Is Magic Johnson Overrated? 

that Kareem MVP thing was off the top of my head with no research in a long ass time so take it with a grain of salt lol New deep dive! - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cXmNFSf6cbQ.html

Here’s Magic Johnson’s resume from 13 Seasons in the NBA: - 12 x All-Star - 10 x All NBA (all consecutive, 9 1st teams) - 3 x League MVP - 3 x Finals MVP - 5 x Champion (4 Finals losses) - Lead Showtime Lakers to NBA Finals 9 times in 11 seasons. Ummmm yeah guys I think this might be a top 5 player of all time.

Thinking Basketball made me re-confirm how great Magic was.

Three players saved the NBA.... MJ Larry and Magic..... Three impactful players

Just imagine if he had a full career...

I feel like people constantly forget how tight the top-10 is. How large is the gap between someone like Magic Johnson and Hakeem Olajuwon or Shaquille O'Neal? Honestly, it's very tight.

Dont forget kareem was on the lakers before magic got there, and they werent even close to being contenders. Magic was the guy who raised the floor so much

Magic, a point guard, started at Center in game 6 of the finals for an injured Kareem Abdul-jabbar. As a rookie. And dropped 40. Enough said

You were wrong about Magic’s jumpshot, his mid ranger was very good and he even led the league in free throw shooting one year. Still enjoyed the vid though!

Magic is a monster on defense in 2k😂

Of course Magic is top 5. The 🐐 PG, 9 finals in 12 seasons with 5 chips. A1 since day 1.

Rusty you better start practicing boxing, because some people are gonna HATE you for this one

Larry really gets slept on the most

Just watch Magic’s episode in the greatest peak series by thinking basketball if you want an objective analysis on him.

Honestly, the "longevity" argument generally comes out as a wash for the all-timers. Larry, Jordan, Wilt, and Russell all had careers around the same length as Magic. Bird played the fewest games with 897 and Jordan had the most with 1,072. The difference is basically a season or two. Only Kareem and Lebron have a longevity argument in their favor. For some reason, basketball has seen many of its elites retire with plenty left in the tank.

I have this thing, where I dont subscribe to channels until I am actively searching for their content regularly. Rusty this video is making me break that rule, because I love this video so much that you deserve the sub. I've always said Magic is criminally underrated. I just can never put it into good enough words to make a good case, but now, now I can tell them to watch my boy Rustys video.

At least 90% of the ppl putting Steph over Magic have never seen Magic play nor have they seen any of his highlights I bet

The reason why the NBA hasn't seen that kind of handle in a long time is because until around the mid 80s, you were only allowed to dribble with your hand on top of the ball. If you had your hand on the side, that was considered a carry. So if you go back and watch Bob Cousy highlights knowing the rules about dribbling, I guarantee you'll be in awe. He had the ball on a string. And Walt Frazier, while also not doing wide crossovers because of the rules back then, he was an amazing ball handler. Back then it was more about controlling the ball and Walt Frazier was amazing at that and was even pretty good at dribbling behind his back even with those dribbling rules.

Bro you can’t say Kareem’s help is overblown when he won a finals mvp aged 38.....

Still the leader in career average APG. Definitely a Top 5 player, and the single greatest passer in NBA history. He dragged the aging Lakers into the 1991 Finals. Folks who don't appreciate how great Magic was don't really understand the game or the greatest fast break team in history.

ikr i’m the best point guard of all time

Imagine your favourite player, logging just 12 seasons, retiring at his prime at 31 and doing what Magic did. I don't even count his last season. Everyone will lose their minds.

Everyone mentions how stacked bill Russell teams were but no one mentions how stacked Magic’s teams were smh

Curry stans really got a lot of y’all thinking Magic is overrated 🤦🏽‍♂️

He saved the league from the dark 70s era of cocaine abuse and literal fights.

Kareem won MVP and a finals MVP while playing with MAGIC sooooo stop.

