Magic Johnson Lakers 2
Photo: Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press

Magic Johnson never attempted to arrange a trade to the New York Knicks, according to his then agent Lon Rosen.

“He did not try to arrange a trade. That did not happen. Something else happened but more of a friendship thing between Pat (Riley) and Earvin and a driver hearing them talk. How’s that? It was never going to happen.

There was no talk of setting up a trade between the Knicks and the Lakers. Trust me, I was the one that was involved deep in the middle of anything that would have happened and I know what happened. There was nothing. It was a made-up story back then,” Rosen told Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.

In the end, the trade never happened and Johnson retired from the NBA in 1991.