During the 1980s, the Los Angeles Lakers were one of the most dominant teams in the NBA. A majority of the credit for the success of the Showtime Lakers goes to none other than the incredible duo of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
At the time, Kareem was already one of the top players in the league. He had already won multiple regular-season MVP awards and an NBA Championship with the Milwaukee Bucks as well.
Now, Kareem was paired up with Johnson and it was the beginning of one of the best duos of all-time. Magic was a savvy player and had a certain swag around his game. In fact, he helped the Lakers win an NBA Championship in his very first season. Additionally, he was named the NBA Finals MVP in his rookie season.
Considering that, it was already obvious that he was there to stay in the league for a very long time.
After pairing up the two NBA superstars, the Lakers won 5 NBA Championships. So it goes without saying that the two superstars had a pretty strong relationship on the court. But what about their relationship off the court? They must have had an incredible relationship off the court as well, right?
Well, that might be the case a few years down the line, but initially, that wasn’t the case. In fact, Magic revealed that himself in a 1987 interview.
Via Los Angeles Times:
“It was hard to get through to Kareem. It was just hard to talk to him then. I guess it was just him, that’s the way he was. Certain times you just couldn’t talk to him, and we respected that. Now you can go up and say anything. It’s a lot different in the last couple years.
Some mornings, some afternoons, you knew, don’t say nothing to him. You could just see the look on his face when he came in–‘Don’t talk to me.’ So nobody would talk to him. It was just that way.
Everybody could see that we wasn’t favorite pals or buddies the first three or four years. I think I wanted him to know I wasn’t trying to get into his territory; he was the man. But things came so fast for me that maybe he thought I was intruding. I don’t know.”
While this was Magic’s side, it is only fair that we also reveal Kareem’s side of the story as well.
“Magic was very distant. Not unfriendly. He just didn’t really approach anybody (on the team) his first couple years. I didn’t really know him, other than superficially. He kept to himself. Oh, when we’d go to Michigan (to play the Pistons), we’d hang out, we’d go around places together, but I never really got to know him until recently. I held back because he had to make the adjustments coming into the league and deal with all of this. I guess he held back because of my stature in the game, the whole aura around me. There was never any conflict or anything like that. It just took a while before we got to know each other.”
At the end of the day, the two superstars only needed some time before building a relationship off the court. Regardless of their relationship off the court, the two players are considered the GOATs of their respective positions by most fans, and rightfully so.
The two players definitely got closer as Magic Johnson once hailed Kareem as the best college player of all-time. Despite the initial bumps in their relationship, the two are considered the legends of the Los Angeles Lakers for their achievements for the franchise. And that’s what really matters, right?
