Magic Johnson
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Magic Johnson trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Earvin "Magic" Johnson turned the fast break into a performance. A 6-foot-9 point guard with a no-look pass and a famous smile, he won a college title at Michigan State, then led the Lakers through the 1980s in a rivalry with Larry Bird that pulled the whole NBA into the spotlight. This quiz follows the full arc. It starts with his Michigan childhood and the story behind his nickname, moves through the draft, the championship runs and the nights that made his name, and reaches November 1991, when he announced he had HIV and retired. From there it covers the comebacks, the Olympics, his work on AIDS awareness, and a second career in business and team ownership that made him a billionaire. The opening questions suit anyone who remembers the big moments. Later ones are for Lakers diehards and NBA historians, with a few deep cuts for trivia night. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a miss still leaves you with a story worth repeating.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Neighborhood children teased young Magic Johnson with which nickname because he helped on his father's second job?
Garbage Man
Garbage Man was the taunt, because he rode along on the trash route his father ran after shifts at General Motors. His father never missed a day at the plant.
Q 02As a rookie, Magic Johnson started at which unfamiliar position in Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals?
Center
Center was where the 20-year-old point guard lined up, because the Lakers' regular big man had sprained an ankle. He finished with 42 points and 15 rebounds, and the Lakers won the title that night.
Q 03Three months after retiring, Magic Johnson returned for which 1992 event and was named its MVP?
The All-Star Game
The All-Star Game in Orlando ended on his last-minute three-pointer, with players from both teams running onto the court to congratulate him. He scored 25 points in the West's 153–113 win.
Q 04Magic Johnson won which entertainment award in 1993 for the audio version of his book on avoiding AIDS?
A Grammy
A Grammy for Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album went to Johnson and Robert O'Keefe for What You Can Do to Avoid AIDS. It sits beside his three NBA MVP trophies.
Q 05Magic Johnson and Larry Bird became close friends while filming a mid-1980s commercial for which shoe brand?
Converse
Converse scripted the two as enemies, but the shoot turned the rivals into friends. Bird later inducted Johnson into the Hall of Fame.
Q 06Magic Johnson spent twelve years as a partner in more than 100 urban stores of which coffee chain?
Starbucks
Starbucks agreed after Johnson showed its chief executive the buying power of minority neighborhoods. He sold his share of the stores back to the company in 2010.
Q 07The Lakers won a coin flip against which team for the right to draft Magic Johnson first overall in 1979?
Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls lost the toss and picked second. The Lakers were in the flip only because they held the first-round pick of the New Orleans Jazz from an earlier trade.
Q 08Magic Johnson won Olympic gold in which host city in 1992 as co-captain of the United States Dream Team?
Barcelona
Barcelona saw the Dream Team win all eight games by an average of nearly 44 points. Johnson, months after retiring, shared the captaincy with Larry Bird.
Q 09In 2012 a group fronted by Magic Johnson paid a record $2 billion for which Major League Baseball team?
Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers changed hands for the highest price ever paid for a sports team at the time. Johnson is the public face of the group, while Mark Walter is the controlling owner.
Q 10What nickname was given to the fast-breaking, crowd-pleasing style Magic Johnson's Lakers played throughout the 1980s?
Showtime
Showtime paired Johnson's no-look passes with a Hollywood-celebrity crowd at The Forum. The era brought five championships and nine trips to the NBA Finals.
Q 11Who gave Magic Johnson his nickname at age 15, after a 36-point triple-double for his high school team?
A sportswriter
A sportswriter named Fred Stabley Jr. coined it after watching the sophomore pile up 36 points and 18 rebounds. The name stuck through college and five NBA titles.
Q 12Magic Johnson grew up in which Michigan city, where his father worked on a General Motors assembly line?
Lansing
Lansing kept him close for college too: he chose Michigan State, a few miles away in East Lansing, over offers from schools such as UCLA.
Q 13Magic Johnson's Spartans beat which unbeaten team, led by Larry Bird, in the 1979 NCAA championship game?
Indiana State
Q 21Who replaced Paul Westhead on the Lakers bench in 1981 after Magic Johnson clashed with him and demanded a trade?
Pat Riley
Pat Riley, then an assistant, took over and went on to win four titles with Johnson. Fans blamed Johnson for the firing and booed him across the league, even in Los Angeles.
