[Exclusive] “Magic was a Book that Maybe Wouldn’t Sell”: Roland Lazenby Defied Analytics to Publish Magic Johnson’s Biography

After the publication of Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant in 2016, personal loss and deteriorating health convinced Roland Lazenby to give up on documenting the untold stories of NBA legends. However, he couldn’t just retire without telling the tragic yet fascinating story of Magic Johnson. There were obstacles on the way. Lazenby’s publisher told him that a book on Magic Johnson was likely to fail in the market. But the now 72-year-old author decided to go with it anyway because he felt that Magic’s story needed to be told to the world for several reasons.

Roland Lazenby is arguably the most decorated NBA biographer in the history of organized basketball. He is well-known for his seminal works like Michael Jordan: The Life (2014), Mindgames: Phil Jackson’s Long Strange Journey (2001), and Blood on the Horns: The Long Strange Ride of Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls (1998), among other books. The veteran author recently sat down with The SportsRush‘s Adit Pujari to talk about his career covering the National Basketball Association.

 

During the interview, Lazenby noted how the creation of Magic: The Life of Earvin “Magic” Johnson, which was published in October of last year, was mired with obstacles. The first hurdle appeared when his publisher cited Analytics to dissuade Lazenby from his ambitious project, because it wouldn’t be a very lucrative venture.

“I was warned that Magic was a book that maybe wouldn’t sell because the HIV and his story had turned off lots and lots of fans,” Lazenby revealed.

However, he still decided to invest five years of his life in the project because Magic’s story had astounded him. While data mining, Lazenby could trace the Lakers legend’s family to slavery, Jim Crow laws, Sharecropping and the ugly truths of racial segregation in America. Therefore, Magic Johnson’s story transcended just the biography of a basketball legend and became a quintessential tale of a Black American success story.

Lazenby stated that phrases like ‘Shut up and Dribble’ agitated him while doing research for the book. But he did his best to capture the disparaging treatment Black families and Black kids received at the time, and how Magic Johnson and his family overcame everything to live the American Dream. Magic’s recent ascension to Billionaire status just adds a cherry on top of Lazenby’s brilliant story.

The 72-year-old admitted that his 800-page book probably tested the patience of NBA fans at times. But it ultimately was a success, even if it didn’t reach the heights of some of his earlier work. The book is already licensed to be translated in eight languages, Lazenby revealed, proving that just like basketball, Analytics shouldn’t always define everything.