For a lot of people, Magic Johnson remains the greatest point guard ever. He won 5 NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, doing so while playing some exciting, team-oriented basketball.
The individual accolades also came for Magic, he won MVP three times and Finals MVP three times with the Los Angeles Lakers. He also led the league in assists 4 times and steals twice. Johnson’s game was fun to watch, and while he scored more than 20 points per game just twice in his career, he was a true all-rounder. And he recently answered the interesting question of how he would fare playing in the current NBA.
“It wouldn’t change any,” Johnson told Dan Patrick. “Because what I do, what I specialize in, is needed in the game today. That’s coming down on the fast break and passing it to people and putting them in a position to score. Instead of passing it to the guys who can do the slam dunk or make a layup, I’ll be passing it for them to make a three-point shot.
“You have to remember that centers are not centers. When I played, you had two seven-footers on the court. Now, you don’t have that, so, man, I’d be driving, and I’d have no resistance in today’s game.”
(starts at 1:26 minutes)
Magic Johnson was elite at getting to the basket and moving around on the floor, so this does make sense. And with today’s NBA getting a lot taller and longer, being a 6’9 ball-handling guard would make him an incredible fit for any team. Also, despite shooting under 2 three-pointers a game, Johnson had a three-point percentage of 37% twice in his career, which means he could have adapted to shooting more as well.
Would Magic Johnson Dominate Today’s NBA?
NBA fans have seen time and again that old heads seem to think they would thrive in the modern era. But Magic Johnson’s skill set would genuinely be elite for the modern game. He averaged over 11 assists per game for his whole career, and with modern spacing and knockdown shooters, that number would only go up. The LeBron James comparison he made himself speaks volumes about what he could do.
There are players from the old days, bruisers and big men, whose game wouldn’t translate if they were dropped on an NBA court today. But Magic Johnson was nothing like that, and his combination of size and skill would make him a Top 5 player in the league in any era.
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