Magic Johnson picks USC women to reach championship game

One knowledgable basketball fan’s bracket has coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks down to reach the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship. In Orangeburg to speak with students at South Carolina State’s School of Business, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, said he expects the Gamecocks to go all the way.

“They are very well coached. They’ve got talent; the bench is strong, and every time I see them, the bench almost plays better than the starters. I think they are going to the Final Four,” said the three-time NBA finals MVP and an owner of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.

“I picked them to play Connecticut again in the finals, and I hope that happens, because they probably learned from the first game in Connecticut, and I think they’re probably ready for the second.”

Johnson, a Michigan State alumnus, has a connection to the Gamecocks. His sister, Evelyn “Sweet E” Johnson, played for the Gamecocks from 1980-83 and was part of the team that reached the AIAW Region 2 finals in 1980.

“People don’t know that, my sister, she would have been unbelievable,” Johnson said. “She blew her knee out, but she came here to the University of South Carolina on a basketball scholarship. And she was like mini-Magic. She had the same type of game – she could score, she could assist.

“So, she is really cheering hard, because if South Carolina makes it to the Final Four, she’s going to go and support them,” Johnson said of his sister, who remains eighth all-time in career scoring with 1,620 points in 113 games.

Johnson is also a fan of S.C. State, he said.

At S.C. State’s Smith Hamilton Middleton Memorial Center, Johnson addressed a crowd that included students from the School of Business, as well as many athletes from the Bulldogs’ basketball and football teams.

Johnson spoke of having to prove himself as a businessman despite all his success and popularity as one of greatest basketball players of all time. He remembered being seen as “a dumb jock,” when he applied for his first business loan, and talked about how the discipline, focus and attention to detail he learned as a basketball player have helped him reach a success as an entrepreneur.

This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Magic Johnson picks USC women to reach championship game."