When the Game Was Ours - Larry Bird [12]
Johnson visited Minnesota even though the school was on probation for recruiting violations, mostly because he was intrigued by their star, Mychal Thompson. The two connected immediately. They went to a party on campus, and by the end of the evening Johnson was surrounded by students, entertaining them with jokes and stories.
"It was like he was already enrolled there," Thompson said. "He made me feel great. It was almost like he was recruiting me.
"When he left, I told our coaches, 'We've got him. He's coming here. We're going undefeated next year!'"
Two weeks later, Thompson was stunned to learn that while Johnson rated Minnesota as his favorite recruiting trip, he couldn't possibly go anywhere in the Big Ten except Michigan or Michigan State.
Magic's mother and father favored him remaining in their hometown of Lansing, even though Michigan's campus in Ann Arbor was just 53 miles away. They weren't the only ones. Magic's teacher Greta Dart and her husband Jim, who were very close to the Johnson family and had no children of their own, were also MSU alums and pushing Spartan green.
The residents of East Lansing, desperate to keep their native son in the fold, signed a petition in the spring of his senior year of high school urging him to play for Michigan State. The petition had more than 5,000 signatures.
"I should have gone to Michigan," Johnson said. "It was the better basketball school and the better school academically. But it wasn't as simple as that. I had grown up around Michigan State. I had gone to all the games since I was a little boy."
Johnson was genuinely torn. He liked Michigan coach Johnny Orr and his assistant, Bill Frieder, who had been attentive and persuasive throughout the process. Unwilling to disappoint either school, Magic attended Saturday afternoon Michigan games wearing their trademark blue and yellow colors, then changed his sweatshirt to Spartan green before showing up at the MSU games on Saturday nights.
Just before Magic's senior year of high school, Michigan State fired head coach Gus Ganakas. His replacement was Heathcote, a gruff taskmaster who had no qualms about berating his players if they made a mistake on the floor. Just as he had been with Indiana's Coach Knight, Johnson was wary of playing for such a volatile personality.
Heathcote assured Magic that even though he was growing taller, he still envisioned him as a point guard who would run the offense. Johnson liked that idea. His decision was cemented once longtime MSU assistant Vernon Payne endorsed Heathcote even though Payne was moving on to Wayne State.
Magic's mother was relieved that her son chose State. Christine Johnson was a Seventh-Day Adventist, and her Sabbath ran from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Had her son gone to Michigan, she would have missed all of his Saturday afternoon home games. Earvin Johnson Sr. was happy because his son would be playing right up the street and the games wouldn't cut too much into his work hours. When Earvin Jr. announced his decision to attend Michigan State, he proclaimed at his press conference, "I was born to be a Spartan."
In his first season, the freshman helped turn a program that had gone 12–15 the previous season into a 25–5 powerhouse. Magic developed remarkable chemistry with Greg Kelser, an athletic forward who could run the floor and loved to slam home Johnson's carefully lobbed alley-oop passes. The Spartans advanced all the way to the Mideast Regional Final against Kentucky. The winner would go to the Final Four; the loser would go home.
The Spartans were up by 5 points at halftime and led by 7 with 19 minutes to go, but Kentucky, playing zone, swarmed Magic, forcing him away from the basket. He picked up his fourth foul with 9:19 left