Top 100 Magic Johnson Quotes
#1. I get up 5:30-6 every morning. I'm in the gym. I run a couple miles.
Magic Johnson
#2. I grew up a Detroit Tigers fan, and now to be an owner of the Dodgers is amazing.
Magic Johnson
#3. It's a burden trying to keep a secret. It's hard. It probably takes more out of you trying to hold it and keep it than it does for you to really let it out.
Magic Johnson
#5. I'm the biggest music lover in the world. I mean, I have seen everybody. I went on tour with Michael Jackson and the Jacksons four or five times.
Magic Johnson
#6. Being able to touch so many people through my businesses and make money while doing it, is a huge blessing.
Magic Johnson
#7. If people around you aren't going anywhere, if their dreams are no bigger than hanging out on the corner, or if they're dragging you down, get rid of them.
Magic Johnson
#8. ObamaCare is working. I talk to a lot of CEOs of hospitals. It is working.
Magic Johnson
#9. I motivate others by making sure that they understand to go after their dreams and don't let anyone tell you you can't. If you are motivated enough and put the work in that you can achieve anything in life that you set your mind to.
Magic Johnson
#10. When you are honest and open with young people, they let you in.
Magic Johnson
#11. I'm the one who started redevelopment in South Los Angeles, not Jan Perry. I did it. I love Jan. She's a good person, and she did a wonderful job with what she did downtown, but in L.A., South L.A., I'm the one.
Magic Johnson
#12. I like to take walks in the park by myself, where no one can bother me and I can think.
Magic Johnson
#13. I wanted to do two things when I was growing up, about your age. I wanted to play in the NBA, and I wanted to be a businessman after my basketball career was over, and that is what I am doing now.
Magic Johnson
#14. If somebody says no to you, or if you get cut, Michael Jordan was cut his first year, but he came back and he was the best ever. That is what you have to have. The attitude that I'm going to show everybody, I'm going to work hard to get better and better.
Magic Johnson
#15. I think that there are always goals for me to try to achieve, and I'm going to work toward those goals.
Magic Johnson
#16. I want to be here for a long time, so I am going to do everything I have to do to be here. And I want to walk my daughter down the aisle and give her away to somebody some day. I want to make sure I am still here to make sure my two young sons become men.
Magic Johnson
#17. Don't give up! Be friends with people who help you work hard.
Magic Johnson
#18. The real story is that I had unprotected sex. That's that. That's easy.
Magic Johnson
#19. You don't have to be Magic to be special. You're already special, you're you.
Magic Johnson
#20. When I grew up, my family, we sat down, all of us to watch 'Good Times,' 'Sanford and Son,' all those shows that were out at that time.
Magic Johnson
#21. I've always studied business. Even when I was a ball player, I'd read business journals and the business sections of newspapers.
Magic Johnson
#22. I was around when my father finished the last payment of his house. I remember like it was yesterday. He had worked all those years to own that house and he cried. He was so excited and so happy and I want to see other people get that feeling, too.
Magic Johnson
#23. Once Michael gets up there he says, 'Well, maybe I'll just hang up here in the air for a while, just sit back.' Then all of a sudden, he says, 'Well, maybe I'll 360. No I changed my mind. I'll go up on the other side.' He's just incredible.
Magic Johnson
#24. Any guy who can maintain a positive attitude without much playing time certainly earns my respect.
Magic Johnson
#25. I look three to five years ahead, not 10 years behind.
Magic Johnson
#27. My family is a praying family, a Christian family.
Magic Johnson
#28. HIV changed my life, but it doesn't keep me from living.
Magic Johnson
#29. Standing on that platform, I said a silent prayer. I thanked God for giving me the strength and the opportunity to come back, to play basketball again, and to be part of that whole magnificent Olympic experience. It's a memory I will always cherish.
Magic Johnson
#30. To me, everything is wonderful. Life is wonderful.
Magic Johnson
#31. WE all have to play as a team to make the world a better place
Magic Johnson
#33. Larry, you only told me one lie. You said there will be another Larry Bird. Larry, there will never, ever be another Larry Bird.
Magic Johnson
#34. When you are a successful business person, you are only as good as your team. No one can do every deal alone.
Magic Johnson
#35. My dad worked two jobs his whole life, and so I told him he's the reason I have 20 jobs.
Magic Johnson
#36. On his telepathic understanding with James Worthy- It's almost like we have ESPN.
Magic Johnson
#37. Manhood is taking care of your family and being able to bless other people. Not yourself - but whether you can bless other people.
Magic Johnson
#38. I'm not cured, but the HIV is asleep deep in my body.
Magic Johnson
#39. I got blessed from my mom. She's the personality; she's the one who smiled, so I took on part of her, and who also wanted to help and save the world. Then I took on part of my dad, who is tough.
Magic Johnson
#41. I think you just have to keep knocking down doors, you have to keep being aggressive, and even if somebody says 'No', then you have to knock on the next door.
Magic Johnson
#42. I have to tell you, I'm proudest of my life off the court. There will always be great basketball players who bounce that little round ball, but my proudest moments are affecting people's lives, effecting change, being a role model in the community.
Magic Johnson
#43. Athletes don't like to get up early, but it never bothered me.
Magic Johnson
#44. I love business. I love helping urban communities grow. I love putting people to work of color. I love making sure.. like right now the whole mortgage crisis, I want to help people get back into their homes.
Magic Johnson
#45. With businesses, you go to the same places because you like the service, you like the people and they take care of you. They greet you with a smile. That's how people want to be treated, with respect. That's what I tell my employees.. customer service is very important.
Magic Johnson
#46. We cut him off and there was nowhere for him to go but out of bounds ... It's still the greatest move I've ever seen in basketball, the all-time greatest.
