Nope, I’m not talking about Jon Barry. Of course it’s Magic Johnson who was part of a group that bid a record 2 billion dollars for ownership of one of the MLB’s most iconic franchises. It’s a staggering sum of loot that highlights just how much of a business professional sports are these days and how insanely successful Magic has been in his post-NBA business ventures. It’s also a genuinely happy ending to the extreme ugliness Dodger fans endured in recent years that now the new face of the Dodgers is the extremely well-liked and charasmatic Los Angeles legend.
When you step back and think about this, it’s absolutely a crazy story that arguably the NBA’s greatest point guard is now part owner of a baseball team. Magic was rumored to have strong interest when his home state Detroit Pistons were up for sale recently, but that seemingly made some sense. But this is just a business decision, and business is something that Magic has done exceptionally well since he signed that 25-year, $25 million contract with the Lakers back in the early 80’s.
So, what does this mean for Magic’s other job as an NBA analyst on ESPN? Well, I’d certainly think that will be put on the backburner for the time being although it’s too early to say definitively. When you likely have hundreds of millions of dollars invested into a baseball team all of a sudden those NBA debates with Tim Legler about the San Antonio Spurs offense seem a bit less important.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming years. Knowing Magic’s track record, I wouldn’t bet against him to make this work.
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