You Tube Gold: Magic Johnson

For anyone who watched him play, saying that Magic Johnson is now under appreciated is a really weird thing to say. It’s true to an extent though.

Partly that’s just time. Michael and LeBron came along and people talked them up as the best ever, each in their day.

And unfairly, after his HIV diagnosis, a lot of other players were scared to play on the same court as Johnson. For at time, that affected his legacy although not so much anymore, fortunately.

He has succeeded in business but when he’s tried to return to basketball, it hasn’t worked out. He failed as the Laker’s coach but recently came back as an executive, only to walk away after some controversy with ownership over his role.

It’s been uneven for him since his abrupt retirement but when you look at his brilliant passes, you understand what he once said about himself and Larry Bird, to whom he is inextricably tied: Me and Larry, he said, were about winning.

He has another significant triumph that is also now overlooked: Magic, as much as anyone, has triumphed over a disease that was expected to kill him in his 30s. He’s 60 now and as we understand it, has no trace of the disease. It’s not uncommon now but it wasn’t when he was younger. It was a death sentence. He decided to fight it and he has, again, triumphed.