This has been a good week for former Los Angeles Lakers players. Jerry West, one of their most legendary players who was perhaps even more influential for them as an executive in the 1980s and 1990s, was voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for the third time, this time as a contributor.
Michael Cooper, perhaps their most important non-star during the Showtime era, also was voted into the Hall of Fame after missing the cut multiple times in recent years.
In addition, Magic Johnson, arguably the greatest Laker of them all, is now worth in excess of $1 billion. He was included in Forbes magazine’s list of new billionaires for 2024.
Via Forbes:
“NBA legend and businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson is new this year, too, with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, thanks to investments in professional sports teams, movie theaters, Starbucks franchises, real estate and healthcare.”
After leading the Lakers to five NBA championships in the 1980s, Johnson embarked on a second career as an entrepreneur. Among other things, he opened a chain of movie theaters and became a part-owner of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
Eight years after Johnson’s ownership group took over the Dodgers in 2012, they won the World Series for the first time since 1988. Meanwhile, the Commanders, after many years of being a laughingstock, could be setting themselves up for future success.