Ervin "Magic" Johnson
(aka Ben H.)

Hi! I am Ervin Magic Johnson. I was born in 1959 in a mostly white town named Lansing, Michigan. I was the 4th of 7 children in my family. My family was not rich so we kids had to work. I was very chubby as a kid, but always practiced basketball. Later, I wanted to go to an all black high school with a good basketball team, but the state made me go to a mostly white high school with not so good of a basketball team. I was one of the 4 black kids at the high school.

But I tried out for the basketball team anyway and I made it. Time after time I was wide open but my teammates would not pass it to me just because I was black. Then this one time in particular I grabbed the ball, dribbled it down the court and dunked it. My teammates thought I was hogging the ball, but my coach saw that I was a very good dribbler so he put me at point guard. I started passing to my team and they started passing to me. That's when I got my nickname, Magic, for my great passes. Then I played two good years of basketball at M.S.U. In my second year we played Larry Bird's team. Now Larry Bird isn't just any old player. He is good and soon became my rival. We beat Larry's team and won the championship. Then I was drafted by the L.A. Lakers and got to play with a big fellow named Kareem Abdul Jabbar. We won 3 championships together.

Then I was asked to play on the Olympics basketball team and I said yes. Some people thought we were the best team ever. I played with Larry Bird and bunch of other super stars. Oh yeah, and this guy named Charles Barkly. We put up with his nonsense and we came home with the Olympic gold medal for basketball. Later, I found out I had a bad disease, so I had to retire.

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