My Life: Magic Johnson

Informationen zum Autor Earvin “Magic” Johnson —known worldwide for his talent on the basketball court—has an equally impressive career off the court. As the chairman and chief executive officer of Magic Johnson Enterprises, he has helped launch major business initiatives focused on revitalizing ethnically diverse urban communities by bringing brand-name businesses into them. Klappentext "A true emotional phenomenon . . . Entertaining . . . Of particular interest to fans will be the evolution of Johnson's relationship with Bird, his great karmic partner in the game."-Newsday (New York) He's faced challenges all of his life, but now Magic Johnson faces the biggest challenge of all, his own brave battle with HIV. In this dramatic, exciting, and inspirational autobiography, Magic Johnson allows readers into his life, into his tirumphs and tragedies on and off the court. In his own exuberant style, he tells readers of the friends and family who've been constant supporters and the basketball greats he's worked with. It's all here, the glory and the pain the character, charisma, and courage of the hero called Magic. AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUBCHAPTER 1     LOVE AND DISCIPLINE   I grew up in the kind of black family that people today worry is disappearing. Even though there were nine of us, we had what we needed—two great parents, food on the table, and time for the whole family to be together. To provide for us, my parents worked terribly hard. My father had two full-time jobs, and Mom worked just as hard to keep the household going. Seven kids kept her busy, but she also had jobs outside the home.   This was in Lansing, Michigan, an hour and a half from Detroit. Our family lived in a modest yellow frame house at 814 Middle Street, on the west side of town. It was a stable neighborhood of working people. It wasn’t the suburbs, but it wasn’t the ghetto, either.   Besides being the state capital, Lansing is also a big factory town. General Motors was really cooking during the 1950s, so there were plenty of jobs. Wages were good, which is why so many blacks, including my parents, moved up to Lansing from the rural South. Most of the fathers I knew, including mine, worked for GM or one of its subsidiaries.   Lansing was a great place to grow up. There was a real small-town atmosphere; people waved to one another and said hello on the street. We knew the whole neighborhood, and the families I grew up with did almost everything together—church, school, Boys’ Club, ice skating, and going to basketball games at Sexton, the local high school. Whatever I did, or whatever small trouble I got into, my parents always knew about it—sometimes even before I got home.   You can’t get away with much in a community like that. The men would get to the shop and say, “Hey, I saw your boy today.” You knew that if you acted up, you would catch hell from whatever adult was around. But that didn’t stop your parents from disciplining you again when you got home.   I was born on August 14, 1959, the middle of seven children. Quincy, Larry, and Pearl were older, and Kim and the twins—Evelyn and Yvonne—came along afterward. My mother says I was a jolly baby who smiled a lot, and that I let just about anybody pick me up and play with me. That sounds about right.   Our family was squeezed into three small bedrooms on the second floor: one room for our parents, one for my four sisters, and one for the three boys. The place turned into a real madhouse before school every morning, when we all lined up to use the one bathroom. You learned to be quick.   In addition to the seven of us, my parents had three other kids from before they were married. Michael, Lois, and Mary lived in the South, but they often came to stay with us. And we always considered them part of our family.   I was chubby before I grew tall, and when I...

Product details

• Authors: Earvin Johnson, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Earvin M. Johnson, Earvin Magic Johnson, William Novak
• Publisher: Fawcett Book Group
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.09.1993
• EAN: 9780449222546
• ISBN: 978-0-449-22254-6
• No. of pages: 364
• Dimensions: 108 mm x 175 mm x 20 mm
• Subject: Guides > Sport > Ball sport