Magic Johnson famous quotes

Because if you're going to lose, lose. I'm serious.
-- Magic Johnson

#Serious

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

#Sports #Perseverance #Persistence

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

#Relationship #Basketball #Hope

I grew up poor, but I didn't have poor dreams
-- Magic Johnson

#Dream #Poor #Grew Up

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

#Basketball #Winning #Losing

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.
-- Magic Johnson

#Basketball #Sports #Men

Being able to touch so many people through my businesses and make money while doing it, is a huge blessing.
-- Magic Johnson

#Business #Blessing #People

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

#Athlete #Common #Injury

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

#Teamwork #Champion #Publicity

Talent is never enough. With few exceptions the best players are the hardest workers.
-- Magic Johnson

#Athlete #Player #Talent

Any guy who can maintain a positive attitude without much playing time certainly earns my respect.
-- Magic Johnson

#Attitude #Athlete #Positive Attitude

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

#Hard Work #Opportunity #Years

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

#Giving #Support #Community

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

#Business #People #Important

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

#Basketball #Dream #Differences

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

#Basketball #Daughter #Son

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

#Basketball #Killing #Said

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

#Friends #Basketball #True Friend

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

#Basketball #Thinking #Games

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

#Motivational #Basketball #Attitude

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.
-- Magic Johnson

#Basketball #Mean #People

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

#Basketball #Growing Up #Careers

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

#Inspiring #Basketball #Who I Am

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

#Motivational #Inspiring #Basketball

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

#Inspiring #Basketball #Winning

If you come to me and say, 'Hey look I'm a racist,' or 'I discriminate against blacks,' or 'I don't like you because you're African American,' I respect that. I can respect you more by doing that. But don't smile in my face, shake my hand, and then you don't really respect me, or want me to be around, or come to your games as the owner of the Clippers.
-- Magic Johnson

#Reality #Justice #African American

I motivate others by making sure that they understand to go after their dreams and dont let anyone tell you you cant. 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

#Dream #Mind #Enough

Life doesnt stop because something happens to you.
-- Magic Johnson

#Things Happen

To me, everything is wonderful. Life is wonderful.
-- Magic Johnson

#Life Is #Wonderful #Wonderful Life

People don't stop eating, and they don't stop drinking coffee.
-- Magic Johnson

#Drinking #Coffee #People

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

#Baseball #Games #Enjoy

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

#Play #Guy #Bird

When I first found out I had HIV, I had to find somebody who was living with it, who could help me understand my journey and what I was going to have to deal with day-to-day. I found out that a person named Elizabeth Frazier was living with AIDS at the time, and so I called her up, and she took a meeting with me.
-- Magic Johnson

#Journey #Hiv #Firsts

Assists is what Earvin is all about. That's what my whole life has been, assisting others.
-- Magic Johnson

#Whole Life

I love coming to work. I never have a bad day.
-- Magic Johnson

#Bad Day

I enjoy being the messenger for God in terms of letting people know about HIV and AIDS.
-- Magic Johnson

#People #Hiv #Messengers

A woman always remembers. Remember that.
-- Magic Johnson

#Remember

WE all have to play as a team to make the world a better place
-- Magic Johnson

#Team #Play #World

HIV changed my life, but it doesn't keep me from living.
-- Magic Johnson

#Life #Hiv #Changed

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.
-- Magic Johnson

#Basketball #Talking #People

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

#Motivational #Basketball #Air

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

#Motivational #Gun #Looks

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

#Inspiring #Basketball #Father

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

#Inspiring #Basketball #Dream

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

#Inspiring #Basketball #Winning

I'm at peace with myself. The main thing is not letting people dictate what I do or what I am.
-- Magic Johnson

#People

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

#Christian #Mother #Strong

If you hate to lose, you do whatever you need to do to make sure you're business is successful.
-- Magic Johnson

#Hate #Successful #Needs

I learned to give him the ball....
-- Magic Johnson

#Leadership #Sports #Giving

You either have to be great or you have to be bad to get a good pick.
-- Magic Johnson

I wouldn't do the 'Magic Hour' again, but I would do TV again. The 'Magic Hour' is not me. Anything I would do, I would have to be me. That is how it would work.
-- Magic Johnson

#Magic #Tvs #Hours

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

#Basketball #Moving #Cutting

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

#Lying #Nba #Bird

When you are a successful business person, you are only as good as your team. No one can do every deal alone.
-- Magic Johnson

#Team #Successful #Deals

If you want to be successful, you have to be willing to use every connection you’ve got.
-- Magic Johnson

#Successful #Want #Connections

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

#Home #Color #People

If you want someone to be your mentor, you better be ready to listen and be humbled.
-- Magic Johnson

#Mentor #Want #Ready

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

#Perseverance #Hard Work #Player

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

#Basketball #Doctors #Office

We are a company that lives and breathes a philosophy that's centered on not only making sound business decisions but also personally and professionally finding ways to contribute to the well being of society. We are also a company that understands community.
-- Magic Johnson

#Philosophy #Decision #Community

I want to be here for a long time, so I am going to do everything I have to do to be here.
-- Magic Johnson

#Long #Want

The looks, the stares, the giggles . . . I wanted to show everybody that I could do better and also that I could read.
-- Magic Johnson

#Looks #Staring #Giggle

You can't get AIDS from a hug or a handshake or a meal with a friend.
-- Magic Johnson

#Hug #Meals #Aids

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

#Opportunity #Vision #Matter

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

#Basketball #Years #Firsts

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

#Basketball #Prayer #Memories

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

#Inspiring #Basketball #People

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

#Basketball #Sex #Real

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

#Jobs #Father #Home

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

#Funny #Basketball #Play

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.
-- Magic Johnson

#Basketball #Crazy #Guy

God blessed me with two unbelievable parents, and I am just like both of them. I have the smile and charisma of my mother and the big heart of my mom, because she wants to save the world and help the world, so I am just like her.
-- Magic Johnson

#Mom #Mother #Blessed

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

#Basketball #Thinking #Medicine

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

#Basketball #Laughing #Feel Good

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

#Basketball #Celebrate

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

#Basketball #Magic #Special

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

#Basketball #Difficult

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

#Funny #Basketball #Giving

Even as a fierce competitor I try to smile.
-- Magic Johnson

#Sports #Trying #Fierce

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

#Business #Player #Balls

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

#Greatness #Ideas #People

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

#Funny #Basketball #Understanding

It's almost like we have ESPN.
-- Magic Johnson

#Basketball #Espn

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

#Basketball #Running #Morning

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.
-- Magic Johnson

#Basketball #Growing Up #Numbers

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.
-- Magic Johnson

#Basketball #Men #Keys

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

#Secret #Trying #Doe

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

#Basketball #Dream #People

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

#Talking #Nba #People

Young people want you to be real with them.
-- Magic Johnson

#Basketball #Real #People

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

#College #Nba #People