MAGIC'S MOMENT

If Earvin Johnson wanted to realize his bold business ambitions, he was going to need a little magic. During the peak years of the Showtime-era Lakers in the 1980s, there was little reason to believe that an athlete would ever be taken seriously in the boardroom. But over the last 30 years, Johnson has been a major player in movie theaters, fast food franchises, real estate and health care. The 64-year-old basketball Hall of Famer also owns small stakes in sports teams including the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Commanders. Most significantly for Johnson, in 2015, he bought a controlling stake in the Chicago-based life insurance provider EquiTrust, which makes up the majority of a personal net worth that Forbes estimates to be $1.2 billion. 
That makes Johnson just the fourth professional athlete Forbes has ever identified as a billionaire, alongside Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and LeBron James. Unlike the others, Johnson didn’t have  the benefit of enormous income from his playing days. Johnson’s NBA career earnings add up to around $40 million (about $110 million adjusted for inflation), and he earned between $2 million and $4 million per year in endorsements, according to Forbes estimates. James, by comparis...