"I think that’s when people said the torch has been passed" - Magic Johnson recalls a game against Larry Bird and the Celtics when he felt he became the face of the NBA

“I think that’s when people said the torch has been passed” – Magic Johnson recalls a game against Larry Bird and the Celtics when he felt he became the face of the NBA originally appeared on Basketball Network.

In the 1987 NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers had a 2-1 series lead against the Boston Celtics in Game 4. But with seven seconds left in the exact match, the purple and gold were down one and were in jeopardy of giving yet another game away to their arch-rivals. All the Celtics needed to do was get one stop, but Magic Johnson made that near impossible because he pulled off one of the most shocking yet incredible game-winning moves in NBA history: “The junior skyhook.”

Just when every single person in the arena thought only Johnson’s teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar could pull off such a move, The Magic Man adopted it for one of the most important moments of his career, earning him not just a championship but the status of being the face of the league.

“That’s why this hook is so special. It’s like a game-winner. Against the Celtics. In Boston Garden. You can’t get a rarer moment than that. You don’t beat Boston in Boston Garden at that time. For us to do that on my skyhook… wow, what a moment,” Johnson said.

Johnson gladly wanted to be the face of the league

Johnson felt his skyhook game winner proved to the world that he could do more than just pass the ball. Magic proved he was the complete offensive player, which wasn’t the case at the start of his career, and he could take over games, especially in the clutch. In the same series, the five-time champion averaged a near triple-double of 26.2 points, 8.0 rebounds, 13.0 assists on 54.1% shooting from the field.

On top of his performance in the 1987 NBA Finals, where he won his fourth NBA championship, Magic also nabbed the regular season MVP and Finals MVP in the same year — making him one of the 16 players to only do so in NBA history.

“I think that’s when people said the torch has been passed… It was my league then. That year, not only did I win MVP of that series, I was the MVP of the league too. I won both. We won the championship,” said Johnson.

What the 1987 championship meant

Before winning the championship in 1987, the Lakers had lost to the Celtics in 1984, then defeated them in 1985. The 1987 NBA year felt like round three of NBA Finals action between the arch-rivals. Before the defining series, Johnson and the Lakers may have already won a championship twice in the 80s, but that didn’t mean they escaped criticism. The consensus believed that the Showtime Lakers were all about glamour and that privilege was what led them to win most of their championships.

Until Johnson beat Bird in his nest and proved that the Lakers had the identity of being the most hardworking and gritty basketball team.

“Everybody thinks we’re a cute, pretty team,” Johnson said after LA brought down Boston for the 1987 championship via NYT. “But that’s what makes this so great, because we showed that we have heart, too,” the Michigan State product added.

Grit and heart showed in Johnson’s career-defining performance, which not only solidified his status as the face of the league in 1987 but also made him a part of many revolutionary and inspiring chapters in the NBA history books.

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 30, 2025, where it first appeared.

“I think that’s when people said the torch has been passed” – Magic Johnson recalls a game against Larry Bird and the Celtics when he felt he became the face of the NBA

Tags: