Even if Dwight Howard had chosen Hollywood over Houston, and even if Kobe Bryant‘s Achilles tendon had proven as indestructible as his confidence, the Lakers still would have endured a substantial loss in 2013.
Because while the NBA was on its summer break, “Showtime” moved out of the Lakers’ home at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and rented a room about three miles northeast at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers have fielded great baseball teams before, but they’ve never put on a show like the one we’ve seen this season. Cy Young Award front-runner Clayton Kershaw, hitting machine Adrian Gonzalez and rookie phenom Yasiel Puig have led L.A. to its first NL West crown and first MLB playoff appearance since 2009.
At the same time, Dodger Stadium has become the newest hot spot for SoCal’s A-List to be seen. David Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ice Cube, Samuel L. Jackson, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, The Game and George Lopez are among the celebrities who have been spotted in the crowd at baseball’s most star-studded ballpark, all of them sharing the stage with the new corporate face of the Dodgers: Magic Johnson.
Yes, basketball’s greatest point guard has become baseball’s most high-profile owner since George Steinbrenner was running the Yankees.
The five-time NBA champion and three-time MVP is part of the investment group that purchased the Dodgers for a reported $2 billion last year, and Magic’s new team is enjoying success almost as quickly as his first pro team did upon his arrival. Magic won a title in his rookie year with the Lakers. In just his second season with the Dodgers, his team is considered one of the favorites to win the World Series.
The Dodgers are the latest notch in the ever-growing win column of Magic Johnson’s business portfolio – the one that famously includes over 100 Starbucks franchises and a handful of movie theaters – headlined by Magic Johnson Enterprises and its reported $700 million net worth.
While there will always be a debate over Magic’s place in basketball history as a player (top three? top five? top 10?), this much cannot be disputed: Magic is the gold standard of what an athlete can accomplish after his or her playing days are done.
And yet, the man with the Midas touch wasn’t an immediate success. When Magic retired from the NBA, he did all the things you’d expect a retired NBA player to do. He tried to coach. He tried the TV thing. He tried to come back as a player. He made some questionable calls (“The Magic Hour”), endured some failures (Magic 32, a sporting-goods venture that closed in its first year) and embarked on some projects (e.g. studio analyst) that would take him years to master.
Success in business wasn’t easy for the man who made everything look easy on the basketball court. But just as Magic had spent time developing his on-court skills, he worked and worked until he was a star in business as well.
Keep reading to hear why Magic should be the blueprint for every NBA player…
Today, Magic can walk into any boardroom, studio or stadium and command respect as more than just an ex-jock with a good idea and money burning a hole in his pocket. He’s a made man.
What surprises me is that I don’t see Magic walk into these places being followed by a mini-team of current pro athletes acting as his hungry apprentices.
Every summer we read about NBA players taking pilgrimages all over the map to improve their games. Amar’e Stoudemire and LeBron James have spent parts of their offseasons in Houston working with Hakeem Olajuwon to develop and refine low-post moves. Deron Williams spent a week in Spokane, Wash., (which, if you’ve ever been to Spokane, probably felt like three weeks) training with John Stockton following his rookie season with the Jazz. Greg Oden, when his knees allowed, received instruction on rebounding and general beastliness from Buck Williams in Columbus, Ohio.
Players travel far and wide and spend thousands of dollars to work with highly sought-after fitness experts and hoops-specific taskmasters, strength coaches and shooting gurus, MMA trainers and ballhandling wizards.
What we don’t read about are NBA players actively seeking the tutelage of men and women who can help prepare them for life after basketball.
Maybe it does happen more than we know, and the media just doesn’t report it. Maybe the players who are doing it aren’t talking about it. But I know that in all my time covering the NBA for Dime and interviewing dozens of pros, I never heard of a player – outside of LeBron James, honestly – taking his post-playing future as seriously as his ballplaying present. At least not until the reality of retirement hits them across the face like a Dikembe Mutombo elbow.
Whether it’s a rookie free agent trying to make the roster or a superstar making $15 million a year, every NBA player – every pro athlete – should be clamoring for a summer internship with Magic Johnson. And if not him, then George Foreman, or Shaquille O’Neal, or Jamal Mashburn, or Venus Williams, or Dave Bing, or Roger Staubach, or Oscar De La Hoya, or Spencer Haywood or Jay Williams or any of the visible and available former athletes who have been successful in the white-collar capacity.
There will be criticism. Fans and media, coaches and team executives, maybe even friends and family will question the commitment of a player who doesn’t appear to devote all of his offseason to getting ready for the next season.
But it’s not their money. It’s not their future. And what happens when there is no next season?
The truth is that an NBA player will only earn seven to eight figures in basketball salary for a few years. If he’s talented and lucky enough to stay healthy, that source of income will be available until his late-30s. After that, it’s a decades-long journey from leaving the game to leaving behind something for your loved ones.
It doesn’t take LeBron James money to build an empire, though. It doesn’t even take Landry Fields money. According to basketball-reference.com, Magic Johnson never made more than $3.1 million in salary with the Lakers. Ben Gordon ($13.5M) will make more than four times that much this season.
They say that for basketball players, the jump shot is the last thing to go. And for too many of the world’s greatest at the game, the last dollar of the riches they earned on the court is lost well before their jumper starts showing signs of rust.
There’s no quick and easy way to become a mogul, just as there’s no quick and easy way to end up on the next Broke documentary.
Not everyone will quadruple their worth in their post-playing career, but there’s no reason any NBA player under today’s salary scale should find themselves bankrupt – not if they take a little time away in the offseason from learning to score on the court and put themselves around people who can teach them to score lucrative deals off the court.
How much attention should current players be putting towards their post-career?
Follow Austin on Twitter at @AustinBurton206.
Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.
Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.
