{"id":284012,"date":"2025-09-14T22:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T22:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/284012\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T22:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T22:16:11","slug":"lakers-magic-johnson-admits-michael-jordan-mistake-after-beating-larry-bird-in-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/284012\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers\u2019 Magic Johnson admits Michael Jordan \u2018mistake\u2019 after beating Larry Bird in college"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post Lakers\u2019 Magic Johnson admits Michael Jordan \u2018mistake\u2019 after beating Larry Bird in college<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Hall of Fame guard Magic Johnson<\/a> weighed in on the GOAT debate between Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>\u2019 LeBron James and Michael Jordan, he reflected on his playing career and the regrets that stand out from it. Johnson led his Michigan State Spartans to a 75-64 win over Larry Bird<\/a> and the Indiana State Sycamores in the NCAA National Championship in 1979, setting the stage for an NBA rivalry between the two. However, it also led to many offers for a 19-year-old Magic.<\/p>\n

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Johnson says this was where he made a colossal mistake<\/a> while combing through shoe deals ahead of his NBA career with the Lakers, who drafted first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft, he said, per the Earn Your Leisure podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cConverse offered me the most money. And so, when you\u2019re Black and you\u2019re broke, you take the most money, right? So I decided to go with Converse,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBut Phil Knight came in and he said: \u201cI can\u2019t offer you the same amount of money as Converse, but I can give you something called stock.\u201d And I passed on the stock, not knowing anything about stock at 19 years old. You know how much that stock would be worth today, 46 years later? A billion-five.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nike would ink Jordan to an unprecedented five-year, $2.5 million deal with a 5% royalty on shoe sales in 1984.<\/p>\n

Magic Johnson picks Michael Jordan over Lakers\u2019 LeBron James\"MPS-Imagn<\/p>\n

MPS-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Hall of Fame guard Magic Johnson<\/a> is the only rookie Finals MVP in NBA history, leading the Lakers to a 4-2 victory against the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1980 NBA Finals. He\u2019d go on to win four more titles (1982, 1985, 1987, 1988). However, his last NBA Finals appearance was Hall of Fame guard Michael Jordan<\/a>\u2019s first in 1991, which left a lasting impression on Johnson and the rest of the NBA world.<\/p>\n

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Johnson, while addressing why Jordan wins the GOAT debate against Lakers All-Star LeBron James, reflected on that Finals series against MJ.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love LeBron. But\u2026 [laughs] When Michael Jordan took off with that tongue out? Man,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cListen, a lot of you weren\u2019t born then \u2014 1991, against my Lakers. Right hand \u2014 we thought we had him. Then he looked at us mid-air, switched it to the left. Tongue out. Glass. Bucket. Nobody alive has been able to do that. That boy is too bad. I\u2019m telling you. But yeah \u2014 LeBron is a bad boy, too. But he\u2019s not Michael.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan would go on to win five more championships from 1992 to 1998.<\/p>\n

Related: Lakers\u2019 Magic Johnson loves \u2018bad boy\u2019 LeBron James, \u2018but he\u2019s no Michael Jordan\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: LeBron James\u2019 unfazed reaction to Lakers fan running on stage is a new meme<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The post Lakers\u2019 Magic Johnson admits Michael Jordan \u2018mistake\u2019 after beating Larry Bird in college appeared first on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,46717,3497,185,150,2682,935,3491,6,12,207],"class_list":{"0":"post-284012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana-state-sycamores","10":"tag-larry-bird","11":"tag-lebron-james","12":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","13":"tag-magic-johnson","14":"tag-michael-jordan","15":"tag-michigan-state-spartans","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-draft","18":"tag-philadelphia-76ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115204966653324339","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}