Skip to main content

Magic Johnson Fast Facts

By CNN

(CNN) — Here’s a look at the life of entrepreneur, philanthropist and NBA Hall of Fame point guard Magic Johnson.

Personal

Birth date: August 14, 1959

Birth place: Lansing, Michigan

Birth name: Earvin Johnson Jr.

Father: Earvin Johnson Sr., an autoworker

Mother: Christine Johnson, a school custodian

Marriage: Earlitha “Cookie” (Kelly) Johnson (1991-present)

Children: with Cookie Johnson: Elisa and Earvin III “EJ”; with Melissa Mitchell: Andre

Education: Attended Michigan State University, 1977-1979

Other Facts

Johnson is 6’9” tall.

The rivalry with Larry Bird, another NBA superstar, began in college. They became friends while shooting a Converse shoe commercial in 1984. They served as the first co-recipients of the NBA’s lifetime achievement award in 2019.

Helped the Lakers win five NBA championships: 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988.

Was the NBA Most Valuable Player three times: 1987, 1989 and 1990.

Has explained that the way he contracted HIV was through sexual encounters with multiple female partners in the 1980s.

He is chairman and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises, which owns radio stations, movie theaters, magazines, real estate, a cable network, sports teams, and invests in corporate partnerships.

Johnson is also the chairman and CEO of the Magic Johnson Foundation, which was created to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS through awareness, prevention and education.

Timeline

1974 – Earns the nickname “Magic” after a game his sophomore year of high school, in which he scores 36 points, 18 rebounds and 16 assists. Lansing State Journal sportswriter Fred Stabley Jr. is the first to call him Magic.

1975-1977 – Is named to the All-State team and leads his team to a state championship. He is heavily recruited by college basketball programs nationwide and chooses Michigan State University in East Lansing.

1978 – The Michigan State Spartans win the Big Ten Championship.

March 26, 1979 – MSU wins its first NCAA Championship. The Spartans defeat Bird and the Indiana State University Sycamores, 75-64. Johnson is named MVP.

1979 – Johnson leaves Michigan State to turn pro. He is the NBA first overall draft pick and is selected by the Los Angeles Lakers.

1980 – At 20 years old, Johnson is the youngest and the first rookie named the NBA Finals MVP. The Lakers win the series 4-2 over the Philadelphia 76ers.

1982 – Is named Finals MVP after a 4-2 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

1986 – UCLA hosts the first annual Midsummer Night’s Magic All-Star charity basketball game. Players include Bird, Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan.

1987 – Is named Finals MVP after a 4-2 win over Bird and the Boston Celtics. He is also named League MVP.

1987 – Magic Johnson Enterprises is founded. Johnson is the chairman and CEO.

1988 – Johnson’s fifth NBA championship is the Lakers second championship win in two years, a 4-3 win over the Detroit Pistons.

November 7, 1991 – In a nationally televised press conference Johnson announces he is HIV positive and is retiring from the Lakers, effective immediately.

November 1991 – Establishes the Magic Johnson Foundation.

February 9, 1992 – Voted to the NBA All-Star game for the Western Conference by fans even though he had not played in a game that season. Is named MVP, with 25 points, three three-pointers, nine assists and five rebounds; the West defeats the East 153-113.

February 16, 1992 – The Lakers officially retire his number 32 jersey.

August 8, 1992 – The US Olympic basketball “Dream Team,” the first US Olympic team to include NBA players, wins the gold medal, beating Croatia 117-85 in the final game.

September 29, 1992 – Announces he will come out of retirement and play in the 1992-1993 season for the Lakers.

November 2, 1992 – Announces he is again retiring from basketball, due to the many NBA players voicing concern over possible health risks associated with such a high contact sport and Magic’s HIV status.

November 3, 1992 – His autobiography, “My Life,” is published.

March 23, 1993-April 24, 1994 – Head coach of the Lakers.

June 27, 1994 – Becomes 5% owner of the Lakers.

January 30, 1996 – Returns again to play for the Lakers. In his first game, the Lakers defeat the Golden State Warriors 128-118. NBA rules prohibit players from owning a team. Prior to his return, Johnson sells his interest in the team.

