An assigned number, not a chosen one

Earvin “Magic” Johnson got the nickname “Magic” from a Lansing State Journal reporter at age 15 after a 36-point, 18-rebound, 16-assist game at Everett High. The number 32 came earlier — at Dwight Rich Middle School, where the coach handed out jerseys in jersey-number order and Johnson happened to be at the front of the line at #32. He stuck with it.

At Michigan State (1977-79) he asked for #32 again on his first day. He won the 1979 NCAA championship in #32 — beating Larry Bird’s Indiana State team in the highest-rated college basketball game in TV history. The Lakers, who took him #1 overall in 1979, asked what number he wanted. He asked for 32. They gave it to him.

What happened to the number after

Magic retired the first time after announcing his HIV diagnosis in November 1991. The Lakers retired #32 on October 14, 1992, in a halftime ceremony with Magic in attendance and his college coach Jud Heathcote and Lakers owner Jerry Buss speaking. He briefly came out of retirement in 1996 — he was already in the Hall of Fame at that point — and asked for the #32 back. The team had to un-retire it temporarily. Karl Malone famously gave Johnson permission to wear #32 with the Olympic Dream Team in 1992 (Malone’s number) by saying the elder Magic was the reason he was on the team in the first place.

Michigan State retired #33 (not #32) in Johnson’s honor in 1995 because his college number had been switched once at the school due to a uniform-supply issue mid-season. Both jerseys hang in MSU’s Breslin Center. The decision to honor him with the alternate number was Johnson’s idea, partly so that future MSU stars wouldn’t be locked out of a desirable single-digit number.

Other notable #32s

32 has been one of the more-honored basketball numbers across multiple eras: Bill Walton wore it at UCLA and with the Trail Blazers; Karl Malone wore it for the Utah Jazz his entire career and is the only other NBA player whose retired #32 hangs at multiple arenas; Kevin McHale wore it for the Celtics; Sean Elliott wore it for the Spurs.

Beyond basketball, the number is most-associated with Sandy Koufax in baseball (Dodgers, retired) and Jim Brown in football (Browns, retired). In an interview with TNT in 2018, Magic credited Koufax — a fellow Los Angeles legend — as the reason he never asked the Lakers to consider any other digit during his 1996 comeback. “32 is a Los Angeles number now. I’m not breaking that.”

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Magic Johnson and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records.