Magic Johnson
#47. I really want people to know that I've worked hard, very hard, to get to where I am today.. this didn't just happen overnight. I started in business over 25 years ago and have found a way to build on what I've learned through every partnership and opportunity.
Magic Johnson
#48. On the best tactic when playing alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar- Just give him the ball.
Magic Johnson
#49. I love to be in the ballpark. I love to just go in and enjoy a great baseball game, a great pitchers' duel.
Magic Johnson
#50. I met wonderful people playing in the NBA. Whether it is the officials, the scorekeepers, all the people who work for the NBA, not just for the Lakers, but I'm talking about just for the league itself.
Magic Johnson
#51. When you face a crisis, you know who your true friends are.
Magic Johnson
#52. People see me high-fivin' and smiling on the court, and they don't think that's me. But it is. I just want to go out and be myself.
Magic Johnson
#53. If you want someone to be your mentor, you better be ready to listen and be humbled.
Magic Johnson
#55. As an athlete, I understood the value of my health insurance. I knew that in my profession, injuries were common and could happen at any time.
Magic Johnson
#56. Even when I went to the playground, I never picked the best players. I picked guys with less talent, but who were willing to work hard and had the desire to be great.
Magic Johnson
#57. I tell you, it's funny because the only time I think about HIV is when I have to take my medicine twice a day.
Magic Johnson
#58. When a woman is frustrated, and it's your wife, you as the husband get that frustration.
Magic Johnson
#59. I guess when people ask what is the biggest transition to the NBA from college, it is definitely defense and the mental part.
Magic Johnson
#60. Life doesn't stop because something happens to you.
Magic Johnson
#61. If you're a competitive person, that stays with you. You don't stop. You always look over your shoulder.
Magic Johnson
#62. When I'm under the gun and I've got pressure on me, I don't panic. I look for the right solution, and then I go for it.
Magic Johnson
#64. My father is my idol, so I always did everything like him. He used to work two jobs and still come home happy every night.
Magic Johnson
#65. I try to hire people I don't have to motivate. But I do motivate the people working with and for me.
Magic Johnson
#66. I'm building shopping centers and movie theaters in the inner cities. So that means supplying jobs and letting blacks understand that we have to build our communities back, not looking to anybody else.
Magic Johnson
#67. The looks, the stares, the giggles ... I wanted to show everybody that I could do better and also that I could read.
Magic Johnson
#68. For me, it always goes back to something I learned in basketball. There's winning and there's losing, and in life you have to know they both will happen. But what's never been acceptable to me is quitting.
Magic Johnson
#69. I make sure I get a lot of vegetables, a lot of fruit. I am a big fruit man; I am a vegetable man, anyway.
Magic Johnson
#70. The audience likes their emotions to be touched. They want to laugh and cry and feel good.
Magic Johnson
#71. Urban America is like a foreign country in a sense.
Magic Johnson
#72. The first year was hard for me to deal with. The second year was a little bit easier, but still difficult. It took me five years to get it out of me. It was a difficult moment, a difficult time.
Magic Johnson
#73. Research your idea. See if there's a demand. A lot of people have great ideas, but they don't know if there's a need for it. You also have to research your competition.
Magic Johnson
#74. I'll hear people say every so often that having HIV must not be so bad - 'Just look at Magic and how well he's doing.'
Magic Johnson
#75. My father was a great example of a strong and good man and Christian man, and my mother taught all my six sisters how to be young ladies and mothers and how to take care of your family. And so I think they were - they still are - great examples for all of us to their kids and to the world, too.
Magic Johnson
#76. Sometimes friends move apart from each other for whatever reason.
Magic Johnson
#77. People don't stop eating, and they don't stop drinking coffee.
Magic Johnson
#78. I was able to see what I wanted to do, I could see the opportunity, even when others could not, and I stay committed to doing it and doing it well, no matter what.
Magic Johnson
#80. I never think that there's something I can't do, whether it's beating my opponent one on one or practicing another hour because something about my game is just not right.
Magic Johnson
#82. A lot of black guys always ask me, 'Did Larry Bird really play that good?' I said, 'Larry Bird is so good it's frightening.'
Magic Johnson
#84. Magic is who I am on the basketball court. Earvin is who I am.
Magic Johnson
#85. I only know how to play two ways: reckless and abandon.
Magic Johnson
#86. In life, winning and losing will both happen. What is never acceptable is quitting.
Magic Johnson
#88. If the community is happy, then they support your business and if your business is doing well, then you can give back even more to the community.
Magic Johnson
#89. Most people who are healthy, and I'm healthy, can't even live my life. Trust me. I get up 530-6 every morning. I'm in the gym. I run a couple miles. I lift weights, and then I'm at work until 8-9 o'clock at night.
Magic Johnson
#90. You can't get AIDS from a hug or a handshake or a meal with a friend.
Magic Johnson
#91. The gay community has taken care of their issues and problems in terms of HIV/AIDS. They have done an incredible job. We as heterosexuals need to learn from the gay community because they have rallied together. They have sent a lot of information out there. They go get tested.
Magic Johnson
#92. It all started when I got injured early in my second season. This turned out to be as difficult emotionally as physically.
Magic Johnson
#94. I am a businessman. This is what I do each and every day. I love it. I love coming to work. I never have a bad day.
Magic Johnson
#95. For a long time, I'd work until 10 or 11. When I work, I'm on. I'm 'Magic.' I love it, but it takes a lot out of me.
Magic Johnson
#96. Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.
Magic Johnson
#98. All students should have the opportunity to receive their high school diplomas and be fully prepared for college or the workplace.
Magic Johnson
#99. Talent is never enough. With few exceptions the best players are the hardest workers.
Magic Johnson
#100. The best doctors and medicine in the world can't save you if you don't do what you're supposed to do.
Magic Johnson
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