‘Magic’ Johnson is now a billionaire thanks to decades of smart and successful business moves per a recent reporting by Forbes. The outlet states that he is now the fourth professional athlete to reach the financial milestone. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and LeBron James have are all reportedly worth more than $1B.
Johnson first came into the public purview when he became a fan favorite as a player for Lakers in 1979, and has since leveraged his post-NBA career as an investor in professional sports teams, real estate, convenience restaurants movie theaters, Starbucks locations, life/health insurance provider and more.
Per Forbes, the 64-year-old is now worth $1.2 billion following his ownership stakes in a number of professional sports teams, and a 60% stake in Iowa-based life insurance company EquiTrust he bought in 2015.
“It was just a natural for me to go back in the community that I grew up in to bring about change, to build businesses, to create jobs for people,” Johnson said during a 2021 phone interview with the New York Times. “What was missing right in the Black community was really quality product services and goods.”
He added: “Retail has made a mistake in thinking they couldn’t make money in the Black community,” he told the New York Times. “And sure enough, we proved that wrong with the Magic Johnson Theatres. We proved it wrong with the Starbucks. That’s why you see big retailers going into urban America more now than ever, because they know they can get a return on investment. They look to also do some good within our community. I always say, you can do well and do good at the same time. When the whole George Floyd situation happened, in terms of he was murdered, you saw a lot of Fortune 500 companies — because young people were out there protesting. But it wasn’t just Blacks — it was also whites and other groups of people. That’s when everybody said: ‘That’s wrong. I got to do something. Let me invest in urban America.'”