Magic Johnson Basketball Quotations

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.

When you face a crisis, you know who your true friends are.

The important thing is this Just because I'm doing well doesn't mean that they're going to do well if they get HIV. A lot of people have died since I have announced. This disease is not going anywhere.

Just celebrate the life you had, not the life you could've had.

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.

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.

All kids need is a little help, a little hope and somebody who believes in them.

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.

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.

Everyone thought I was going to die like a year later, they didn't know. So I helped educate sports, and then the world, that a man living with HIV can play basketball. He's not going to give it to anybody by playing basketball.

If you're a competitive person, that stays with you. You don't stop. You always look over your shoulder.

Magic is who I am on the basketball court. Earvin is who I am.

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 is crazy. He is that crazy wild guy on the basketball court that is very intense and very serious. He is the guy who lives and eats and breathes basketball.

Young people want you to be real with them.

You know I was a shy guy and people didn't know that and still don't know it today. I'm sure basketball brought my shyness out because of the fact that you have to do interviews, and that people are always talking to you in terms of the fans and everything.

My diet is mostly chicken and fish. 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. And I also get a lot of rest. That's the key I may be up early, but I'm in bed early too.

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.

The audience likes their emotions to be touched. They want to laugh and cry and feel good.

When you are honest and open with young people, they let you in.

The real story is that I had unprotected sex. That's that. That's easy.

I'm from there. You know, when you grow up with these people and see them every day and then you look at the numbers it was easy; it was a no-brainer. And when Sony took a look, it was a no-brainer to them, too.

It's almost like we have ESPN.

It all started when I got injured early in my second season. This turned out to be as difficult emotionally as physically.

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.

I'm a big believer in dreaming. If you don't dream it, you can't become it.

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.

You don't have to be Magic to be special. You're already special, you're you.

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.

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.

On his telepathic understanding with James Worthy- It's almost like we have ESPN.

On the best tactic when playing alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar- Just give him the ball.

I only know how to play two ways: reckless and abandon.

The worst moment from all of this was driving from that doctor's office, to tell my wife that I was HIV positive.

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.

Everybody on a championship team doesn't get publicity, but everyone can say he's a champion.

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.

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.

They said playing basketball would kill me. Well, not playing basketball was killing me.

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.

You're the only one who can make the difference. Whatever your dream is, go for it.

In life, winning and losing will both happen. What is never acceptable is quitting.