Tim Duncan is becoming very underrated as well. Pls make a video on that

Most NBA players drooled over the idea of playing with Earvin. He made everyone around him just that much better

If Magic played today he'd be Jokic inside 15 feet in and Giannis from behind the 3 point line imho. He'd be a great driver from the perimeter with an elite ability to playmake out of the post.

I will always think Magic and Nash were the best passers ever in their own tier of passing but Magic was more of willing scorer and put more pressure on the offense while Nash was about always looking for the pass

With his amazing resume and for not playing that long he has accomplished so much with mvps and final mvps. He had help but he was the engine of the team and won a FMVP his rookie year and played center game 6 and had an all time performance.

OL'🐐👑MAGIC JOHNSON#32 UNDERRATED .. HE'S AS GOOD AS ANYBODY THAT EVER PLAYED IN DA NBA ..

He had a solid jumper with a good touch at the freethrow line.

Short Answer: No

I LOVE RUSTYS VIDEOS ON HISTORICAL TOPICS

This title is so insulting I am disgusted

It really depends on the person. If you think he's a lock for top-3, I genuinely believe that's a massive stretch. There are players with similar peaks to Magic, that dwarf him with longevity. However, if you already have Stephen Curry over Magic Johnson, you're certainly underrating the man.

Great point and breakdown. Magic's 2nd greatest attribute offensively was his mid post hook shot inwhich was unguardable in that era however the shot was fazed out where it evolved to floaters.

Kareem wasn’t just averaging 20 lol he did 22 and near 23 in playoffs and from 1980-86 he did 26 plus like 4 times ..and James worthy was doing 20 plus

I thought the common consensus for Top 4 was LeBron or MJ, MJ or LeBron, Kareem, Magic. Anything else isn’t valid.

No way. Dude is an all time great. He’s def in the top 5.

I *personally* think that a pass first point guard can by definition not be that great themselves because that wasn't their job. Magic focused on playmaking thus his own greatness couldn't shine as much, so he is a product of his era. My opinion thus is that there is no definite Top 5 because it depends on what you prefer your players and in a debate like Magic v. Curry what you prefer your point guard to do. One thing that we should notice though is that Magic was the first real point forward superstar I accept that others have other opinions and i am happy to hear them. Just remember there is no true opinion on top5 or the Goat or something like that because that is subjective and thus people suffer from bias towards the era they were watching

I don't think Magic is overrated, but Kareem and Bird in the 80's are truly underrated. How Magic was a better player than Kareem by a margin when Kareem won the MVP in the 1980, and the finals MVP in 1985, as a 38 y/o player. After that season, it's clearly Magic's team, but before that, Kareem was pretty pretty solid.

Great summary of the 80s Lakers. I've made this argument a million times. Kareem was old for most of the Lakers title runs. Worthy and Kareem switched off as Worthy matured and Kareem aged.

His teammates were definitely more special than "pieces that fit his playstyle" and also, he pretty much only used the right hand for everything. I dont know about that one in today's nba

Luka's gonna be a top 5 player if he stays healthy easily, probably GOAT contender. His competitiveness and dominance are Magic/LeBron esque with ridiculous shooting ability. Future GOAT! 🐐

It’s semantics for the most part because all of the people who claim that he is overrated were never able to actually watch him play. Highlights don’t do justice to how impactful of a player he was

Magic played 12 years winning 5 chips, 3 finals mvp, 3 mvps. You cannot be overrated with these type of individual awards

Great video, good points. As someone who grew up watching Kareem, and watching Showtime mostly beat my Spurs, I do believe that Kareem benefited no more or less than Magic for having had each other as teammates. Either one of them alone on any decent team would have made their teammates greater and would have been in contention every year. A fine point, but touche'. Kareem is top 3, to me. Magic is top 10.

