Often regarded as the greatest point guard of all time,[3][4][5][6] Johnson spent his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

[31] After the game, Fred Stabley Jr., a sports writer for the Lansing State Journal, gave him the moniker[35] despite the belief of Johnson's mother, a devout Christian, that the name was sacrilegious.

[44] Playing with future NBA draftees Greg Kelser, Jay Vincent, and Mike Brkovich, Johnson averaged 17.0 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game as a freshman, and led the Spartans to a 25–5 record, the Big Ten Conference title, and a berth in the 1978 NCAA tournament.

Johnson said that what was "most amazing" about joining the Lakers was the chance to play alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,[50] the team's 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) center who became the leading scorer in NBA history.

[52] Lakers coach Jack McKinney had the 6-foot-9-inch (2.06 m) rookie Johnson, who some analysts thought should play forward, be a point guard, even though incumbent Norm Nixon was already one of the best in the league.

[76] With Johnson's teammates Nixon, James Worthy, and Bob McAdoo all hobbled by injuries, the Lakers were swept by the Sixers, and Malone was crowned the Finals MVP.

[79] Friends Isiah Thomas and Mark Aguirre consoled him that night, talking until the morning in his Boston hotel room amidst fan celebrations on the street.

[48] In the 1988 playoffs, the Lakers swept the San Antonio Spurs in 3 games, then survived two 4–3 series against the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks to reach the Finals and face Thomas and the Detroit Pistons,[94] who with players such as Bill Laimbeer, John Salley, Vinnie Johnson, and Dennis Rodman were known as the "Bad Boys" for their physical style of play.

[102] Playing without Abdul-Jabbar for the first time, Johnson won his third MVP award[103] after a strong 1989–90 NBA season in which he averaged 22.3 points, 11.5 assists, and 6.6 rebounds per game.

There they faced the Chicago Bulls, led by shooting guard Michael Jordan, a five-time scoring champion regarded as the finest player of his era.

[112] At the time, only a small percentage of HIV-positive American men had contracted it from heterosexual sex,[96][113] and it was initially rumored that Johnson was gay or bisexual, although he denied both.

After practicing and playing in several pre-season games, he retired again before the start of the regular season, citing controversy over his return sparked by opposition from several active players.

"[124] During his retirement, Johnson has written a book on safe sex, run several businesses, worked for NBC as a commentator, and toured Asia, Australia, and New Zealand with a basketball team of former college and NBA players.

[31] In 1985, Johnson created "A Midsummer Night's Magic", a yearly charity event which included a celebrity basketball game and a black tie dinner.

In 1994, Johnson joined with former pros Mark Aguirre, Reggie Theus, John Long, Earl Cureton, Jim Farmer, and Lester Conner, as his team played games in Australia, Israel, South America, Europe, New Zealand, and Japan.

Playing with the Canberra Cannons of Australia's National Basketball League instead of his usual group of players, Johnson's team defeated the Spartans 104–85, as he scored 12 points and had 10 assists and 10 rebounds.

[151] With the two future Hall of Famers, the league won a whole generation of new fans,[152] drawing both traditionalist adherents of Bird's dirt court Indiana game and those appreciative of Johnson's public park flair.

Johnson introduced a fast-paced style of basketball called "Showtime", described as a mix of "no-look passes off the fast break, pin-point alley-oops from halfcourt, spinning feeds and overhand bullets under the basket through triple teams.

The franchise reached an agreement with free agent LeBron James on a four-year contract in 2018, but efforts to trade for Anthony Davis during the 2018–19 season proved unsuccessful.

[204][205][206][185] In 2023, Johnson invested $240 million in a group headed by Josh Harris that purchased the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL) for $6.05 billion, the highest price ever paid for a sports team.

[207][209] Johnson had previously held talks with other groups interested in buying the Miami Dolphins and Las Vegas Raiders before meeting and joining Harris on an unsuccessful bid on the Denver Broncos in 2022.

[212] Johnson and Cookie have one son, Earvin III ("EJ"), who is openly gay and a star on the reality show Rich Kids of Beverly Hills.

[218] In 2010, Johnson and then-current and former NBA players such as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Bill Russell, as well as Maya Moore from the WNBA, played a basketball game with President Barack Obama as an exhibition for a group of military troops who had been injured in action.

[230] In addition to these business ventures, Johnson has also created the Magic Card, a pre-paid MasterCard aimed at helping low-income people save money and participate in electronic commerce.

Johnson has become a leading voice on how to invest in urban communities, creating redevelopment opportunities in underserved areas, most notably through his movie theaters and his partnership with Starbucks.

After showing Schultz the tremendous buying power of minorities, Johnson was able to purchase 125 Starbucks stores, which reported higher than average per capita sales.

[237] The partnership, called Urban Coffee Opportunities, placed Starbucks in locations such as Detroit, Washington, D.C., Harlem, and the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles.

[247] Johnson sold his ownership stake in the Lakers in October 2010 to Patrick Soon-Shiong, a Los Angeles surgeon and professor at UCLA,[248] but continued as an unpaid vice president of the team.

[250] In the wake of the Donald Sterling controversy, limited media reports indicated that Johnson had expressed an interest in purchasing the Los Angeles Clippers franchise.

Johnson left after eight months, saying that the White House had "utterly ignored" the work of the panel, and had opposed the commission's recommendations, which included universal healthcare and the expansion of Medicaid to cover all low-income people with AIDS.