May 14, 1996 – Third, and final NBA retirement: “I am going out on my terms…”

October 1996 – Buys back the minority share of the team he sold to majority owner Jerry Buss earlier in the year.

1998-2010 – Partnership with Starbucks called Urban Coffee Opportunities “to build Starbucks stores in underserved neighborhoods.”

September 27, 2002 – Is inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bird introduces him.

November 4, 2009 – “When the Game Was Ours,” a book co-authored with Bird, is published.

March 6, 2010 – HBO debuts the documentary, “Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals,” about the relationship between Johnson and Bird on and off the court.

October 2010 – Sells his shares of the Lakers.

March 2012 – Along with the Guggenheim Partners, Johnson wins a bidding war to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers for $2.15 billion.

April 11-May 12, 2012 – The play “Magic/Bird,” the story of the rivalry and friendship of Johnson and Bird, runs on Broadway.

June 2012 – Launches a new cable television network, Aspire.

February 5, 2014 – The WNBA announces Johnson and a group of investors are purchasing franchise Los Angeles Sparks.

October 2014 – Announces that he is part-owner of the Major League Soccer team, the Los Angeles Football Club.

February 21, 2017 – Johnson is named as the Lakers’ president of basketball operations, as part of a restructuring plan. He will step away from his role at ESPN, where he was on the show “NBA Countdown.”

April 9, 2019 – Announces he is quitting as the Laker’s president of basketball operations.

May 2020 – Johnson announces that EquiTrust Life Insurance Co., of which he owns a majority, is providing $100 million in capital to fund federal loans for minority and women business owners who have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

March 6, 2022 – HBO debuts the scripted series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” with the first season focusing on the drafting of Johnson and the 1979-1980 season.

April 22, 2022 – “They Call Me Magic,” a documentary focusing on Johnson’s life and NBA career, debuts on Apple TV+.

July 20, 2023 – NFL owners vote to approve the sale of the Washington Commanders franchise to a group led by billionaire Josh Harris, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management. The Commanders’ new ownership group includes Johnson.

January 4, 2025 – Is awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Unpaid wages and deadly risk: Why health workers are threatening to abandon the Ebola response