I think Curry and Magic are similar in one way, the both were the engine of and all-time offenses, they just had different ways of dominating, they were on the tier of their own in their number 1 skills

When people compare the goat to you, you have to be great

Magic won a state championship in High School went to college and won an NCAA championship, went to the NBA and won 5 championships in 12 years and finished his career with the highest winning percentage out of any NBA PLAYER IN HISTORY! After that he got an Olympic gold medal. The point of Basketball is to win and Magic always won at every single level and was always the best player on his team. He's top 5, easy.

I don’t think this guy was overrated. He went to the NBA finals eight times in 13 years. Now that’s awesome and won five out of eight.

No matter what he once may have been, by the time of his comeback he had become a moving obstacle to his teammates and for the general course of the franchise. I really felt no pain when he retired again and the Lakers kept on with Kobe & Shaq.

it took me like 4 basketball reference searches to find out a decent chunk of these stats are either exaggerated or straight up wrong. i usually agree w your opinions, but cmon my guy. magic definitely not better than kareem all time and probs not top 5.

Kareem was an amazing player but he averaged 20 with Magic because of Magic. On another squad, he averages less because he was on the decline at that point in his career. Magic determined the flow of a game, he sped it up when he wanted to and he slowed it down when he wanted to. He was scary because he was intelligent, poise, and precise on is attack. He loved the game and was serious about winning. Great video!

It required the Thinking Basketball analysis to make me understand what made this guy great. Many can be great on fast break. But Magic somehow turned every half court set into a fast break.

Bulls Nation old-heads will never forget the pain, heartache, and migraines endured whenever we recall how Magic Johnson was a coin-flip away from becoming a Chicago Bull.

But who is the better player? Magic or curry? I'd take curry over magic in my team anyday

I have: MJ, Kobe, bird, magic, Duncan, Kareem. After MJ they are movable, I’ve had Kareem 2nd but I just don’t know where to put him. He had a bunch of years where he was the best player in the league but he wasn’t winning chips. 🤷

OVERRATED??? THE ONLY PLAYER IN NBA HISTORY THATS OVERRATED IS LABRON JAMES AND YOU CAN TAKE THAT TO THE BANK!!!

People who say that magic Johnson wasn't a great offensive player/scorer obviously didn't watch him play. Magic Johnson could score at any time he wished. There was a reason why he was so efficient because he was that intelligent of a player. He understood when he needed to score it and when he didn't need to score. I watched magic Johnson's entire career and there were plenty of games when he took over offensively. He does what a lot of players do even today He takes advantage of the actual skills that he has. He's completely aware of what he can't do but he maximizes what he can do.

The fact that people are arguing he's not the #1 PG of all time prove that he's underrated if anything

Another overlooked part of Magic's game is that he's really efficient for a guard. I know he's 6'9" but 50+% for a non-shooter against tight defenses, 90+% free throw shooter, and an improved three-point shooter is very impressive. Edit: Never watched the video yet when I commented this

he's not overrated. he was a MONSTER bro, 1 of 1 in his time

I can hear Rusty ? This must be the main channel

I've watched ball since 1976. Magic is one of the best 5 players I've ever seen.

Well, I think Magic is the greatest offensive player of all time. He’s my goat, I think he was better than MJ, better than Kobe. He shot 52%, he got buckets at will. Low post, high post, fast breaks, outside shooting was good. Steph Curry has a 47.5% career FG%, and that’s supposedly his biggest advantage over Magic. But Magic shot 52%. Magic made his teammates better, made himself the Fifth option on offense most of the time and still got buckets at will. Magic was unstoppable, he was too smart, too crafty, too good, and that’s why I call him the #1 goat.

