] Everyone could see what we were trying to do,

and we were beginning to pull it off.

We're going to become the most significant development company

in minority communities across the country.

Well, now he's doing no-look passes with real estate funds

and no-look passes with shopping centers and franchises.

Somebody said that Magic Johnson is reinventing inner-city business.

[Brown] He was looking for people that had the same drive, the same vision,

and was not afraid to work overtime and over-deliver.

This is a man that wakes up at 4:00 in the morning

and he has this work ethic that he lives by.

[Brown] You had to get there early.

We worked through lunch.

We worked Saturday and Sunday.

There wasn't a Saturday or Sunday that I didn't go in the office

for maybe 15 straight years.

[newscaster] With his playing days behind him,

Johnson turned his focus to the business world.

He's now involved in movie theaters, restaurants, shopping centers,

Starbucks and real estate.

An empire valued at nearly half a billion dollars.

Earvin wanted to do a lot. [sighs]

And so I was always concerned that we were trying to do too much.

And he's only one person.

[Cookie] Earvin and I always talked about having kids.

This is way before we got married.

And we always said that we wanted to have a big family 'cause he had a big family.

But at that time,

there wasn't a lot of knowledge about HIV patients and having children.

And so we were advised not to try on our own.

[Magic] You know, having two boys

and knowing that Cookie and I wasn't having any more kids ourselves,

uh, we both decided to adopt.

This beautiful baby came into our lives.

[Cookie] She came home, and I had EJ there. And I'm like,

"EJ, look. This is your new baby sister."

Then he was like, "Oh, that's so cute. She's so sweet.

Now take her back."

Earvin kind of kicked in with the kids when they became toddlers,

when they were a little more agile for him.

He was very busy. He had to get up and go to work.

And plus, he was traveling a lot too, so he wasn't there a lot.

[Elisa] Even though he worked a lot,

I knew, like, once he was home

we were gonna go get ice cream or we were gonna go to the movies,

or he would spend countless hours with me in the mall,

letting me pick out my, like, favorite outfits or whatever.

[EJ] You know, he, um, took us to the movies a lot,

um, whenever he was home.

You know, weekends when he was there it's, like--

You know, he would take us everywhere.

[Andre] First memories, I can remember, like,

when my dad would come

into Lansing, we would get together as family.

And then I started, probably around ten or 11,

starting to fly out by myself.

And for the first time, seeing sort of what the big city was like

and, you know, seeing the beach, going to Disneyland.

Like, for little Lansing, that seemed larger than life.

He would always make time for-- for things that mattered, I would say.

But he, yeah-- But he was-- he was working a lot,

and he was, you know, transforming himself

and, um, his empire into the one that he wanted it to be.

In the beginning, like, when we were growing up,

he wanted me to be into sports and whatever.

But it's, like, I had never had a mind for sports,

even though, come home from school Friday, change, basketball game.

There wasn't a choice. We're all going to The Forum.

When it's, like, Friday night, like, that's what we're doing.

Yeah, I was there for the championships and all that jazz.

And all the men and boys in the world come up to me

and just like, "Oh, my God. What that must've been like."

Or, "This game in this year,"

and, "When your dad made this pass," and such and such.

And I'm like, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

You know, we put him in T-ball, and he just went out in the field

and picked the flowers and ran back and, "Look, Mommy. Look what I got you."

You know, he picked flowers for me.

I'm like, "EJ, you're supposed to catch the ball."

[Elisa] So, when I was playing basketball, I had his number.

I used number 32.

And when he would come to my games, it was a lot of pressure.

I did feel like all eyes were on me.

[Magic] I stressed this to my kids all the time.

Everything that you do reflects your parents.

As a father, you say, "Oh, man, I want him to get into sports

and be like his-- like me."

[Andre] People would say, if I made a mistake,

you know, it was worse than any mistake that my dad made.

Or if I did something great in the game,

oh, that was great, but it was never as great as what he did during that time.

So, you know, at a early stage, then I stopped loving playing.

[EJ] But the thing is, like, I believe,

it would've been harder for him to take

if me or Elisa or Andre, like, ended up being some basketball protégé

and was crushing the game. Or, like, turned into LeBron James or something.

In some way, I think he needed all the thunder in that lane.

