When you look at Magic Johnson now – five championship rings, $1.2 billion in the bank, ownership stakes in five sports teams, furthering thousands of jobs, and being an overall positive influence – you don’t realize he laid this blueprint for himself in his teens. The one who revealed the starting point of it all was his mom, Christine Johnson. The mom of 10 enterprising kids sat down with fellow NBA moms, Lucille O’Neal and Sonya Curry on Raising Fame to talk about her most famous son. One incident in particular set the stage for the multi-hyphenate NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson years before national fame.

Well before he’d lead the Spartans to the NCAA championship and spar with Larry Bird on the court, Magic was building his skills in the neighborhood court and school in Michigan. As a teen, he already knew what he wanted, Christine told Lucille and Sonya. “When he was in, I guess, in high school, he said, ‘Mama, I’m setting goals for myself.’ And I said, ‘you are?‘”

His goals were interesting and he’s gone through it like a supermarket checklist. Christine vividly recalled and listed out a young Magic who said, “‘Yes, I want to do this, I want to be a good basketball player, I want to go to the NBA.‘” Done and done. He earned fame right from college before entering the NBA in 1979 as the first overall draft pick. He led the Lakers Showtime era and won five championships before retiring in 1991. But he’d proceed to lead the Dream Team to an Olympic gold in 1992.

With all that, it was a good time to move to the next item on his checklist. “After that, he [Magic] says, ‘I want to have my own business, get on my own business,'” recalled Christine on the Raising Fame podcast, not realizing her son was foretelling Magic Johnson Enterprises. As a collective holding, Magic has made groundbreaking investments in Starbucks, Equitrust, TGI Fridays, Burger King, and more. Lucille’s son, Shaquille O’Neal picked up his investing chops from his mentor too.

What’s next? “And then he said I want to own a basketball team.'” Checked times five. The late Lakers owner Jerry Buss took his most successful star under his wing to teach him the ropes of team administration. That was the start of Magic buying into a minority stake in the Lakers. It was a good transition to a part-ownership of the sister team, Los Angeles Sparks.

And Christine felt that he was a tad ambitious decades ago. But a teen Magic’s response to her skepticism was on brand for the mega-watt smiling philanthropist. “I said, ‘Ooh boy, you thinking big, aren’t you?’ He said, ‘You know that’s the way we should think, mama, you know we shouldn’t think of pennies, we should think of dollars, you know.’ And it always stuck with me you know that he wanted to do something and he always said I want to give back to the community.”

Christine can now comfortably take pride in witnessing Magic did everything he set out to do.

Magic Johnson checked everything off his life checklist

Johnson eventually withdrew from the Lakers but now Magic has stakes in LAFC, the LA Dodgers, and the Washington Commanders. Combining Magic’s own college and NBA wins and every time his teams have won, Magic has 14 championships to his credit. He’s counting on the Commanders to give him his 15th.

But his response to his mother then would also be a precursor to his future as a motivational speaker, preaching his path to success. He’s repeatedly said in his keynote addresses that listing out his goals early helped him reach this point.

Christine was the one who encouraged him to give back to the community. Today Magic is the prime health advocate who took the stigma out of HIV and his business empire has been all about creating jobs. And let’s not forget the millions he donated to make education accessible to at-risk kids. Really, the Magic Johnson playbook to life is not a bad one to follow.

Stay tuned for more such updates. And join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.