I feel like Simmons if he played in that era would be top 10 all time Edit: yes a raptors fan respecting the 76ers

I got him 4-5th all time, agreed with most of what you said, and just not to mention he gets a legacy boost because of how he turned the Lakers culture around before Magic Johnson got to Los Angeles the Lakers were some guys that moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, kept getting their asses kicked by Bill Russell Celtics finally got one in 72, etc., Magic changed all that to them being the premier brand in the NBA

Magic's West is the weakest conference from a top-15 all-timer in his prime, outside of *maybe* 2012-17 LeBron. In LA's 88 championship season, they didn't face an above-.500 team until the Finals. Their competition was never around for long. DJ and Gus Johnson's Sonics collapsed by 82, Westphal's Suns were dead by 83, Gervin's Spurs were never elite and faded quickly, Denver didn't play enough defense to make a serious run, Aguirre's Mavs collapsed after two good seasons because he was an unbearable asshole, Ralph Sampson's injury and the guards getting banned for cocaine ended a potential Rockets push, and Stockton/Malone's Jazz only made one hard charge during the 80s before the team got settled. Meanwhile, Bird played in an East that consistently had multiple 60-win teams (the Celtics, 76ers, and Bucks all won at least 60 games in 1982), and played against teams that stayed together for basically the entire decade or at least a good chunk of it. Milwaukee, Philly, and Detroit were all better teams than what LA faced in the West (sans maybe Houston in 81, Houston in 86, and Dallas in 87) and Boston had to play those teams every year, sometimes all in the same run.

8:24 "Magic is the most important player on the Lakers during the Showtime era" I'd go one step further and say, it is CALLED "THE SHOWTIME ERA" BECAUSE of Magic.

I personally think Steph is the Goat PG, assuming lebron is a forward, i think if you put Steph on that LA team in the 80s, they DOMINATE

Larry lengend is very underrated I barely here about him and never is he in people top 5, including me even though he definitely has the case to be the greatest of all time as bird was arguably better than all the goats skill and mabey even player wise.

OH THIS IS BOLD

People always forget the term team The Celtics and the Lakers during that time had really good individual players But what made them great was they had great teams and great structures around both of them they were great teams That's why you didn't see some crazy numbers from either team But just very consistent numbers evenly divided which is better than having one top heavy player It's called the laws of physics When a workload is evenly distributed it makes the job much easier

Kareem....in his first ten years in league could have been mvp every season......

By 84/85 season Magic developed a very good midrange shooter(On the catch or faceup jumpers mostly, not off the dribble). He can knock down the 3 also not the best at all but Magic is not somebody u want to just let shoot like Ben Simmons or Draymond Green.

I NEVER I mean NEVER read or heard that title in a sentence

My Top 10 ALL-TIME: Michael Jordan LeBron James Bill Russell Magic Johnson Tim Duncan Kobe Bryant Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Hakeem Olajuwon Larry Bird Shaquille O'Neale

Bill Russell gets disrespected too much; a lot of the players from the 60's get disregarded as well. I got Magic 4th behind Jordan, Bill Russell, and Lebron in that order.

kareem already old when magic got there is FALSE!!!! dude literally won MVP that season averaging 25-11 and 3.4 blocks per game on 60% FG he then averages 33-14 with almost 5 blocks per game in the finals and gets snubbed for FMVP becuase magic had one great game when kareem was injured.... he then averaged just about 22 ppg until the 1986 season which is right about when james worthy started to become a star player... at each junction of the showtime lakers dynasty they had about 4-6 players averaging double digits they were a ridiculously stacked team... he did win 5 chips and went to the finals 9 times in 12 years which is really impressive but we gloss over some of his short comings as well ie after winning the 1980 championship in the historic rookie FMVP never again will be seen performance in 1981 the lakers lose in the first round to the 6th seeded rockets led by moses malone they bounce back the next season win the chip but then in 1983 they get swept by the 76ers with Dr J and you guessed it Moses Malone.... 1984 they are back in the finals again and this time they lose to the celtics for the much anticipated celtics-lakers rivalry and also the first time meeting Larry bird in the playoffs and he loses famously the tragic johnson series... 1985 lakers bounce back and win against boston 1986 get bounced by Hakeem olujuwan 1987-1988 win back to back for the first time and the last time 1989 lost to pistons in a sweep after some inujries 1990 didnt make the finals 1991 lost to MJ passing the torch and retiring due to HIV

I thought this a year ago but I thought I was crazy

Anyone saying this is monstrously stupid. Not only is he a Top 5 player, but he’s a Top 5 influential player of all time. He’s arguably Top 2 with Larry, because it was THOSE 2 GUYS that brought the NBA to relevance.

