Doctor Earvin Johnson and 'Mr' Magic

"Nobody dislikes Magic."

About that phrase, which you hear at the beginning of the first of the four chapters of

now available on Apple TV, gravitates all the greatness and misery of its protagonist, a black boy from a working family in Michigan who became a star of the NBA, the professional basketball league, winner of —almost— all possible titles in his sport, before abruptly retiring on November 7, 1991 after announcing at a press conference that he had tested positive for the virus HIV, which causes the development of AIDS.

saves space to talk about and show basketball, the Magic part, but also to illuminate the contradictions and errors of the human being, Earvin Johnson junior, who speaks before the camera confessing his mistakes, with the serenity of understanding that at his current 62 years gives assume a certain balance between legend and person.

More information

The dark side of the 'showtime' of Magic Johnson and the Lakers

Earvin

Johnson (Lansing, Michigan, 1959) was a revolution in basketball.

The son of a worker in the automobile industry, who completed his salary by driving a garbage truck (the player remembers the times he accompanied Earvin, father, to collect and empty buckets in the vehicle), he became a Magic from the second game who played in high school at the age of 15, when a journalist gave him that nickname.

"Magic is a character who plays basketball," he says.

Not even his mother liked that renaming, which, instead, has underlined the profound talent of the one who completely transformed his sport.

With his college, Everett, he twice won the state championship, and Johnson decided to stay in his home state: in April 1977 he announced his transfer to Michigan State University.

In his second season his team reached the final of the NCAA, the university tournament, and beat Indiana State University, led by Larry Bird.

Both only had in common their hunger to eat the world and his height, 2.06 meters.

From that moment they became the yin and yang of world basketball (despite their deep friendship).

Magic Johnson scores off Larry Bird in the 1979 NCAA finals when the former was playing at Michigan State and the latter at Indiana State.

After that triumph, Johnson burned stages, and two years earlier than usual, he jumped into the NBA, where he was signed by the then worst team of the previous season, the Los Angeles Lakers, who just at that moment had been acquired by Jerry Buss, who he would end up being Johnson's great mentor.

There he was also waiting for one of the best centers in history, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and a completely crazy first season, a roller coaster of emotions and incredible events.

Like they reached the final, and when Julius Erving's duel with the Philadephia 76ers was 3-2 in favor of the Lakers, Abdul-Jabbar was injured.

Johnson, the most electrifying point guard in basketball history, replaced him as center in Game 6, and in Philadelphia he had 42 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

Lakers swept 107-122.

Thus he became the third player in history to win the university title and the professional title consecutively.

Johnson also achieved the greatest individual congratulations... except for the best

of the year, which was won by Bird in a 63-3 expert vote before the final.

Johnson still stings that dismissal today (and he says it on camera).

That is the season that illustrates the series

on HBO Max, which this week premieres its tenth and final episode, and which in the US has caused a media earthquake due to its inaccuracies in pursuit of a more fiction snags

Two weeks ago, Abdul-Jabbar, a regular columnist for several media outlets, wrote a detailed article on his website against the series for his historical and emotional lies.

Earvin 'Magic' Johnson and Cookie Kelly, before they got married

Magic Johnson would have liked to be remembered by another nickname, EJ the DJ, which illustrates his passion for music, which he developed at parties and events.

And here the brutal dissolute life that he led for a decade in Los Angeles appears in the series.

He never missed a training session, he never lowered the bar on his game, his rivalry with Bird and his way of playing (despite his height, his handling of the ball was and is unmatched) took the NBA to another level: from being a wandering league became the professional and financially dazzling machine it is today.

Three times, however, he broke off his engagement to Cookie Kelly, who on one of her visits to Los Angeles attended a stunned "pool" party, a regular celebration at Johnson's house without the presence of wives or girlfriends. players.

Of that promiscuity,

The former player and current businessman, during the recording of the documentary.

Cookie's friends appear in the documentary forming a choir identical to that of the friends of Hillary Clinton, a senator, candidate for the presidency of the United States, and wife of former president Bill Clinton, to whom Hulu dedicated a similar audiovisual review.

Both gangs make the same point about Hillary Clinton and Cookie Johnson (yes, she married Magic): They both love their husbands so much they've forgiven them everything.

In Cookie's case there was never any deception, true, although there was a lot of emotional suffering.

The series does not hide anything about this or about the basketball player's first rejection of his son Earvin's homosexuality, which Magic tells embarrassed before the cameras.

Where he doesn't come in is his efforts to fire Paul Westhead, the coach who led the Lakers to that 1980 title,

The player, at the Everett High School.

And there are still two episodes left.

The first takes place between September 19, 1991 and February 9, 1992. In between, the earthquake in Johnson's life: he gets married, Cookie tells him in the preseason in Paris that she is pregnant, discovers and announces that she has the HIV virus (but not his wife and fetus) —which at that time meant almost certain death in two or three years after developing AIDS—, retired at the age of 32 and later participated in the All Star, the game of the stars, despite the reluctance of some colleagues fearful, for being misinformed, of a possible contagion.

Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, in the 'Dream Team', the American team that was put together for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

The charm and empathy of Earvin Johnson saved him from falling into that dark and egotistical side of Michael Jordan that the Netflix series

On many occasions, Jordan put business before personal relationships, probably because he was the one who paved the way.

In They

the star of the Chicago Bulls is blamed by some of the participants in the documentary.

Magic himself says that he had a hard time convincing Larry Bird to join the

the legendary American squad that swept the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, but Jordan made him sweat blood and tears before he confirmed his attendance.

Who was the greatest, Jordan or Johnson?

Coach Pat Riley voices the thought of many: "Magic, no question."

The player, with his father during his time in high school.

Johnson defends that he is more Earvin Johnson than Magic, and for this reason the documentary lists his enormous business achievements (in which he mixes social work with economic success) made after the third of his retirements from basketball.

talks about racism, basketball, the competitive desire, but, above all, about the long journey of a man to accept his life and assume his ups and downs.

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