In 1996, Magic Johnson retired for the second, and final, time in his NBA career. After 13 seasons of greatness, Magic returned for one last farewell before closing the door on his professional basketball tenure for good.
And while his skills often get taken for granted today, one young star recently named Magic as his favorite player of all time.
In a chat with Joey Mistretta, the Minnesota big man explained his appreciation for no. 32.
“Number 32 became a thing for me because of Magic Johnson,” Towns said. “The ways he made his teammates better, the way he showtime…when I was young I always wanted to make my teammates better. So shout out to Magic giving me that confidence to do it.”
Karl-Anthony Towns reveals his favorite player of all-time#timberwolves #KAT #NBA #NBAPreseason pic.twitter.com/tYGlCIqzkJ
— Joey Mistretta (@JoeyMistretta_) October 12, 2022
Magic wasn’t the scorer Kobe was, nor was he the aggressor like Jordan. But the way he commanded the offense, led the floor, and kept things moving offensively was powerful in a way that one might not see on the stat sheet.
Magic Johnson Learned Quickly From His Early Partnership With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
In 13 seasons, Magic averaged 19.5 points, 11.2 assists, and 7.2 rebounds per game on 52% shooting. In his prime, he was an unstoppable force — but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have lessons to learn at the start.
For most of his career, Magic played alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has often spoken about what it was like playing with Johnson.
“What happened was I made the winning shot, and it was like he had just won a championship,” said Kareem on Magic. “He was going crazy, wrestling me down and hugging me and everything. When we got in the locker room, I said, “Look, we’ve got 81 more games to play. So he got the message from me that it was a long haul, and if you’re going to ride the emotions that intensely, you’ll be a wreck. But from him, in that same moment, I learned that it’s OK to have some fun and enjoy things as you’re having the experience. You can’t be so totally about brass tacks that you don’t enjoy the smaller successes that of course lead to bigger and better things.”
Over time, Kareem had to show him the true mentality of a champion, and it’s something that Magic never forgot. Fast forward all these years later, and Towns is hoping to follow in Magic’s footsteps with the Timberwolves this season.
Certainly, if winning is what KAT values most, he picked a pretty good example to follow in Magic, who is a 5x Champion himself.
