In this image taken from video provided by CNN, Magic Johnson talks with host Anderson Cooper at studios in Los Angeles in an interview broadcast Tuesday, May 13, 2014.Normal Park Museum Magnet School principal Jill Levine grew up in Boston. Which meant she was a huge fan of the NBA’s Celtics. Which also meant that in the endless argument over who was better — the Celts’ Larry Bird or the Los Angeles Lakers’ Magic Johnson — she always was a Bird backer.
But then Magic visited Normal Park a few years ago, charming and disarming not only the school’s inspiring and impressionable students but also their principal.
“He was incredible,” she recalled. “I remember him talking about how good he was with his right hand in basketball when he was a kid and a coach told him he’d never be great until he got better with his left hand. It was a great lesson that no matter how good you are, you can always improve.
“But it wasn’t just our kids who were impressed. There were a lot of adults there that day, too. Just to hear about the kind of work ethic he’s always shown in succeeding not only in athletics but also business was so impressive.”
So when Levine watched the Los Angeles Clippers’ doddering old racist, adulterer fool of an owner Donald Sterling tell CNN on Monday night that he didn’t think Johnson was “a good example for the children of Los Angeles,” Levine felt more than a tinge of anger.