Because they are both from Michigan, it only made sense that the sports hero of young Grant Long was Magic Johnson.
“He was it,’’ said Long, the former Hawks power forward who grew up in Wayne, Mich., only 81 mikes away from Johnson in Lansing. “For all of us that played high school at that time in Michigan, Magic was our guy.’’
Johnson entered the NBA in 1979, having had a brilliant college career at Michigan State while Long entered the NBA nine year later after four years at Eastern Michigan. They met for the first time in 1988 when Long was at Miami and Johnson was well into his career with the Lakers.