On November 7th, 1991, Magic Johnson shocked the world when he admitted in a press conference that he had tested positive for HIV and would retire from basketball immediately at age 31. He was praised as a hero by several news outlets, and even by President Bush himself, and dedicated his life to spreading awareness to the disease and to fighting it himself. 

However, let’s say in a hypothetical world that Magic did not contract the virus, or perhaps he still does but doesn’t make it public, and Magic has said that if he knew what we knew now about the virus, he wouldn’t have retired in the first place. Magic had just come off an amazing season, leading a 58 win Lakers squad to the NBA Finals, placing 2nd in MVP voting, making All NBA 1st team, and averaging 19-7-13 on the 6th best true shooting % in the league. By every available metric, he was a top 5 player in the league during that season and was seen as a top 5 player heading into the 91-92 season. 

The 1991-92 Lakers went 43-39 replacing Magic with a solid but not great PG by the name of Sedale Threatt, and returning basically the exact same roster as before. I’m not saying they could have won it all, but they would’ve for sure been a contender in the West alongside Portland, Utah, and Houston. Also, another interesting tidbit about this hypothetical is the Charles Barkley to LA trade that nearly happened in 1992 that apparently the Sixers agreed to initially, but ended up favoring the Suns’ deal in the end (the Lakers reportedly offered James Worthy and Elden Campbell for Barkley). Are the Lakers incentivized to be more aggressive in getting Barkley if Magic is still playing? And one move that was made by the Lakers that probably wouldn’t have been made if Magic were on the team was the Sam Perkins trade, he had just averaged 17-9-2 in that 92 season but was traded at the 93 trade deadline for rookie Doug Christie, who didn’t pan out to be anything for them. I’d have to imagine that the Lakers would be smarter and make more win-now moves in order to keep a winning team around Magic. Is it likely that he wins more championships? No. Is it possible that he would’ve won more championships? I think so, yes.

Really the only thing keeping Magic from playing was the players. They didn’t know what we now know about the virus, so other players were afraid of being contaminated should they make contact with Magic on the court. When Magic was selected by fans to play in the 1992 All Star Game, a couple of his former teammates Byron Scott and AC Green advised against him playing. In 1996 at age 36, Magic made an official NBA comeback for the final 32 games of the 96 season. The Lakers went 22-10 in the games he played, and he averaged 15-6-7 on 7 relative true shooting, and his 3 point shooting was much improved from early on in his career. It was obvious that he still had plenty in the tank when he retired, and if we assume that the Lakers make those win-now moves in order to keep them competitive with Magic around (completing the Barkley trade, keeping Perkins), the Lakers would have likely continued to be a real force in the league.

And of course individually, Magic would’ve continued to add to his legacy if he continued to play those 4 ½ years that he missed. There’s no reason to doubt he would’ve made more all star teams and All NBA teams, and he possibly could have finished his career with a couple thousand more assists, who knows how high on that leaderboard he’d be. Would those longevity based stats put him higher on people’s all time list? It’s certainly not out of the question. Unfortunately his sexual recklessness and lack of information kept him from realizing his true full potential when it comes to his legacy. 

What’d you guys think? How would Magic’s career have turned out if he kept playing?