[Cookie] What was hard was for-- for him to just let go of that old world,

um, because it was snatched from him.

He wasn't ready to let it go.

[West] He loved the competition.

This is not because he wanted to be seen.

It was about being competitive.

I missed the elbows, getting elbowed, and I missed giving some elbows.

I missed, you know, preparing for the opponent.

I want to play.

Why am I not out there?

[Rosen] So in 1996,

sometime after the first of the year, he goes, "I'm coming back to play."

But I knew…

I knew that he was not gonna last very long.

[newscaster 1] This morning, Johnson ended the speculation about his return.

I am back. Yes, I am.

[newscaster 2] Tickets started flying out of The Forum box office soon as Laker fans

caught wind that Magic Johnson is returning to the team.

I am so excited. I couldn't sleep for the last two or three nights.

I think it was 1996. I was at Magic's comeback game.

Sellout crowd. Whoo! Magic's back in LA, baby.

[Kimmel] I was a sports guy on the radio,

and I was like, "I have to go to this game."

Magic is a big part of my childhood.

Like, when I was a kid, I used to draw pictures of him.

To see him back on that court, not just playing, but playing really well…

[commentator] Magic's in deep, banks it in!

It was so life-affirming.

It was beyond sports.

When he took to the court for the Los Angeles Lakers last night,

Magic Johnson played as if he hadn't missed a beat.

He scored 19 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists.

As far as him going and playing, I was happy 'cause he was happy,

but… [smacks lips]

you know, not necessarily thinking that this was a good thing. [chuckles]

Well, Magic Johnson says, "Bring on Michael."

The Magic Man appears ready for a Friday night showdown

with NBA king Michael Jordan after a spectacular return last night.

-[spectator] Oh. Oh. -[commentator 2] Magic Johnson backs in.

Rejected by Pippen.

[commentator 3] Back to Magic off the dribble by Rodman. Short.

[Rosen] What was sad for me was the second game against the Chicago Bulls,

and they destroyed 'em.

And I know Michael. I spoke to him after the game.

He-- He felt bad.

I mean, him and Dennis Rodman just-- They obliterated 'em.

I remember Dennis Rodman wanted to guard him.

You know, so we-- we sic Dennis on him.

[commentator 1] Magic slaps the hand of Rodman away,

goes around him, and Rodman gets a foul.

And-- Uh-oh. He will…

[Jordan] There was a lot of shit-talking in the game.

Said, "Look, man, I told you in '92, there's some new kids on the block."

You know, "It's not Magic Johnson and Larry Bird anymore.

You're on the way down, and we're on the way up."

[Rambis] You know, the athleticism and speed and quickness wasn't there.

Because of his IQ and his size,

he could still make, you know, a contribution out there on the floor.

But as the season goes on, you'll-- Things start to catch up to you.

[Cookie] He wasn't as excited and happy as he thought he would be.

It was, you know, kind of grueling, and it was different.

[commentator] …defense like he's trying to defend right now,

the Blazers are gonna be all right.

How about that for a reaction?

It took that to tell him, "Okay, I can retire now.

It's not what it used to be.

I don't want this anymore."

This is not a sad day or a bad day. It's a good day

because, uh, God blessed me to be able to come back and, um-- [smacks lips]

And God will continue to bless me after this is over.

[Cookie] And he kept going back to try to revive that old life,

which just wasn't gonna happen.

But what happens with his mind--

The way Earvin thinks-- The way Earvin operates is,

he only look forward, and then that's when the new visions come.

And he gets so excited about the new visions.

He had different things he was trying to do.

There was a comeback, and then there was the TV show.

[newscaster 1] In just a few short months, Johnson will host The Magic Hour,

a late-night syndicated talk show.

Hi. How you doing? All right?

[newscaster 2] At a recent convention for television programmers,

he was working the room and pitching the show to every executive in sight.

How are you? Nice to meet you.

We talked about it. I thought it was an interesting idea.

I did warn him, because I handled David Letterman,

and I did advise him that it's a tough, tough row to hoe.

You've got Leno. You've got Letterman.

This is really a tough arena that you're getting into.

-Yeah. -[Stahl] Why are you doing that?

