Every NBA team’s greatest point guard of all time

Los Angeles Lakers — Magic Johnson

1979-1996
19.5 points per game
11.2 assists per game
7.2 rebounds per game

Right now, Magic Johnson is the greatest point guard in the history of the sport. Outside of Steph Curry, it’s not particularly close. Magic Johnson had such an impact on this game. He was a superstar scorer who could play every single position as if he was the best guy in the sport at that position. The Lakers wanted to keep the ball in Johnson’s hands as much as possible, so they made him play point guard and walk the ball up the court each possession.

Johnson’s greatest asset was his vision. He could find any player on the court, and he knew how the defense was going to react to the pass to that player. Johnson was moving eight steps ahead of everyone else on the court. His intelligence is underrated, which seems impossible since Johnson is one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.

It’s hard to come up with five players better than Johnson. He led the league in assists four times, he led the league in steals twice, and he even led the league in free throw percentage one time. His best season came in 1986-87, where he had north of 23 points per game and led the league with 12.2 assists. In the postseason, he had 21.8 points per game and 12.2 assists. He won five total championships with the Lakers, bringing a dynasty to Los Angeles the Lakers would hold up high for years to come.

Johnson might be considered right up there with Michael Jordan and LeBron James for greatest player ever if his career didn’t get cut short because of a bought with HIV. He got the virus at a time when people were still worried about how people spread it, so he was forced to leave the game of basketball at the age of 31. He came back for one season and was able to average 14 points and 7 assists despite being out of the game for four seasons.