Some of the greatest athletes of all-time have played in the city of Los Angeles, whether it be in football, baseball, hockey or basketball.
In football Eric Dickerson set the all-time single-season rushing record as a member of the Los Angeles Rams, and countless great players like Marcus Allen, Reggie Bush, Carson Palmer, and Troy Aikman have played at either USC or UCLA.
Baseball and the Dodgers have one of the best pitchers of all-time in Sandy Koufax, and also Clayton Kershaw will be near the top of the list when he retired.
The best hockey player ever played for the Kings, in Wayne Gretzky, who far and away has the most points in NFL history.
Then in basketball, the Lakers have one of the most storied franchises in sports history, and some of the best athletes in history have worn the purple and gold, whether it be Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and many more.
But in the eyes of one LA sports fan, O’Shea Jackson, better known as Ice Cube, one athlete stands about them all and that’s Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson, via ESPN:
Throughout the 1980s Johnson was the biggest star in the city of Los Angeles, leading the Lakers to five championships and being named an All-Star in 11 of the 12 seasons he played.
His career was cut short though as he was diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after the 1990-91 season at just 31-years-old. If it were not for that, then Johnson could have been up there with Michael Jordan as the best basketball player in NBA history.
Ice Cube grew up in the 1980s watching Johnson and the ‘Showtime’ Lakers. He was a part of the hip-hop group ‘NWA’ that put Los Angeles and the city of Compton on the map in the hip-hop world. He is currently starting a three on three basketball league called BIG3 that many former NBA stars will be playing in this coming summer.