A legendary player, Magic Johnson notably practiced a style of play that was as spectacular as it was unconventional. Yet, as the Hall of Famer revealed, it didn’t come out of nowhere… Indeed, he was inspired by a former glory of the orange ball, perhaps one of his most cult representatives. .
If we got the Lakers’ showtime in the 80s, it’s largely thanks to Magic Johnson. The leader has literally revolutionized the game across the Atlantic with his flair and his sense of the pass, transforming the Pourpres et Ors into one of the most exciting teams ever seen. However, as he revealed a few years ago, the number 32 studied the game of a certain Pete Maravich a lot to develop all this:
Magic Johnson admiring Pete Maravich
What the hell did he know how to play basketball! And he knew how to entertain you. Passing without looking, dribbling the ball and tapping it with one hand. That’s what I saw from Pistol Pete and that’s where I got it from. I modeled a large part of my game on his, I was enormously inspired by it.
It’s hard not to agree with the five-time champion, as Pistol Pete has marked the collective imagination of the league. However, he only played a little over 600 NBA games, not really a big sample. Quite whimsical and not always easy to manage (like his spiritual son, Jason Williams), he had a rather ugly end to his career at the end of the Celtics bench, without being able to win any title during his career.
But all this was no match for the immense individual talent of the man, capable of catching fire on the shoot and endowed with a handle to teach in all schools. The guard’s charms were a real pleasure to see, whether it was his swaying dribbles or his passes from elsewhere. If he won nothing collectively, Maravich was at least the top scorer in 1976-77 (more than 31 points per game) as well as a five-time All-Star. A player who remains forever cult on the side of the Jazz and the Hawks:
We immediately understand better where Magic Johnson got these flashes of genius on the floors. If he had a huge basketball IQ, the former Laker also studied the game of Pete Maravich, incorporating it perfectly into his own.
