-My first guest is an NBA legend
and a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Here is the one and only Magic Johnson!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!
Hey, bud!
Magic Johnson!
Oh, it's great to see you, bud. Welcome.
-And you, too, Jimmy. How you doing, man?
-I'm doing good, pal. I want to ask you,
'cause you have one of the greatest nicknames
in the history of sports.
But you also had a nickname before it was Magic Johnson.
You were June Bug Johnson.
-[ Laughs ]
-Why is that? Why were you June Bug Johnson?
-Well, you know, my parents are from the South.
And when you're from the South,
everybody, especially if you're African-American,
you get -- Every male is like one June Bug in every family.
So I was the June Bug of our family.
You know, I have six sisters and three brothers.
So they happened to give it to me.
-How did -- And then a sports writer called you Magic?
-Yes.
When I went to high school, my ninth game of the season,
my first year of high school, I was 15 years old.
And we went to play a school, and we blew them out.
They were a powerhouse in the state of Michigan.
I had 38 points, 16 rebounds, and 15 assists.
That was my first triple double.
And the guy came in and said,
"Somebody's already called Dr. J.
Somebody's already called Big E.
I want to call you Magic."
And, you know, hey, Jimmy,
I said, "No way this is going to stick."
And all the brothers in the neighbor, you know,
they were like, "Man, we not gonna call you no Magic."
You know?
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, you're June Bug, man.
Come on. -Yeah, exactly.
-It's not going to stick.
And now here you are. There's no one else.
You can't call anyone else Magic.
-That's right. I'm wrong, and the sports writer was right.
I've been Magic ever since.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I want to talk to you about the summer Olympics coming up.
We're coming up on the 30th anniversary
of what is know as the greatest basketball team in history,
the 1992 Dream Team.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Now, at this point, you and Larry Bird were rivals
for almost two decades.
And now you're teammates.
What was that like?
-Well, Jimmy, it was on my bucket list
to play with Larry Bird one day,
play with Michael Jordan one day.
And here it is.
I get a chance on the Dream Team to do just that.
And it was great to play with Larry.
We had been rivals. We hated each other.
We played against each other in the NCAA championship game.
And so I had to take the Birdman down in that game,
and then -- -[ Laughing ] Oh, my God.
[ Laughter ]
You're going to get in trouble again, man.
[ Laughter ]
You took the Birdman down.
-And then we played three times in the NBA,
and my Lakers won two and he won one.
But I would say this --
There's nobody that I ever played against
that I loved and respected more than Larry Bird.
The man -- Listen, you couldn't give him a inch,
or he would just shoot it right in your face.
He was dominant at both ends of the court.
And so Larry Bird made me a better player,
and I think I made him a better player.
And together, we made the NBA better.
-That's right you did. That's right.
Absolutely. Good man. [ Cheers and applause ]
If you took the 1992 Dream Team
and put them up against a team of today's best NBA players --
LeBron, Durant, James Harden, Steph Curry.
-Hey, let me cut you off.
It don't matter who you put. We gon' beat them.
-What?! [ Cheers and applause ]
And by how much? By how much?
-You know, really, it really don't matter
as long as you win, right? And so --
-Why? -They're the Dream Team.
Listen, man. That team -- We had everything.
Everything that you want in a basketball team, we had, right?
We could shoot from the outside.
We could dominate you inside.
We played great defense.
I mean, when you got Scottie Pippen
and Michael Jordan on those wings like that --
And then David Robinson
and Patrick Ewing, who was dominant at that time.
I mean, and Charles Barkley, who was unbelievable.
You know, we had the best players in the world --
Karl Malone, John Stockton,
Chris Mullin, a New Yorker, Chris Mullin...
-That's right, Chris Mullin. -...Clyde Drexler.
It's an amazing team.
-Speaking of Patrick Ewing,
can you believe what's going on with the Knicks?
-Oh. -Whoo! Yo!
[ Applause ]
-Let me just say this.
The Knicks are on a nine-game winning streak.
They have the coach of the year in Coach Thibodeau.
Julius Randle has been a dominant player.
He should make the all-NBA team. -Yep.
-The League is better when the New York Knicks are better,
and I'm so excited for Knicks fans.
I'm excited for the NBA, and I tell you what --
This is the one problem, Jimmy, everybody's going to have.
Nobody in the NBA in the East
is going to want to play the Knicks in the playoffs.
I'll tell that you right now.
-That's right. Really?
I love hearing that. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah, because they play defense
better than anybody in the League.
And they're tough.
And they're mentally and physically tough.
I like the way Coach Thibodeau has the guys playing.
-So, who do you pick -- the team to go all the way?
-Well, I think you got to still put Brooklyn as the favorite,
as well as the Lakers on the West.
And I would love to see that match-up in the NBA finals.
-Come on, Knicks. -And let's see what happens.
-[ Laughs ]
I want to ask you about this, 'cause you're one of the owners
of the Dodgers, the L.A. Dodgers.
And they just won the championship.
You've been a winner so many times.
What does it feel like to be a winner as an owner in baseball?
-It's different, right?
Because as a player,
you can control what happens on the court.
But as an owner, it drives you absolutely crazy
because you can't control
anything that happens on the field.
We've been to the World Series three times,
and we finally won this past season.
I'm happy for all my -- the players and the L.A. fan base,
because the Lakers end up winning,
and the Dodgers won in the same year.
So it's been a great year for Laker fans and Dodger fans
and L.A. as a community.
-That's right. Good man.
I -- It's all you.
You're the secret. You're the secret, buddy.
-Thank you, my man.