📍Lansing, Michigan, USA
1959 – 1977“Earvin Johnson Jr. was born in Lansing, Michigan, in August 1959, one of ten children of Earvin Sr., who worked on the assembly line at a General Motors plant and ran a rubbish-hauling business on the side, and Christine, a school custodian. Lansing was a working-class car-making city and the state capital, and the Johnsons lived in a busy, crowded, loving home on the city's west side. Young Earvin often worked alongside his father on the rubbish runs, and he learned from both his parents that hard work and a smile could carry you far. He was obsessed with basketball, practising from dawn on local courts, dribbling with alternate hands on his way to the shops, and idolising Earl Monroe and the Harlem Globetrotters' Marques Haynes. Neighbours called him June Bug. He hoped to go to Sexton High School, a mostly Black school with a strong team near his home, but under a desegregation plan he was bused to Everett High School, which was mostly white. At first his new teammates wouldn't pass him the ball, but he won them over, and he learned to bring people together. In 1974, after a game in which he scored 36 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and made 16 assists, a sportswriter for the Lansing State Journal, Fred Stabley Jr., called him Magic. In 1977 he led Everett to the state championship, and he stayed home to play for Michigan State University, winning the national title in 1979. With the Los Angeles Lakers he won five NBA championships, and he remains Lansing's most famous son.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
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