Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, forever known as a forlorn, brooding soul, was happy to express himself while playing alongside Magic Johnson.
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The Kareem-Magic Johnson duo is perhaps the most stacked duo in the history of the NBA. They won 5 NBA championships together and made 8 NBA Finals in 10 years.
One of the famous moments from their partnership was from the 1980 NBA Finals. Kareem played with a sprained ankle in Game 5 and hung 40 points on the Sixers. But he couldn’t play the following game, and it was up to Magic to fill in his humongous shoes.
Magic replied with one of the greatest Finals performances of all time, playing all 5 positions while tallying 42 points, 15 rebounds and 7 assists and leading the Lakers to the championship.
Magic also learned how to make the skyhook under Kareem’s tutelage. He used it to great effect while making the game-winning shot in Game 4 of the 1987 NBA Finals. Later, Magic said his was a ‘junior, junior skyhook’ compared to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Magic Johnson talks about his impact on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his demeanor
Magic Johnson was recently a guest on the All the Smoke podcast show with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. The Lakers legend chopped it up with the 2 NBA champions and had discussions with them about various aspects of his life and career.
One of the things he discussed was how his own behavior impacted that of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:
“That first game, he hits a skyhook from the free throw line. Not from down low, but from the free throw line to win the game. So I go running, I jump, and I’m holding and choking and hugging him. And I didn’t let go for about 2-3 minutes.”
“So he got me to the locker room [and said] ‘Rookie! Come here! Don’t ever do that! We have 81 games to go. We can’t be this high after game 1.’ So I said ‘You hit a shot like that 81 more times, and I’m jumping on your arms 81 more times!'”
“Right when the playoffs started, he did a hard dunk on somebody. So he came out looking for somebody (to high-five). We were like ‘Oh! We got him!'”
“So, what did he say to me just recently at the Showtime Lakers’ reunion in Hawaii? He said ‘Earvin, you showed me that I can show my emotions and enjoy the game. You changed me.'”
