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| MAGIC JOHNSON’S 16TH ANNUAL MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S MAGIC WEEKEND 8.3-5.2001 Former world-champion basketball star and current LA business owner, EARVIN "MAGIC" JOHNSON hosted over 30,000 people for the event of the summer, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S MAGIC weekend. Not just about fun and games, this weekend raised money for the Magic Johnson Foundation’s Taylor Michaels Scholarship Programs, which this year awarded 97 scholarships to send youth to college.  The 16th annual event started with a children’s carnival at Magic’s Recreation Center in inner city Los Angeles. Approximately 3,000 kids enjoyed amusement rides, free ice-cream, Krispy Kreme donuts, sodas, horse rides, games and prizes and pictures with the Magic man himself. After the kids had their fun and the sun went down, the adults got to have some fun of their own. The party moved to the Wiltern Theatre where ARSENIO HALL and MAGIC hosted a comedy show featuring BERNIE MAC, BILL BELLAMY, DL HUGHLEY, JOHN WIHTERSPOON and TOMMY DAVIDSON, some of the funniest men in the world. As if that wasn’t enough fun to last the entire summer, Magic brought New Orleans to Hollywood with a Mardi Gras. Top artists including, SISQO, ANJIE STONE, LIL’ MO and THE GAP BAND performed for delighted audiences on various stages on the backlot of Paramount studios. Originally, the weekend was just a single night that consisted of an all-star basketball game. That tradition continued on Sunday at Staples Center with 2 basketball gam  es. SNOOP DOGGY DOGG aka SNOOPY BRYANT, LIL’ BOW WOW, FRANKIE MUNIZ, MICHAEL RAPPAPORT, COOLIO, MORRIS CHESTNUT, BILL BELLAMY and JOHN WITHERSPOON competed against each other in the celebrity basketball game. LA radio station POWER 106’s 400-pound deejay, BIG BOY, coached the purple and gold team while MINI ME aka VERN TROYER coached the blue team. I guess size does matter in this case because Big Boy’s crew won after being down by as many as 10 points in the game, 84-82. Or could it be the appearance of pro-basketball player and former LA Laker CEDRIC CEBALLOS taking Snoopy Bryant’s place on the court.A  NBA All-Star game coached by the always country and always ghetto fabulous comedians STEVE HARVEY and BERNIE MAC followed the celeb exhibition. Steve’s red team had STEVE "The Reason" FRANCIS, MAGIC JOHNSON, GARY PAYTON, PAUL "Inglewood" PIERCE, JALEN ROSE among other young NBA ballers on it. Bernie’s blue team consisted of 2 LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS, DARIUS MILES and QUENTIN RICHARDSON, UCLA’s and now MILWAUKEE BUCK’s, BARON DAIVS, former LA Laker NICK "the quick" VAN EXEL, still an LA fan favorite, and another UCLA player, EARL WATSON. Despite what Bernie Mac called "trickeration" meaning funny business from the red team, his team defeated Magic’s team by 2 points.Magic Johnson made the magnanimous step from basketball to business to community leader and plans on continuing a positive legacy to improve the quality of life for all in Los Angeles. This may work well for a possible run for mayor in 8 years, if necessary. |
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