By CNN
(CNN) — Every morning, Micheline Kayimpa pulls on layers of protective gear before stepping into an Ebola isolation ward in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), knowing that one small mistake could cost her life.At the Elikya Ebola Treatment Center in Bunia, the nurse spends her days caring for patients infected with Ebola — one of the world’s deadliest viruses — administering medicine and assisting those too weak to feed themselves.Because Ebola spreads through bodily fluids, even routine care exposes health workers to constant risk — from treating patients to cleaning contaminated spaces.“I am very afraid for my safety,” Kayimpa told CNN. “Sometimes, a small detail we overlook can prove fatal.”But as the outbreak grows at an alarming pace, health workers say they are battling more than the virus.After months of treating Ebola patients, Kayimpa says she has yet to receive a single government paycheck. The mother-of-four is among dozens of health workers who have protested delayed wages and threatened to boycott work.The timing couldn’t be worse.Kayimpa is working on the front line of what the World Health Organization says is now “the largest Ebola outbreak ever reported” in the DRC. Since the virus emerged in mid-May, it has infected at least 3,874 people and killed 1,751, according to figures released Wednesday by the Congolese health ministry.The outbreak was jointly detected in both the DRC and neighboring Uganda. While Uganda has since declared itself Ebola-free, transmission has continued to accelerate in eastern Congo.The flare-up has reached that scale in just over two months, surpassing the country’s last major Ebola epidemic, which spanned nearly two years between August 2018 and June 2020. Only the 2014–16 Ebola epidemic in West Africa has been larger and deadlier, infecting more than 28,600 people and killing 11,325 across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.Deep mistrust fuels hostilityBunia, where Kayimpa works, is the capital of northeastern Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, where more than 90% of confirmed cases have been recorded. The response is already struggling to keep pace even without the threat of healthcare workers walking out in protest.Unlike previous Ebola outbreaks, this one is caused by the less common Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no proven vaccines and treatment options remain limited. Ongoing fighting in eastern DRC has also made it harder for health workers to reach affected communities.“This outbreak took hold in communities already worn down by conflict and displacement, with weak health, water and sanitation systems to begin with,” said Lancelot Mermet, director of humanitarian programs at Mercy Corps.“When people can’t get to care quickly, or don’t trust the system enough to come forward, the virus moves faster,” he told CNN, adding that health officials are still identifying cases that cannot be linked to known infections.Aid agencies say mistrust, misinformation about Ebola, and resistance to restrictions on traditional burial practices have fueled hostility toward health workers and complicated efforts to contain the outbreak.That hostility erupted into full view in late May, when demonstrators seeking the bodies of two relatives forced their way into an Ebola treatment facility. It was the third such attack since the outbreak began, forcing health workers to move patients to safety as gunfire erupted nearby.The violence has continued. Similar attacks were reported in June and July, and the United Nations said last month that “at least a dozen facilities have been attacked, largely due to fear, misinformation and deep community mistrust of outside authorities.”‘We’re sacrificing our lives’Inside Bunia’s Elikya Ebola Treatment Center, the response is stretched thin.The 90-bed isolation ward, run by international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF), is already operating at full capacity, with many patients arriving only after they are critically ill.“We do not have enough staff,” Kayimpa said. “There are just two or three of us nurses looking after patients with more than 10 different conditions.”Even with protective equipment, the danger never disappears.“Accidents can happen whilst I’m working here,” she said. “Some aggressive patients may attack you and infect you. We’re sacrificing our lives for the people.”Health care workers already paid a heavy price in the early days of the outbreak, she said.“When the disease first broke out, we didn’t know it was Ebola,” she recalled. “We were treating patients without any protection. Many of us became infected, and some died.”Despite those risks, Kayimpa says it isn’t the virus that has pushed many health workers to breaking point.MSF provides bonuses, she said, but those payments do not replace the government wages she relies on.“I’ve been working here since June, but I haven’t received a single penny in wages,” she said, adding that her name was misspelled on payroll records. “I was told that processing my file would take a long time.”She stopped work for three days in protest, she said, but has since resumed in the hope her case will be resolved. If there’s no progress, however, Kayimpa – who worked for a private health organization in Bunia before joining the Ebola effort – is ready to walk out again.It remains unclear whether the delays are linked to broader funding pressures affecting the response.DRC communications minister Patrick Muyaya Katembwe acknowledged that delayed payments had triggered staff protests at several Ebola treatment centers but told CNN the outstanding payments were now being processed.He said the delays were largely caused by the administrative process of verifying which workers had been deployed to the Ebola response and ensuring payments reached the correct recipients.“Anyone officially listed will be paid,” he said.MSF, which runs several Ebola treatment and isolation facilities across the DRC, said the protests were related to government compensation rather than payments from the humanitarian organization.“MSF is continuing to meet its obligations towards staff working in the response,” it said in a statement to CNN, adding that “health workers play an essential role in responding to this outbreak, and it is important that they receive compensation in a timely manner for their work under extremely challenging conditions.”‘Chasing a wildfire from behind’Aid workers say the success of the Ebola response depends on the people risking their lives to keep it running.“These are the people carrying the greatest burden of the outbreak, caring for and treating patients, preventing infections and holding together public confidence in the health system, all while taking significant risks themselves,” an aid worker familiar with the response told CNN.He said, “With this outbreak moving this fast and spreading further from the epicenter, frontline workers need the equipment, protection, timely payment and support required to do their jobs safely.“Every interruption gives the virus more time to spread and leaves the response chasing a wildfire from behind,” the aid worker added.Whether health workers like Kayimpa receive that support could determine how many remain on the front line, fighting to keep patients alive and contain the virus.“As long as I don’t receive my wages, I will boycott work until I’m paid,” she said. “Better still, I will leave this job to try my hand at other activities that will bring me money.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Read Next Story

Related Stories

Latest News
Republicans may finally snare Dr. Fauci in Covid’s last culture war
29 minutes ago

Republicans may finally snare Dr. Fauci in Covid’s last culture war

Senate subcommittee obtains Fauci’s phone ahead of contempt vote

Perez Hilton hospitalized after livestreaming acts of self-harm, officials say

La FDA aprueba la primera vacuna contra la gripe basada en ARNm

FDA approves first mRNA-based flu vaccine