Q 22Magic Johnson greeted which Pistons guard, a close friend, with a kiss on the cheek before the 1988 Finals opener?
Isiah Thomas
Isiah Thomas and Johnson called the kiss a display of brotherly love, then fought through seven games. The Lakers won, the fifth and last championship of Johnson's career.
Q 23After late errors in the 1984 Finals, Celtics fans mocked Magic Johnson by swapping his nickname for which word?
Tragic
Indiana State arrived unbeaten but lost 75–64, and Johnson was voted the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player. The game opened a rivalry that carried into three NBA Finals.
Q 14Magic Johnson won Game 4 of the 1987 NBA Finals with what kind of last-second basket over two Celtics big men?
A hook shot
A hook shot over Robert Parish and Kevin McHale won it 107–106. Johnson called it a junior version of the sky-hook, the trademark of his teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Q 15Which superstar free agent joined the Lakers in 2018 while Magic Johnson was president of basketball operations?
LeBron James
LeBron James agreed to a four-year contract that summer. Johnson resigned at an impromptu news conference the following April, with the Lakers out of the playoffs.
Q 16Magic Johnson quit the National Commission on AIDS in 1992, saying which institution had utterly ignored its work?
The White House
The White House had opposed the panel's call for universal healthcare, Johnson said, and he left after eight months. President George H. W. Bush had called him a hero after his diagnosis.
Q 17Magic Johnson put his name on a chain of which businesses in urban areas such as Crenshaw and Harlem?
Movie theaters
Movie theaters came first, starting with the Magic Johnson Crenshaw 15, which opened in Los Angeles in 1995. He aimed the chain at Black neighborhoods that modern multiplexes had passed over.
Q 18Magic Johnson retired with the highest career per-game average in NBA history in which statistic?
Assists
Assists were his signature: 11.2 a game across his career. In the 1984 Finals he handed out 21 in one game, a championship-series record.
Q 19Which Lakers owner signed Magic Johnson to a 25-year, $25 million contract in 1981, then the richest in sports?
Jerry Buss
Jerry Buss became a mentor Johnson called his second father. He introduced the young player to business contacts and later sold him a stake in the team.
Q 20Magic Johnson invested in the Josh Harris group that bought which NFL team for about $6 billion in 2023?
Commanders
Commanders ownership cost the Harris group $6.05 billion, with $240 million from Johnson. A lifelong NFL fan, he had earlier explored bids for teams in Miami, Las Vegas and Denver.
Tragic Johnson was the taunt after a late turnover and two missed free throws in Game 4 helped Boston take the series. He answered by beating the Celtics in the Finals in 1985 and again in 1987.
Q 24Which president awarded Magic Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian honor, in 2025?
Joe Biden
Joe Biden presented it on January 4, 2025, about two weeks before leaving office. It joined a trophy case that already held Olympic gold and two Hall of Fame inductions.
Q 25Magic Johnson studied communications at Michigan State hoping for which career instead of professional basketball?
TV commentator
TV commentator was the plan, and he got there in the end: after retiring he called NBA games for NBC and spent seven years with Turner Network Television.
Q 26Magic Johnson's 1996 comeback ended with a first-round playoff loss to which team, the defending NBA champions?
Houston Rockets
Houston Rockets took the series three games to one, and Johnson retired for good days later. The same franchise had knocked his Lakers out of the playoffs in 1981 and 1986.
Q 27Which Dream Team teammate argued that Magic Johnson's planned 1992 NBA comeback put players at risk if he bled on court?
Karl Malone
Karl Malone voiced the fear that autumn, months after the two won Olympic gold together. Johnson retired again before the season began, saying he did not want to hurt the game.
Q 28Magic Johnson's group bought which WNBA team in 2014 after the league had temporarily taken it over?
Sparks
Sparks ownership passed to a group that included Johnson and Mark Walter, his partner in baseball. Two years later the Los Angeles team were WNBA champions.
Q 29Which HBO drama series about the 1980s Lakers cast Quincy Isaiah in the role of Magic Johnson?
Winning Time
Winning Time drew complaints from the men it portrayed: Johnson said he would not watch it, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called it deliberately dishonest.
Q 30Magic Johnson married Earlitha Kelly in his Michigan hometown in 1991; by which nickname is she widely known?
Cookie
Cookie was expecting their son EJ when Johnson learned his diagnosis later that year. He told reporters that she and the unborn child were not infected.