Magic Johnson tried a final comeback in 1996.
He was playing Power Forward for the Lakers and he wasn’t bad that season. He averaged 15 points and 7 assists a game mostly coming off the bench, but he hadn’t played for over 4 years and the Magic was gone no pun intended.
The Lakers weren’t bad that year. They finished the season 53-29 that year and a lot of that had to do with Magic. The Lakers were 22-10 in the games he played in before losing a first-round playoff series to the Rockets 4-1.
They played the Bulls twice with Magic in the lineup and during one of those games Jordan pulled Magic to the side and told him it was time to hang ’em up.
Magic tells the story to Jimmy Kimmel
Upon returning to the NBA, after a five-year lay-off due to contracting HIV, Magic played in the final 32 games of the regular season for the new-look Los Angeles Lakers back in 1995. It turns out that he might have returned the following season, had it not been for an off-court discussion that he had with none other than Michael Jordan — a notion that Magic was quick to point out during a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“Michael, after [my second game back], he pulled me aside — I don’t think I’ve ever told anybody this,” Johnson said. “He met me in between the locker rooms, and he said, ‘Earvin, you have to remember now, you’re not with Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], you’re not with James Worthy. All the guys you used to play with, Showtime, are not on that Laker team anymore. So remember, maybe you should think about retiring.”
Magic did retire for good after the season, but he was able to go out on his own terms, and even at the age of 36 he could still ball with the best in the NBA.
Flip the page for the video of Magic telling the story.