-Because it's a tough arena. -[Stahl] Ah. [chuckles]

[announcer] Live from Los Angeles, it's The Magic Hour.

[Kimmel] The Magic Hour is--

Keep in mind, this is coming from somebody who loves Magic Johnson--

Is one of the-- Not just one of the worst talk shows,

but one of the worst television shows in history.

All these twins I got in the front row. Man!

Look at all these twins.

[studio audience laughing]

-Just for me, huh? -[audience member] Just for you.

And very quickly he realized, he doesn't really like doing this every night.

This has to be your breakfast, lunch and dinner.

It wasn't for him.

He had breakfast and lunch doing other things.

So he was-- I think he was burning the candle at too many ends.

You know, the difference between Earvin and Magic are very different people.

You know, Magic is-- is-- is-- is the character.

You know, he's-- he's the, you know, the man of the world.

You know, he's in front of the camera with a big smile,

laughing, loving the attention.

You know, he just becomes a whole new person, like, when he's on.

When he's off, you know, he's kind of very introverted

and, you know-- and, um, oftentimes quite quiet.

It's like that movie Split. They're just fighting for the light.

You know, it's like someone-- Earvin might have light,

and then something might change. And then Magic comes in.

The funny thing is, like, my dad was, like, almost the same identical brain

and we think, and we process things, you know, very, very similarly.

And he was figuring himself out. I was figuring myself out.

The journey to becoming who I am was the most difficult,

and a lot of that had to do with this huge name that was hanging over me.

He was always, like-- always watching me when growing up.

Like, testing me and--

Especially when I was younger, because obviously I always gravitated

for things that are more feminine and stuff like that.

And he, you know-- That was not allowed.

He would always wanna play with his sister's dolls,

especially the Barbie dolls,

and dress them up in different things.

And no matter how much I told him not to do it,

I would go upstairs and that's what he would be doing.

[EJ] I always snuck Barbies under my bed or like little dress costumes.

I would hide from him.

It was almost like I was living a double life.

If it was just an hour

alone in my room where I got to twirl around in my little dress

and be the evil queen and play with my dolls, like, that's it.

I would go to school and be who I wanted to be,

but when I was at home-- No.

[Cookie] It was a spring break with the kids.

EJ, you know, was, like, 13.

And that's when I saw him looking at another boy at-- when we were in Hawaii.

I had a conversation with him and said,

"Do you think that you are gay or you like boys?"

And he was like, "Yes, I do." And he was really nervous to tell me.

Before he really said it, I was like, "EJ, you don't have to worry about me.

I already knew who you were."

It's-- And I could see, like, the weight kind of fall off of his shoulders.

I think he had a conversation with Cookie at that point,

but he hadn't had a conversation with my dad yet.

[Cookie] I said, "I'm with you, and I support you, and I love you.

So next step, how do we tell Dad?"

[Cookie] When we got back from that vacation,

I decided to tell him right away because I wanted to get it out of the way.

Because I was ready to move forward.

[EJ] He said, "You need to be masculine. You need to be this way.

This isn't the life I wanted for you." And it was just sitting there,

which was like, "Well, this is very hard to hear."

I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you and say that, you know,

I accepted what he was doing in the beginning, 'cause I didn't.

EJ left the room. I'd-- I-- I lit into him.

Like, "I can't believe you said that.

You know, this is who he is. Let-- Leave him alone.

Let him be who he-- he wants to be."

I remember talking to EJ afterwards,

and that was tough.

That was tough.

-[paparazzi] What's good, brother? -What up? What up? What up?

[EJ] I was out one night in LA just minding my own business,

and me and my friend, who was a guy-- We were holding hands.

When I woke up that next morning, everything had changed.

I mean, it was everywhere.

It's Magic Johnson's son, EJ, 20-year-old.

Uh, pictures of him just, uh, showed up with him holding hands with his boyfriend.

[Magic] Everybody was trying to chase down stories

and trying to say, "Hey, was he gay?"

You know, that was hard for me.

I'm supposed to protect my kids.

My father passed that down to me.

And so with EJ, I had to check myself

and say, "This is who he is,

and you can't put your life on your son.

You gotta change. Not him. You."

[Cookie] Um, so one day, we were at home.

