NBA
The secret to Magic Johnson’s financial success revealed
Mat Issa is based in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Yes, he spells his name with one "t." He's obsessed with NBA history, so much so that he's dedicated nearly two years of research to his two mini-series', "Blazing the Trail" and "The Quest for the Best." Right now, Mat goes to law school and writes about the NBA for The Analyst, Forbes, and of course, Basketball Insiders. His work has also been featured in ESPN, SB Nation, FanSided, Basketball News, ONE37pm, and Raptors Republic. Also, he's a lifelong Spartans fan. Go Green!
All posts by Mat IssaUpdated13 Nov 2023
Earvin Magic Johnson is one of the greatest players to ever grace the NBA hardwood. And along with putting together a hall-of-fame career (highlighted by five titles and three MVP awards), Johnson is one of the most financially well-off athletes in the world.
The Secret To The Magic
But this didn’t happen by accident. Long before Johnson quit playing basketball, he was laying the groundwork for his future business empire. In a recent interview with Jon Erlichman, Johnson revealed one of the practices he was observing during his playing days to help catapult his rise as a businessman. Here is what he said:
“And I was one of these guys that was crazy. So, I called the PR man for the Lakers, and I said look, ‘I wanna know all the people who sit [courtside.] I wanna know their phone numbers and names.’ So, I cold-called 20 people and said, ‘Will you go to lunch with me?’ And they said, ‘Yeah.'”
“I picked their brain about business and what made them successful. And I incorporated [that advice] into my own style.”
If you didn’t follow from the quote above, while Johnson was killing it on the court for the Los Angeles Lakers, he was networking with the team’s most successful fans in order to learn more about what it takes to get to the level they were at.
The Networking Paid Off
Whatever wisdom he gained from these conversations seems to have paid off, as Johnson was able to take the roughly 39 million dollars (per Spotrac) he made during his playing days and turn that into a net worth of over 1.2 billion dollars.
Along with being the owner of numerous restaurants and movie theaters across the country, Johnson has an ownership stake in multiple professional sports teams. According to Boardroom’s billionaire portfolio on Johnson, he is a co-owner of the Washington Commanders, a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a co-owner of LAFC, and a minority owner of the Lakers. He’s also the co-owner of an eSports team called “Team Liquid.”
While we’re certain this isn’t part of the advice the courtside ticket fans bestowed upon him, it helps that Johnson isn’t spending 70,000 dollars at a Walmart!
