Tragic Details About Magic Johnson

This feature discusses racism.

Even if Earvin Johnson's nickname is Magic, the basketball star didn't always have a charmed life. Growing up in Michigan during the '60s and '70s, he had his heart set on going to his neighborhood school, Sexton High, and playing for their notoriously mighty basketball team. Instead, Johnson and his siblings were bused into a white-majority school where white parents had pulled their own kids out of schools to protest the new arrivals, and rocks were thrown at their buses. "Busing was still relatively new; we were only the second group of black kids to attend the school," he recalled in his memoir, "My Life."

Tensions were great when he started playing basketball for his new school, Everett High, and a rivalry sprung up between the Black and white teammates. But years later, Johnson had a different perspective. "It's true that I hated missing out on Sexton. And the first few months, I was miserable at Everett," he wrote. "But being bused to Everett turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. It got me out of my own little world and taught me how to understand white people, how to communicate and deal with them."

Sadly, the NBA legend has faced various unexpected obstacles, heartbreaks, and curveballs throughout his life. Nevertheless, as these tragic details about Magic Johnson repeatedly prove, he's always stood strong in the face of adversity.

After a strong rookie season in the NBA, Magic Johnson had to miss 45 games in his second year with the Lakers because of torn cartilage in his left knee. In "My Life," he explained that the injury came from a collision with Hawks player Tom Burleson, who had a knee brace made from iron at the time. "This was my worst nightmare," Johnson wrote. He added that he was completely unprepared for the upheaval because he had managed to avoid any career-threatening accidents up until that point, and hadn't missed a game yet from injuries. His parents helped him through the surgery, which left him unable to walk for three days. "It was awful," he explained. "I hate losing, and I was losing big time with this."

The star wound up missing play for a total of 100 days. When he came back for a game against the New Jersey Nets, Johnson was greeted by a standing ovation from his fans and teammates. He told the press that his time away had given him a fresh perspective. "It made me see that, just as fast as you can rise to the top, you can come tumbling down," he observed, insisting that losing the camaraderie with his teammates was the worst part. "That's my life, being around the fellas, talking jive, singing on the bus, that's the whole thing."

Despite his bravery in telling the world, Magic Johnson became the subject of a lot of jokes after his HIV diagnosis. Shock jock, Howard Stern had been particularly persistent on his radio show, so when Johnson was given his own talk show, "The Magic Hour," the controversial radio star became a guest. Six years earlier, Johnson had written about how he'd contracted the virus in "My Life" (via Chicago Tribune), stating that he'd been sexually promiscuous with female Lakers fans during the '80s. 

Naturally, this sat at the heart of Stern's mockery, as he joked during the notorious interview, "At least you had fun getting AIDS." When Johnson tried to interject, clarifying that he didn't have AIDS and that no part of his HIV journey had been fun, the provocateur kept going, sneering, "Believe me, brother, you did. It sounds like fun to me." Stern also loaded his appearance with continual racially charged comments. 

Reflecting on the episode with Variety years later, Johnson revealed that he was furious when he found out the controversial guest had been booked for his show. He could barely contain his frustration during filming, stating, "So many times, I wanted to say something and hit [Stern]." He swore that he'd never just smile and tolerate similar situations in the future – no matter how many TV executives talked him into it. "I've never put myself — or HIV and AIDS, or my race — in that position ... ever again," he explained.

Magic Johnson and his wife, Cookie Johnson, first became acquainted as freshmen at Michigan State — she quickly tamed his wild ways. "In high school, I was dating all over ... just going crazy," he told the Los Angeles Times. "Then I met this great young lady, a super girl. She brought me down to being a one-woman man." But it wasn't always smooth sailing. In the late '80s he briefly called off their engagement because of his career. And in 2001, the pair had a secret separation that they hid from the media. 

On an episode of "SuperSoul Sunday" (via HuffPost), Cookie blamed the split on Johnson's ego. She was focusing on being a mother at the time and her husband was gathering momentum in the business world, staying out later and later. "It just all became about work for him," she explained. The couple reached a breaking point the night after he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001, over Johnson dancing with some girls rather than his wife. "That kind of got to me because it had been boiling, boiling, boiling, boiling anyway," Cookie admitted. "That was our first kind of spat in public." 

As the couple told Ebony (via BET), during their separation, Johnson decided to change his ways while Cookie focused on personal growth. It saved their marriage. "Now we're so connected to each other, but it took that situation to bring us back," he shared. 

Magic Johnson was at the center of a high-profile scandal in 2014 when TMZ released leaked recordings of Clippers owner, Donald Sterling telling his mistress not to associate with Black basketball players in public. In his comments to V. Stiviano, the NBA higher-up criticized her specifically for posting a picture of herself with Magic Johnson on Instagram. "It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with Black people," Sterling insisted, adding that while she could see anyone in her private life, he didn't want her to be seen with Black people at games. 

Understandably, Johnson expressed his dismay at the racist rant — particularly because he had known Sterling since 1979. "I thought we had a sort of friendship," he told CBS. "... I thought he respected me." Johnson added that his comments were painful because of their hypocrisy, expressing his sympathy for the Black basketball players on the Clippers and the Black tenants of Sterling's buildings. "We're putting a lot of money in his pocket, but at the same time he doesn't want us in the arena," he concluded. "So I think that all of us are outraged."

Johnson also called for him to step down as owner. The NBA clearly agreed with him, since they fined Sterling $2.5 million and gave him a lifetime ban. A month later on CNN, Sterling apologized for his comments and denied that he was racist. Instead, he accused some people — including Johnson — of having conspired against him.