Former skilled basketball star Magic Johnson has been declared a billionaire by Forbes – changing into solely the fourth sportsperson ever to affix the elite membership.
The wealth journal estimates Johnson is value round $1.2bn (£990m).
He joins fellow former NBA gamers Michael Jordan and LeBron James, and golf star Tiger Woods, in reaching the billionaire benchmark.
Johnson made his preliminary thousands and thousands enjoying skilled basketball within the Eighties and Nineties, however retired from enjoying in 1996 following his HIV analysis.
The 64-year-old American, whose actual identify is Earvin Johnson, solely made round $40m (£33m) throughout his time enjoying for the Los Angeles Lakers, the place he turned one of the recognisable basketball stars on this planet.
It is his investments off the courtroom the place he has made his first billion, with cash in well-known manufacturers, monetary companies, and sports activities franchises.
He has stakes in a variety of LA sports activities groups, together with the Women’s NBA squad Los Angeles Sparks, baseball franchise Los Angeles Dodgers and soccer’s LAFC.
Johnson additionally holds shares in a Pepsi bottling plant, Starbucks and Burger King, amongst others.
Forbes mentioned it’s his 60% stake in life insurance coverage firm EquiTrust that has given Johnson his largest proportion of his private wealth – the agency has revenues of greater than $2.5bn (£2.06bn) a 12 months.
Read extra:
Taylor Swift reaches billionaire standing
Sir Jim Ratcliffe to purchase 25% of Man Utd for £1.3bn
Speaking on a podcast earlier this 12 months, Johnson mentioned he may have turn out to be a billionaire sooner, had he not turned down shares in Nike within the Nineteen Seventies, as an alternative choosing a $1m (£820,000) cope with Converse.
He additionally bought his $10m (£8.2m) stake in his former LA Lakers workforce in 2010 to healthcare mogul Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, with Forbes predicting that Johnson’s share would have been value $29m (£23.9m) on the time – and $265m (£218m) immediately.
Source: information.sky.com”