The big story over the weekend was the racist comments allegedly made by the owner of the LA Clippers. Donald Sterling.
In a story that was originally reported by TMZ sports, Sterling is heard on audio in a very angry tone, saying that he doesn’t want black people brought to his games. One of the black people he was referring to, was magic Johnson. After hearing that he was a direct target of Sterling’s racism, Magic Johnson vowed never to step foot in the Clippers arena again.
But what if, just go with me on this one, but what if Magic Johnson wants to buy the LA Clippers? How great of a story would that be?
Well the story might really happen. According to report Yahoo Sports, Magic Johnson is looking into the possibility of buying the Clippers.
Magic Johnson and his billionaire backers, the Guggenheim Partners, want a chance to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers, league sources told Yahoo Sports. “Magic’s absolutely interested,” one source closely connected to Johnson’s business interests told Yahoo Sports on Sunday night.
To bail themselves out of the NBA’s worst crisis of credibility since the Tim Donaghy officiating scandal, the easy part for the NBA will be enlisting the eagerness and financial muscle of Magic Johnson and Mark Walter of the Guggenheim Partners – owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Make no mistake: Magic’s Dodgers group is angling for a Southern California sports empire. Magic Johnson and Guggenheim had been aggressive in pursuing a purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers – only to have the Buss family make clear to them the franchise isn’t for sale, sources told Yahoo Sports.
“This is 100 percent Magic’s plan,” a league official intimately involved in the buying and selling of franchises told Yahoo Sports.
Magic Johnson has been living with the HIV virus for over 20 years now and throughout that time, he acknowledges that much has changed.
“At that time, AIDS was a death sentence. And now, things have changed,” Johnson told the Huffington Post.
“Twenty-two years ago, there was only one drug available. Now, there’s more than 30 drugs, and they’re really great drugs too. And that’s the reason for hope: Doctors and health care providers are so much better and knowledgeable today than they were in the past,” he added.
In honor of World Aids Day, which is celebrated every year on Dec. 1, the NBA-legend-turned-entrepreneur discussed his personal bout with the virus.
Johnson said HIV was primarily only of concern among the gay, white community when the virus first gained recognition.
Yet, he discussed how the public’s perception of HIV and AIDS has shifted across various races and age groups.
“Now, it’s an issue in the black and brown community, especially the African American community,” Johnson said. “Things have changed just that fast.”
According to Johnson, the rise of other health issues has reduced the awareness and attention surrounding AIDS and HIV.
“HIV has been pushed out, and it’s not at the forefront anymore. People are not talking about it as much as they used to. And in the black community especially, we really need to be talking about it.”
I will just like to put this out there now, I’m a big Lakers fan so pardon me if this article has any bias based opinions.
Back in August of last year the Dwight Howard to LA trade went down and my beloved Lakers went to the top of the charts and instant favorites to be serious contenders for our next NBA Championship. Our front court had the most dominant center in the league in Dwight Howard, the best passing big man in Pau Gasol; add to that one of the greatest shooters in NBA history in Steve Nash and one of the best to ever play the game in Kobe Bryant. Fast forward to April of this year and we are swept right out of the playoffs, the ones we just barely crept into, by the San Antonio Spurs. Now Laker Nation awaits July 1st when our next “franchise superstar” in Dwight Howard marches his way into free agency. After watching him this season, I say let him go.
How Laker Nation last saw Dwight during game 4 against the Spurs
This years free agency class is highlighted by Dwight Howard (seeing that Chris Paul will most likely stay with the Clippers) and the teams measuring their interest in the big man revolve around Los Angeles, Houston, and Dallas. Only the Lakers though can offer him their franchise max contract of five years with $118 million dollars along with their history of storied big men and the tradition of winning no matter what. Houston can offer four years with $98 million dollars and their young up and coming star in James Harden. Dallas can offer Dwight the same as Houston. From a money point of view the Lakers are the clear-cut winners and from a historical point of view the Lakers also are clear winners; from a pure basketball point of view though Houston are clear winners as they only need a man like Dwight to contend in the West.
Dwight Howard received a lot of punishment from the media for leaving Orlando the way he did, is that bound to repeat?
Statistically Dwight Howard has been declining over, especially over the past season. Between 2008-2011 Dwight took his Magic team to one Final appearance and a 219-102 record; over the past two seasons with the Magic and Lakers he’s finished with a total 75-55 record. Wow. His offensive production has also dipped sharply; in 2011 he averaged 22.9 PPG, 14.1 RPG, and a 59% FG. In 2013 he was averaging 17.1 PPG, 12.4 RPG, while shooting %58 from the field. Dwight has clearly past his peak production and no team should commit such a large amount of their salary cap or build their team around a star who has already started dropping off. Of course..the Lakers are run by Jim Buss so that’s still possible.
Looking past the numbers it isn’t hard to see that Dwight just cannot handle the pressure of playing in L.A. Playing for the Lakers, especially to be the next franchise player, means you must live up to some huge names and live up to the Laker tradition of winning. The Lakers, since 1960, have sent 25 teams to the NBA Finals, won 11 championships, and have had our court graced by the likes of Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Shaquille O’Neal. To top that all off the L.A Lakers have had four of the ten best basketball teams ever (’72, ’82, ’87, ’01), have been run by one of the greatest owners in history by Jerry Buss, and have been coached by the future Hall of Famer in Phil Jackson. If all that wasn’t hard enough to live up to as the next franchise player in Los Angeles, Dwight Howard would be filling the void of the greatest Laker of all time in Kobe Bryant. It’s sad to say that faced with any type of pressure a man like Dwight Howard who stands six foot and eleven inches shrinks back to a normal height.
Perhaps the self-proclaimed “Superman” isn’t so “super” anymore
No matter what the media is saying about the pending free agency of Dwight Howard and no matter what team does land the big man, it will be a question if the team wants to roll the dice on Howard or chooses to pass. Houston is the clear basketball choice for Howard as that team is young and ready to make an even bigger splash next season than they did this past season. A James Harden – Dwight Howard combo would be a mighty force to reckon with no matter who they face. As for my beloved Lakers please Jim Buss do not even approach the table and pick up the dice.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By agreeing to this, we can analyze browsing behavior and unique IDs on this site. Declining or revoking consent may affect certain features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
