Magic Johnson recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where he spoke on a multitude of topics, including his getting a 25-year, $25 million deal from the Los Angeles Lakers in 1981. Johnson revealed his teammates were not happy at all for him, as they just couldn’t see the bigger picture.
Magic Johnson: “No, they were not happy because that was more money than anybody had ever received in the NBA at that time.”
Jimmy Kimmel: “You’d think it would make them happy because they would see that there’s potential for them to get more money?”
Magic Johnson: “No, no, no. They didn’t see it that way, even though it worked out like that, right? See, players don’t see the long-term. It’s all about the short-term. So, what Larry (Bird) and I did for the NBA, to this day, guys are capitalizing on. So now, they’re making $50 million a year.”
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It was just after his second season in the NBA, that Johnson had signed that deal and it would come into effect from 1984. At the time he signed it, it was the highest-paying contract in sports history and you can understand players being jealous of him.
What they also should have realized, of course, was that Johnson getting that kind of a deal meant others were also going to start earning more down the road. It was a sign that much better times were up ahead for the NBA and that proved to be the case.
Stephen Curry is the highest-paid player in the NBA this season at a whopping $51.9 million and next year, Luka Doncic can sign a massive five-year, $346 million extension with the Dallas Mavericks.
Charles Barkley Says Magic Johnson And Larry Bird Are The Two Most Important Figures In NBA History
While Johnson’s teammates weren’t all that pleased when he got his big deal, Charles Barkley sure was. Barkley explained how Magic and Bird changed the NBA.
“The two most important figures in NBA history are Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. If it wasn’t for those two guys and Race had something to do with that. It drew a line, but it’s still the best thing ever happened to the NBA.”
“The average salary then was $200,000. When Magic and Bird came in, first of all it was too black, too thuggish, too drug infest and we were tape delayed… You got one game a week on Sunday.”
“The Finals were tape-delayed and there was only one game on Sunday and the average salary was $200,000. The average salary now is $10 million… I think three or four making $60 million a year. In the next five years we’re going to have guys making 70,80,90.”
“I remember vividly… it broke that Magic Johnson had been the first NBA player to make a million dollars we were walking around high-fiving each other we could not believe we could not believe that an NBA player made a million dollars.”
Magic and Bird really did save the NBA. Before they arrived, most of the teams in the league weren’t making money, and fan interest was not all that high either. Their rivalry changed all of that and took the NBA to new heights. Had Magic and Bird never shown up, who knows what the league would look like today?
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