Five-time NBA champion and past President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers stepped down to serve his community and grow stronger in his faith. 

The Lakers legend, Earvin Johnson Jr., most commonly known as Magic Johnson, left the Lakers in April 2019. “I wanted to get more involved with my church and working with Bishop Blake ... I share his vision and want to just work with him and for him to see how we can improve the community,” Johnson says to the Associated Press.

To him, the basketball work stopped being enjoyable. He wanted to pursue something more. Johnson and Bishop Charles E. Blake of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ (COGIC) have recently announced that they will be developing a project to provide African American men opportunities and skills to better their lives.

He also helped the church which has a congregation of 20,000, sell its properties to aid in building a new family life centre. They now fully own their buildings and have begun building up savings. 

"So many community services will be established because of the family life center. When he asked me to help out, I was very willing to do that and to advise him and the other members that he chose to make sure they were making the right decisions and moves,” he says to AP.

Johnson's wife, Cookie, has attended COGIC for over 20 years and lead Johnson there as well. He shared that his prayer life is stronger than ever with a community of believers around him.

"It's truly a blessing when you know what direction you're going in," he says to AP. "It's such a change for me because now when I go to speak to corporations, I lead off by praising the Lord, Johnson says.

Johnson still holds dear his past team but he wants to do what God has called him to do. "I’m still a Laker, but when I stepped down, it allowed me to do so much more that I wanted to do.

"I just want to go out and bless other people," Johnson says to AP.