Michael Jackson found his seat at a Los Angeles Lakers game, right behind the team’s bench. Then people up in the stands started heading down toward him. Magic Johnson was the reason Michael was there at all, and Michael had told him this would happen.
Their friendship went back years. In an April 2022 interview with Variety, ahead of his Apple TV+ series “They Call Me Magic,” Magic recalled that as a young athlete he traveled with the Jackson 5 on three of their tours. What stayed with him from those tours was how hard Michael worked when nobody was watching.
“Michael Jackson, he was such a perfectionist,” Magic told Variety. “You know, see him look in a mirror for two hours, working on his moves without his brothers.”
Michael’s warning
Once Magic was a Laker, he wanted Michael to return the favor and come watch him play. Michael wasn’t keen. According to Variety, he agreed only reluctantly, because he didn’t think the fans would let him watch in peace.
Magic kept at him. In a short TV news clip, shared on YouTube by a fan, he calls it one of the greatest moments he had. Listen for what Magic told Michael when he hesitated.
Magic tells how he talked Michael into coming (fan upload)
Right at the start, Magic says, “I got close to Michael Jackson and I convinced him to come to a Laker game.” At about 0:08 he remembers telling Michael, “you gotta come anyway.” This 29-second clip is a fan upload, and it covers the invitation, not what happened once Michael sat down. The news ticker running under Magic is about LeBron James signing a four-year deal with the Lakers.
The night at the Forum
Back then the Lakers played at the Forum in Inglewood, and the building was used to famous faces. Variety called Magic “a vivid storyteller,” and he has told this one more than once. On “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2023, Kimmel asked Magic about the biggest stars who came to Lakers games. Magic named Denzel Washington and Eddie Murphy, but Michael topped the list. “He was right behind the Laker bench, and I had toured with him three times,” Magic said, as The SportsRush reported.
Michael got exactly what he’d predicted. “He was right,” Magic told Variety. “He sat down; people went crazy. They were running from upstairs, the sides.” On Kimmel, he reportedly put a number on it: “He came and in two minutes the whole 17,505 of the crowd came down to Michael,” as Sportskeeda quoted him.
Magic tells Jimmy Kimmel about Michael’s night at the game
This is the official “Jimmy Kimmel Live” upload of that 2023 interview. Magic gets to Michael at about 3:20, when Kimmel asks him about the famous fans who came to watch the Lakers, and tells the whole story by about 4:47.
So how did they get him out?
According to Magic, they stopped the game. “We had to stop the game to get him out,” Magic told Variety in 2022. An NBA game at the Forum came to a halt because one fan sitting behind the Laker bench was Michael Jackson.
Magic still jokes about the exit. “He had to moonwalk out quick,” he told Kimmel at about 4:40.
In the fan clip, Magic doesn’t bring up the stoppage at all. He talks about the invitation, and about Michael finally showing up. “It was the greatest moment for me and for the team,” he says.