{"id":94174,"date":"2025-06-12T18:27:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T18:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/94174\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T18:27:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T18:27:16","slug":"magic-johnson-names-greatest-player-in-nba-history-without-hesitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/94174\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic Johnson Names Greatest Player in NBA History Without Hesitation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magic Johnson Names Greatest Player in NBA History Without Hesitation<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the NBA Finals in full swing, basketball has taken center stage \u2014 and on Thursday, following Game 3 of the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Indiana Pacers series (which the Pacers won to take a 2-1 lead), NBA legend and Hall of Famer Magic Johnson joined the ESPN set in New York to appear on “First Take” alongside Stephen A. Smith and host Molly Qerim.<\/p>\n

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Amidst a wide-ranging basketball discussion \u2014 from the Finals to speculation on Kevin Durant\u2019s future with the Phoenix Suns \u2014 Smith asked Johnson a pointed and simple question: \u201cDefine a superstar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson didn\u2019t hesitate, offering a clear and compelling answer that ultimately led him to name the greatest player in NBA history.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person who can go on the road and sell the building,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cYou gotta be box office\u2026 Larry Bird \u2014 people running home. Charles Barkley \u2014 people running home. Shaq \u2014 people running home. Kobe \u2014 people running home. And of course, the greatest to ever play \u2014 Michael Jordan. People running home to see him, or doing everything they can to get into the arena to watch him play. That\u2019s a superstar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NBA<\/p>\n

NBA great Magic Johnson before the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

Johnson and Jordan didn\u2019t face off often during their playing days, but they did meet in the 1991 NBA Finals \u2014 a pivotal moment in basketball history.<\/p>\n

That series marked the beginning of the Bulls\u2019 dynasty, as Chicago defeated the Lakers in five games to capture Michael Jordan\u2019s first NBA championship. Jordan would go on to win five more titles, finishing his career a perfect 6-0 in the Finals.<\/p>\n

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For years, the debate over the NBA\u2019s greatest player has centered around Jordan and LeBron James. While Johnson has consistently praised LeBron \u2014 especially since James joined the Lakers \u2014 it didn\u2019t take him long to name his pick for the \u201cGOAT\u201d of basketball.<\/p>\n

Related: Charles Barkley Names Greatest Player in NBA History Without Hesitation<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 12, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Magic Johnson Names Greatest Player in NBA History Without Hesitation originally appeared on Athlon Sports. With the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12619,7,7935,920,919,126,938,2772,300,185,2682,935,6,1220,179,472,2603],"class_list":{"0":"post-94174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-1991-nba-finals","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-basketball-history","11":"tag-bulls","12":"tag-chicago","13":"tag-indiana-pacers","14":"tag-kevin-durant","15":"tag-kobe","16":"tag-lakers","17":"tag-lebron-james","18":"tag-magic-johnson","19":"tag-michael-jordan","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-nba-finals","22":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","23":"tag-phoenix-suns","24":"tag-stephen-a-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114671808929813032","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94174","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=94174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}