Lakers News: Magic Johnson Joins Just 2 Other NBA Players In Billionaires’ Club
Your Los Angeles Lakers can now say they're the only NBA team with two Hall of Fame billionaires to have played for their franchise.
That's because five-time LA champ Magic Johnson has now joined current Lakers superstar forward LeBron James in that heady terrain, according to Matt Craig of Forbes.
Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan, of course, was the first NBA player to ever reach that net worth, and the first-ever to be the majority owner of a team in the league, though he sold his majority stake of the Charlotte Hornets this year and now possesses a smaller chunk. James has been open about his interest in following in Jordan's footsteps in that arena, too.
Forbes pegs Johnson's current net worth at $1.2 billion, and notes that much of that cash stems from his majority ownership of the EquiTrust insurance company.
Sports team ownership makes up one portion of Johnson's portfolio, as he owns pieces of several franchises across several different leagues. Most recently, he was part of an ownership group that procured the Washington Commanders (although they'll always be the Washington Football Team to me). He also has stakes in the Los Angeles Sparks and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Johnson has generally been a pretty savvy investor, as he additionally owned a slice of the Lakers for decades, and had an ownership chunk of Starbucks for a time. His Magic Johnson Theatres proved to be a success story, too. He sold that property to Loews in 2004. The 12-time All-Star currently serves on the boards of Fanatics and Cameo.
"Don't tell [my wife] Cookie [I'm a billionaire]," Johnson joked to Jimmy Kimmel. "I never thought in my wildest dreams that this could happen... I'm so thankful, but at the same time it takes a lot of hard work. Everybody who thinks they know you, or a distant cousin, friend... I've gotten so many calls."
PGA legend Tiger Woods is the only other athlete in the billionaires' club as of this writing, though presumably some other NBA superstars will be joining James and the MJ's before too long (Shaq, perhaps?).
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