How many NBA Championship rings does Magic Johnson have?

The fact that Magic Johnson doesn’t like to put any of his NBA Championship rings on is extremely amusing. He worries that he could accidentally lose them. The National Basketball Association annually presents the winning NBA Finals team with a championship ring. Players, coaches, and members of the executive front office get rings from the team. But how many NBA rings did Magic Johnson win during his time in the NBA? 

Image Credits – NBA.com

Magic Johnson’s NBA Championship rings

With the Lakers, Magic Johnson won 5 NBA Championships as a player. Johnson was a player in Los Angeles from 1979 to 1991 and again for a portion of the 1996 season. In 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988, Magic’s Lakers were NBA champions. Along with the assistance of Worthy and Cooper, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Johnson’s spectacular passes, LA enjoyed enormous success in the 1980s.

Image Credits – Twitter

He got his start as “Magic” at age 15, playing high school basketball in Michigan. He then played at Michigan State and for the Los Angeles Lakers, until retiring in 1991 after learning he was HIV positive.

Magic Johnson was an exceptional player. He was a true point guard at 6’9″. But despite his bulk, he had enough handling to avoid being picked off by lesser defenders. He possessed incredible court vision and was physically powerful and athletic. His stature, speed, and vision combined to make him an absolute terror to lead the break. He is an original mold. No other player has ever existed quite like Magic. In my opinion, one of the top 10 players of all time.

John Stockton eventually passed Johnson as the all-time leader in assists after he passed Oscar Robertson in 1991. (and later by Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, and Mark Jackson.) He nonetheless retains the following NBA records, though:

  • Game assists throughout a career (11.2 per game)
  • Playoff assists in total (2346) and per game (12.4 per game)
  • NBA finals assists per game (21 in game 3 of the 1984 finals), per series (95 in 1984), and per career (584) assists in ONE playoff (303 in 1988.) Johnson actually holds four of the top five assists totals for a single playoff and six of the top 10.
  • NBA All-Star Game assists, postseason triple-doubles, and career (127) and game (22 in 1984) totals (30.)

Magic Johnson also owns a number of other fabricated records, like the most points scored by a rookie in an NBA Finals game and the youngest player to achieve 5000 career assists.

 

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