Magic Johnson Explains Why He’s So Excited For Everyone To See Personal Documentary ‘They Call Me Magic’

Magic Johnson is a lot of things — a five-time NBA champion, a highly successful entrepreneur, and community activist, among others.

Now his real-life story, highlighting the global impact of his life both on and off the court, is being showcased in a new documentary series They Call Me Magic.

It’s the captivating real-life story of the extraordinary, two-time NBA Hall of Famer and cultural icon Ervin ‘ Magic’ Johnson from his humble beginnings in Lansing, Michigan, to his time with the L.A. Lakers, as well as the day he made the stunning announcement that he has HIV and how his admission changed the conversation about AIDS forever.

Coming on the heels of the highly successful series The Last Dance about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, Johnson points out that this doc, is ‘”totally different because [that] was all about basketball and Michael [Jordan’s] mindset. This is about my family. This is about me being a businessman. So, it’s a life journey. You’ll see all phases of my life.”

Johnson says that he’d been asked before to do a piece, but that he felt the timing wasn’t right. “Then Last Dance happened and everybody just said, Hey, you’ve got to do yours, we’re waiting on yours.’ I’m so excited that it’s going to happen now — so many things have happened in my life and I get to finally put it on film and really tell that story.”

He wants to be clear that much of this is about, “showing athletes you can reinvent yourself if you’re smart enough to remember [plays and what you your opponent is doing], you’re smart enough to really go into being a businessman or a businesswoman.”

Johnson says that he has ‘the blueprint’ for this and that he just had to pass it on.

He points out that other people say, “’I want my company to be like Magic’s.’ So, it’s great to be that person that everybody wants to be like and if I can help them, if they need advice, I will sit down with them.”

But, not everything in business has gone smoothly for Johnson and he’s not afraid to admit it, and include it in the documentary.

“The Magic Hour and it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to, but I was able to learn so much from failing,” he says of his short-lived television show. “I want the highs and the lows to be in this doc and it is. Everything was not great in my life, but at the same time, that’s what I want everybody to know. You’re going to win and you’re going to lose in life — it’s how you come back from when you fail is what’s important.”

It’s important to note that at the time Johnson was diagnosed as HIV-positive, it was considered a death sentence for most people.

But Johnson says that he didn’t think that way when he heard the news. “I’m all about winning. I’ve always been that way. I never said, ‘hey, I’m going to die.’ What I tried to do is ask my doctors, ‘What do I have to do to be able to live for a long time?’ They told me — take my meds, have a positive attitude, work out. I did those things.”

He says that everyone also told him to be, ‘comfortable with my new status.’

“I think that was the main thing. Because I was giving up the game that I love in basketball and that was hard for me to do. I think at the end of the day I’ve done everything the right way.”

It’s that attitude that Johnson believes pulls him through life, as he remarks, “I’m not a doubt-myself person,” he says with a laugh. “It’s not in my DNA. I’m solution driven. I meet challenges head-on. I’m not a get-down-on-myself person. It’s not what I’m all about.”

Looking back at what he’s achieved, Johnson ruminates, “I was always a guy who dreamed bigger than where I was at that time, but I couldn’t even imagine — I mean, I pinch myself all the time. It’s been an amazing journey.”

He goes on to say, “it even blows my mind to sit here and think about all the things I’ve been through, all the different doors that I walked through that [were] closed to a lot of African Americans, closed to a lot of athletes. And for me to walk through those same doors to open up access to African Americans, to open up access to minorities, to open up access to athletes, I couldn’t have — no way I could have dreamed of a situation like this.”

This is why Johnson says that he’s so ‘excited about this documentary.’

“It gets to tell people that I am a guy who loves to live life and live it to its fullest. I’m just a positive person. That’s who I am.”

‘They Call Me Magic’ debuts April 22^nd on Apple TV+.