According to the release sent out by the team, Johnson’s duties will include, but won’t be limited to, “advising ownership on all business and basketball matters, collaborating with coaches, evaluating and mentoring players, assessing future franchise needs and helping ownership to determine the best path for growth and success.”
“Magic Johnson is one of the NBA’s greatest players and it is terrific to see him returning to the Lakers,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “He is a truly special person and a natural leader with a relentless passion for basketball and profound knowledge of the game.”
According to the release sent out by the team, Johnson’s duties will include, but won’t be limited to, “advising ownership on all business and basketball matters, collaborating with coaches, evaluating and mentoring players, assessing future franchise needs and helping ownership to determine the best path for growth and success.”
“Everyone knows my love for the Lakers,” Johnson, 57, said. “Over the years, I have considered other management opportunities, however my devotion to the game and Los Angeles make the Lakers my first and only choice. I will do everything in my power to help return the Lakers to their rightful place among the elite teams of the NBA.”
Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American retired professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 13 seasons. After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA draft by the Lakers. He won a championship and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his rookie season, and won four more championships with the Lakers during the 1980s. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996, at age 36, to play 32Â games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time.
Johnson’s career achievements include three NBA MVP Awards, nine NBA Finals appearances, twelve All-Star games, and ten All-NBA First and Second Team nominations. He led the league in regular-season assists four times, and is the NBA’s all-time leader in average assists per game, at 11.2. Â Johnson was a member of the 1992 United States men’s Olympic basketball team (“The Dream Team”), which won the Olympic gold medal in 1992. After leaving the NBA in 1992, Johnson formed the Magic Johnson All-Stars, a barnstorming team that travelled around the world playing exhibition games. Â Johnson was honored as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996.
Johnson became a two-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame—being enshrined in 2002 for his individual career, and again in 2010 as a member of the “Dream Team”.  He was rated the greatest NBA point guard of all time by ESPN in 2007.  His friendship and rivalry with Boston Celtics star Larry Bird, whom he faced in the 1979 NCAA finals and three NBA championship series, are well documented.
In 905Â NBA games, Johnson tallied 17,707Â points, 6,559Â rebounds, and 10,141Â assists, translating to career averages of 19.5Â points, 7.2Â rebounds, and 11.2Â assists per game, the highest assists per game average in NBA history. Â Johnson shares the single-game playoff record for assists (24), Â holds the Finals record for assists in a game (21), Â and has the most playoff assists (2,346). Â He is the only player to average 12 assists in an NBA Finals series, achieving it six times. Â He holds the All-Star Game single-game record for assists (22), and the All-Star Game record for career assists (127).
Johnson introduced a fast-paced style of basketball called “Showtime“, described as a mix of “no-look passes off the fastbreak, pin-point alley-oops from halfcourt, spinning feeds and overhand bullets under the basket through triple teams.” Fellow Lakers guard Michael Cooper said, “There have been times when [Johnson] has thrown passes and I wasn’t sure where he was going. Then one of our guys catches the ball and scores, and I run back up the floor convinced that he must’ve thrown it through somebody.” Johnson could dominate a game without scoring, running the offense and distributing the ball with flair. Â In the 1982 NBA Finals, he was named the Finals MVP averaging just 16.2 points, the lowest average of any Finals MVP award recipient in the three-point shot era.
Since his retirement, Johnson has been an advocate for HIV/AIDS prevention and safe sex, Â as well as an entrepreneur, Â philanthropist, broadcaster and motivational speaker. Â His public announcement of his HIV-positive status in 1991 helped dispel the stereotype, still widely held at the time, that HIV was a “gay disease” that heterosexuals need not worry about; his bravery in making this announcement was widely commended. Â Named by Ebony magazine as one of America’s most influential black businessmen in 2009, Â
Johnson has numerous business interests, and was a part-owner of the Lakers for several years. Johnson also is part of a group of investors that purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012 and the Los Angeles Sparks in 2014.
