15 best NCAA basketball players we wish played in the Twitter era

8. Best NCAA basketball players before Twitter: Magic Johnson, Michigan State

Another all-time great finds his way onto the list.

Logically this list will be made up of some of the all-time greats and most fun players who missed out on a lot of exposure opportunities by not playing in the time and day of Twitter. Magic may be one of the most relevant on this list.

Johnson, though a well-known man thanks to the legacy he left behind (and admittedly some of the management blunders after his playing career), would’ve benefitted greatly from playing in the social media era. During his time at Michigan State, his talent changed the game of basketball in a way that not many have.

While a guard, Johnson played the point at a height unheard of at the time. I can almost hear the tweets that might have come from the skepticism about his ability to play the point at that height. We’ve seen shades of it with Ben Simmons more recently.

Though it was reported that he initially didn’t intend on going pro in the sport, Johnson defied the odds and made a great run with the Spartans, before they were beaten in the Elite Eight by the eventual champions. Johnson and the Spartans bounced back though, going on to defeat Larry Bird and Indiana State in what was the most-watched college basketball game ever, and winning the NCAA Tournament before entering the 1979 NBA Draft.

Johnson averaged 17.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game in his collegiate career, and to me, would be even more solidly in the conversation for one of the greatest players of all time, had Twitter been around to see him light up the collegiate court.