Lakers News: Magic Johnson on Cusp of Second Non-Basketball Championship in a Month

The five-time Los Angeles champ can't stop winning.

Nov 1, 2024; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers minority owner and former Los Angeles Lakers player Magic Johnson arrives at Dodger Stadium for the teamís World Series Championship celebration. Mandatory Credit: Sandy Hooper-USA TODAY via Imagn Images / Sandy Hooper-USA TODAY via Imagn Images

Five-time Los Angeles Lakers champion point guard Magic Johnson can't stop winning.

28 years removed from his final NBA season, the former 12-time All-Star and three-time league MVP has parlayed a successful business career into an incredibly successful sports ownership run.

The 98-64 Los Angeles Dodgers, in whom he possesses an ownership stake, won their second World Series of the Michigan State product's tenure, in a five-game domination of the New York Yankees.

Now, National Women's Soccer League squad the Washington Spirit — another team in which Johnson owners a partial stake — has bested 2023 league champ New Jersey/New York Gotham Football Club in a 3-0 semifinal matchup to advance to this year's NWSL final, slated for November 23 at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. They'll suit up against the No. 1-seeded Orlando Pride.

"I think we are here because we deserve it," said Spirit head coach Jonatan Giráldez postgame, per Jeff Kassouf of ESPN. "Nobody gave us anything. We deserved to win last week. We deserve it today because we created more chances than Gotham. But I don't want to stay here. I want to keep moving forward."

Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury saved all three of the club's penalties as part of a 3-0 penalty shootout, notes Kassouf. Naturally, Giráldez has high praise for the two-time NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year.

"She's brilliant," Giráldez said about Kingsbury. "Not because of penalties -- because she's a professional in the way that she faces training sessions every day. It's crazy. I have never seen that before."

Kingsbury, 32, previously won the NWSL Championship with the Spirit in 2021. The 5-foot-9 pro feels a similar energy to the club's last championship run in this year's squad.

"I have similar feelings, honestly, as '21 -- kind of like that felt like destiny," Kingsbury said. "And I would say the same thing. Obviously, we don't have the media circus and all the chaotic energy around us that we did back in '21, but on the flip side, it's all the positive stuff."

Johnson won five titles as a Lakers owner (every championship of Kobe Bryant's tenure) before selling his shares to buy into the Dodgers in 2012. He also owns a piece of WNBA club the Los Angeles Sparks, with whom he won in 2016. He owns a portion of Major League Soccer team Los Angeles Football Club, who won the MLS Cup in 2022. Johnson also just bought into the Washington Commanders last year. The team is currently 7-4 and looking more competitive than it has been in ages.

Clearly, Magic Johnson knows his sports ownership.

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