Lakers’ Magic Johnson Reveals Untold Story About Nike

Getty Images Former Lakers Legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson

Los Angeles Lakers great Ervin ‘Magic’ Johnson is one of the wealthiest athletes in the world, according to wealthygorilla.com, Johnson net worth is $600 million dollars as of 2020. Johnson has been able to through numerous endorsements such as Converse [Now Nike] and investing in companies such as Starbucks, 24 Hour Fitness, Magic Johnson Theatre, and the Los Angeles Dodgers to name a few.  When Johnson approached former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, he shared that Latinos and black folks are also fans of coffee.

“I said ‘Look Howard, Latinos and black folks. We like coffee too,'” Johnson said via Biz Carson of Business Insider. Johnson also shared with Shultz how his theaters were performing and was able to convince Shultz to go 50-50 with him and started opening urban Starbucks chains in under-performing locations around the country. But he would make some of his own modifications to market towards the demographic that lived in those areas.

“I had to take the scones out of my Starbucks and put in things like sweet potato pie and sockittome cake,” Johnson said. They also changed the music, and started playing more Michael Jackson, Earth Wind, and Fire, and Prince instead of Billy Joel, and Lee Greenwood.

Johnson was able to build a 105 Starbucks location and was able to generate enough money through their 12-year partnership, Johnson was able to sale Starbucks the other half of the business from Magic Johnson Enterprises.

“That really put the stamp on me as a legitimate businessman,” Johnson said.

Magic Johnson was Offer Nike Stock at 19 Years old

This week is All-Weekend in Chicago, which means there will be a lot of different panels with current and former NBA players on them along with other industry experts. McDonald’s sponsored the Black & Positivity Golden event on Friday, February 14, 2020, and after Magic spoke to a room full of students and others in attendance, he spoke with the Media. During his question and answer session with the media, Johnson shared that he had the opportunity to be gifted Nike stock in the beginning stage, but opted to take a deal with Converse instead.

” Nike just came on the scene just two years old. Phil Knight comes and says I can’t pay you what Converse is paying you, but I will give you stock. Now, I have heard of stock at 19 years old, so I took the money they say take the cash, but I would have been a trillionaire in 1979 getting that stock then and what it is worth today that kills me every single time I think about that. I’m like man Michael Jordan would have been making me so much money. I could have own about 300 McDonalds and I would say I always think about that moment,” said Johnson.

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