The way Kareem won MVP Rusty Is bc back then the NBA actually used their divisions. Only the top 2 teams from each division made the playoffs no matter the records. Kareem would have the 3rd best record in his division so they would miss the playoffs. That's like the Knicks missing the playoffs bc they're 3rd in the Atlantic division but 4th in the East.

Fun fact, Magic has the highest With or Without You (WOWY) rating in the 1980s, which means that in the games he didn't play vs the games he did play, his Lakers saw the biggest differential in net points (using final game scores allows you to go back before play-by-play era) for any player. In fact in terms of Scaled WOWY, Magic is #1 all-time.

I’m my personal all time list I have bird higher than magic

Are we totally certain Magic was better than Larry Bird?

Well how about Tim Duncan he contended his whole career as well plus had the defense so shouldn't he be over Magic? If not why not Kareem?

you got me thinking for a second that magic died when you mentioned "magics passing"😳😂

Magic had the better Career but Bird was the better player

Jordan, Magic, Bird, Wilt & Duncan. Top5 Curry, Lebron, Hakeem, KD & Kobe. 6-10 off the top of my head

Alex Caruso is better than Magic Johnson.

Magic and Bird are not a tie, toss up, or anything close to equal. Bird was the superior player. I’d even pick Bird over Jordan, but that’s just me. Bird is at the least top 5, Magic top 10 at best.

Magic is underrated

Kobe is DEFINITELY over LeBron what is this guy talking about??? How is Jordan 1a and Kobe 1b implying that they are basically the same player but Jordan considered the G.O.A.T. but Kobe not in people's top 3 or 5??? Makes absolutely ZERO sense to me whenever I hear this during these G.O.A.T. debates. Dude plays 20 years all Western Conference for the winningest franchise in league history (No pressure right?), Same era as Timmy D's Spurs (Whom also won 5 chips) And all he did was deliver year after year until he tore the Achilles near the end of his career. LeBron is a team hopping player/GM that has basically treated the NBA like pick-up basketball over the past 10-12 seasons with basically being able to hand select his own teammates through trades, free agency signings and buyout pickups and still every excuse is made for his 4-6 Finals record and the fact that 18 years in he's still chasing Jordan AND Kobe AND Magic AND Kareem! Kobe's 5th ring came in year 14, LeBron's 4th ring came in year 17. To 3peat in the NBA is such a difficult feat. So difficult that it hasn't been done in almost 20 seasons. Jordan did it twice and the last person to do it was KOBE... Yet he's in everybody's 6-10 and not even top 5... I find that laughable 😂

For a sec you scared me I thought you were about to say something dumb

Kareem averaged over 20 points in regular season and the playoffs with over 50 percent efficiency for the whole 80ties except for his last two years with Lakers. Magic Johnson averaged less points than Kareem, which you failed to mention. The difference is only a couple of points per game but scoring still goes to Kareem, even the old version. James Worthy was a legit all star in college and in NBA but he was a third option on those Lakers team which proves they were stacked. Eye test alone tells how fast and efficient scorer Worthy was, and Jordan has him listed as one of the best players he played with. Magic Johnson was a great player, he also played with great players. Ranking players in top five or top ten lists is stupid and doesn't tell anything about their real skill. Having said that, Magic Johnson is probably top five on playmaker position, but top five all time?

Kareem was clearly the best player and centerpiece of the team in 1980, and probably in 82 also, although the latter is debatable.

Magic also happened to play in arguably the weakest Western conference in history throughout the 80s. Now obviously you can only play whose in front of you, but that's still worth noting when most people have him so high for his 5 titles and 9 finals appearances