And I heard them talking down the hallway, near EJ's bedroom,

and I was thinking, "What are they-- Why is he up so early?"

I told him. I said, "No matter who you want to be,

and whoever you are, I'm gonna love you."

He literally hugged me so hard. I thought he was gonna break my back in half.

And, like, that's when I knew. I was like, "We got this."

[Williams] The fabulous EJ Johnson.

You didn't just come out of the closet, you kicked the hinges off the door.

[studio audience cheers]

This is what it's all about.

-I'm gonna love him for who he is, and-- -That's right.

[EJ] That he was there for me,

it spoke volumes a lot, to a lot of families

and a lot of, you know, fathers and sons.

Especially, you know, those of color.

All I saw was a father's love

and just how proud he was talking about EJ.

And I didn't know that I would be dealing with something similar many years later.

And for me, I can go back to that.

I can go back to a proud dad talking about his child. Nothing else.

[EJ] He really respects me and who I am and showing who you are

and-- and not being afraid.

What he did for so many young people,

that made me feel so good.

He's mentioned that to me before.

And he's like, "I've, you know-- I've learned so much just by being your father

and watching you and--"

And I think that that's really when he got to see that, like,

we are way more alike than we are different.

The gag is, you'll never know that we are closer than close.

[cheering]

[Brown] Earvin recognized that there was lots of young people who had struggles.

So we were gonna expand the foundation

from a single-focus, HIV/AIDS focused, and we expanded it to scholarships.

The Magic Johnson Foundation was my extended family.

[Johns] I'm a former scholarship recipient

of the Magic Johnson/Taylor Michaels Scholarship Program.

[Brown] The scholarship focused on identifying students

that needed not only financial support, but that also needed a mentor.

The vast majority of students who are selected face significant hardship.

They had the grades to go to college. They just didn't have the financial means,

and so the Magic Johnson Foundation helped them with that.

[Brown] Not only did we provide scholarships,

we gave them the tools to succeed.

We realized you can't just give these students money to go to college,

but they need support the entire way.

[Grant] We had technology centers in multiple cities

to provide laptops, résumé training, interview workshops.

There were about 30 of us who started in the program,

and then year after year, it grew.

[Magic] All the thousands of kids, all those young people

that we put in college, you know.

It's just a-- It's just beautiful, man.

Magic Johnson, whom we affectionately call "Daddy Earv,"

was-- was like a father figure.

And I have an excellent father, um, but he was like a bonus dad.

We call him "Daddy Earv." It's hard for me to say "Magic" at this point.

They called him "Daddy Earv,"

and, um, he was a big, big, big part of their lives.

He wasn't the-- the basketball star around us,

so he wasn't Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

He was warm, and he was tender, and he was compassionate.

[Grant] And he is someone who likes to see you grow.

He loves to see the potential, invest in it, encourage, water.

He gave us that confidence. Like, shoulders back, chin up, chest out.

You are somebody. You have something to say. People need to hear it.

No fear. Go forth.

[EJ] Like, that's what really makes him a legend and an icon in my eyes.

And, um, he-- he went higher than-- probably than he could even have imagined.

And he just kept going and going, and he keeps going and going.

[newscaster 1] He's one of the best guards,

perhaps the best basketball player of all time.

[newscaster 2] The first player ever to win a high school,

an NCAA, an NBA and an Olympic championship.

[newscaster 1] He's won five MVPs and five championship rings.

[newscaster 3] Johnson has made an impact as a successful businessman.

He has helped revitalize urban neighborhoods.

[newscaster 4] He's become synonymous with the city of Los Angeles and much more.

I brought my mom, I remember, 'cause my father didn't make it that time.

And all of a sudden, she-- I saw her tear up.

And I said, "Mom, what's wrong?"

She said, "I cannot believe it, and your grandfather--

He would have just been out of his mind

to know that-- Jackie Robinson was his favorite player.

He cheered for Jackie, listened to every game on the radio,

and now the team that Jackie played for, you own-- One of the owners of the team."

And I was like, "Wow."

I was born the day after Jackie Robinson played his first game in Brooklyn.

That was, uh, very significant in my household.

[people in crowd cheering]

[Abdul-Jabbar] Sixty years later… [chuckles]

…and it's Magic.

