A 12x All-Star, 3x MVP, and 5x NBA Champion, Magic Johnson has one of the greatest careers in basketball history.
Yet, his impact, fame, and legacy pale in comparison to Michael Jordan, who had his own Nike brand before he finished his rookie season.
According to Jordan, he suspected the Lakers icon of being envious of his career (namely, the Jordan Brand), which is why he avoided an immediate friendship with him.
Two days after the All-Star Game, he torched Isiah and his Pistons for 49 points. And, for the next few years, he resisted Magic’s Cheshire cat grin, choosing to engage in perfunctory hand shakes as opposed to bear hugs or high fives. Truth was, he didn’t trust Magic, and resisted developing a friendship with him.
“Well, I understood it to be jealousy. And you know, I think a lot of it came from—Magic Johnson should have been Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan. He had the smile, he had everything, he had the marketability. He had championships.”
Jordan’s rise to power was met with fierce resistance at first. As the young superstar started making a name for himself, his opponents did everything they could to slow him down and discredit his fame.
That, too, might be rooted in jealousy.
David Falk, Jordan’s longtime agent, said it was clear what was transpiring on the court.
“Everyone knows they froze him out,” Falk tells me. “They froze him out because they were jealous. They said, ‘Who’s this rookie who hasn’t done anything–you know, has something that we don’t have?’”
MJ didn’t win his first title until 1991 when he was already 7 seasons into his career. But his game was elite far before then and it seems everyone had an idea that he would become someone special.
Today, Jordan Brand is still one of the most successful brands in existence, and Jordan himself has made amends with many of his biggest competitors, and his “go alone” mindset looks to be buried for good. It’s all love between Jordan and Magic nowadays — but that doesn’t mean it started that way.
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