“Just became the biggest Magic Johnson fan” – Ice Cube said legendary 1979 NCAA final between Magic and Larry Bird made him fall in love with basketball originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Los Angeles has always been a city of glamor, reserved for the biggest stars in sports and entertainment like Magic Johnson.
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However, the two most influential movements in both scenes emerged between the late ’80s and early ’90s. In the Forum arena, a new generation was rising and its face would become the ever-smiling kid – Magic. Johnson was made for the shine lights of the City of Angels and he had everything that the sparkle of this city demands.
A few years later, one of the biggest icons of the rap scene, Ice Cube, started making waves with his group N.W.A, as gangsta rap became more popular than ever. Cube came from one of the toughest neighborhoods in Los Angeles – Compton – where basketball was sacred.
The young men from that neighborhood lived for the Los Angeles Lakers and promoted the West Coast through their rap in the heated battle against the East Coast.
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However, the moment that made him fall in love with basketball happened in the most-watched NCAA final ever, played in 1979.
Michigan State and Indiana State faced off, led by Magic and Bird.
Ice was there as he was only 10 years old then. That game sparked his love for basketball.
“I never really watched college basketball, you know,” Cube said on the “Games With Names” podcast. “I was like 10 years old and my brother CJ was like, ‘You gotta watch tonight. You got to see this player, his name is Magic Johnson.’ So the word Magic made me think of magic. Damn, I’m thinking he’s gonna pull a rabbit out of his hat. And he’s playing against some guy named Bird and I’m like, damn, I never heard of a person named Bird.”
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“So I watched it and I’m happy Magic won ’cause he got a cooler name. And then my brother came a few months later, ‘Guess who we got on our team, the Lakers? Magic Johnson.’ Wow. I was like all the way turned on to the game and just became the biggest Magic Johnson fan,” he added.
Ice became a megastar, while Magic was already at his peak
About a decade later, Cube became a mega-popular star, while Magic was already at his peak.
It didn’t take long before Ice found himself courtside again, this time at a Lakers game, watching his idol Magic. Cube was still a kid and he had a moment that left a childhood memory when Magic slapped his hand.
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“I was like, ‘Hey Magic!’ He was like, ‘Hey, young dude,’ and he slapped my hand and kept going. I just remember he had the softest hands I’d ever felt from a man. I was used to feeling my daddy’s rough-a—s, hard-working calloused hands. Magic’s hands were soft as a baby,” the rapper added.
Legends in the making
Two icons of L.A. were, in those moments, legends in the making. They elevated L.A. culture to a new level after that. But their styles were completely different. Magic was playful and always smiling and his game was flashy and elegant.
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Cube, on the other hand, brought something never-before-seen to the scene – raw reality that directly confronted the political system through his lyrics, at a time when the African American community was facing heavy oppression.
He and his group gave a voice to the Black working class, a complete contrast to what Los Angeles represented.
But everything that followed became history. Some things started to shift, and Cube became a legend, just like Magic.
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This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 21, 2025, where it first appeared.