And that was, uh, the type of good luck that you cannot-- you can't order it up.

It just happens.

[newscaster 1] Magic Johnson is joining a new team, the LA Dodgers.

[newscaster 2] His winning lineage with the Lakers and his megawatt smile

have all of a sudden, by themselves,

lifted a cloud that's really plagued Dodgers and their fans.

It's-- It's-- I can't-- [clears throat]

I can't even put into words how it is.

-So, um, it's a great time. -[crowd applauds]

[clears throat]

[Magic] Well, my father was about never owing anybody anything.

So he would always teach me about owning the car that he drove,

owning the house that we lived in.

That's the power in America.

[commentator] Dodgers have won it all in 2020.

This is what it's all about.

And you know what I had told them when we bought the team?

"I got all these Laker championship rings. I wanted a World Series ring."

And sure enough, I got one. Yeah!

The Black kid from Lansing, Michigan.

It's all about ownership.

That's the game he's in now.

[newscaster 1] Once again, Johnson is bringing the magic

back to a beloved franchise.

They said, "Let's buy the Sparks." I said, "Okay, let's go do it."

[teammates] Let's go, Sparks!

If you ask him right now, "So, what's next?"

He's gonna be like, "Glad you asked. So here's the thing." [chuckles]

[newscaster 2] Los Angeles icon Magic Johnson

is part of a powerhouse group financing LAFC,

a new soccer club recently approved by the MLS.

[McAdoo] That's what I like seeing, as a older Black man.

You know, he's doing things that we-- we couldn't dream of doing.

[Holoman] Earvin's always been a trailblazer,

and I think the important part of that is--

is we don't just kick the door open.

We make sure that we leave it open and-- and provide a path for others to follow.

[Wade] Everything that I've always wanted to accomplish

or didn't think was attainable,

once-- Magic has shown us, once again, "Hey, guys. You can do it."

[Barkley] That's one of the reasons all the brothers admire Earvin.

He's the first guy who taught us how to make money away from basketball

and also go back in your communities and give people of color economic opportunity.

That's a really big deal.

We all owe Magic.

Like, you know, you talk about generation from generation,

I owe Magic.

[Smith] Magic Johnson made it very, very popular

to not have any excuses to fall and stay down.

Because if anybody could have

he could have, and he refused to do so.

And look at how he's shining today.

Although he took the long way around

to get to this point,

how he is with Cookie…

-[Easley] It's amazing. -It's what everybody would want.

-[Easley] It's a wonderful love story. -It's what-- It's what-- Yeah, it-- it is.

Wherever they are at as a couple,

he's looking out for Cookie. "Where's Cookie?"

He's got her by her hand, or he's looking for her.

-Right. -And I love the way he does her

and the way he treats her and the way he looks at her.

It is just-- You can-- It's so much love, and I just--

That's one of my favorite things about their relationship

is that love that they have for each other.

[Webster] Leading up to their extravaganza in Nice, France,

-was just incredible. -[crew member] I got videos of that. Wow.

-[Easley] And, yeah. He did that for her. -[Webster] Saint-Tropez.

It just was amazing.

[people at party] Surprise! [cheering]

[Magic] We say thank you for coming and being a part of our 25th anniversary.

[Cookie] You look back and reflect back, 'cause it's 25 years, and I go--

[gasps] Even though I'm praying every day,

like, thinking that a miracle is gonna happen…

it hit me that the miracle did happen.

Because he's still here.

He's still healthy.

We are living our miracle.

You can argue all you want about the GOAT.

You can talk about Bill Russell, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson,

Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

You know, talk about Michael Jordan, LeBron James.

You can go on and on.

And not because I coached him,

not because I just love him, I think he's the greatest of all time.

[Bird] You know, everybody has their own opinions.

I have my own opinion.

But, uh, it doesn't matter who's better.

We'll be linked together for the rest of our life.

[Snoop Dogg] His name is Magic.

So we knew it was gonna be something magical.

He does not realize the impact of his name.

His name will be there forever.

[Magic] I never got caught into "Magic."

I didn't think it was going to stick, and I didn't think it was going to last.

And here I am.

I'm 61 now, and people are still calling me Magic.

So I guess I was wrong,

and everybody else was right.