Magic Johnson reveals losing out on 5bn dollars

Basketball legend Magic Johnson has revealed he regrets not signing a deal with Nike when making his NBA debut in 1979.

Johnson was drafted to the LA Lakers and signed a cash deal with shoe company Converse, rather than with Nike.

"I'd never heard of stock at 19 years old," said Johnson.

"So I took the money and, man, I would've been a trillionaire by now.

"You think about in 1979, getting that stock then, and what it's worth today? Yikes. So that kills me every single time I think about that.

"I'm like, 'Man, Michael Jordan would've been making me so much money'."

The story of Johnson turning down an offer from Nike co-founder Phil Knight was depicted in the sixth episode of the HBO series 'Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty'.

Knight offers Johnson 100,000 dollars, plus one dollar for every shoe that's sold, which the show estimated would be worth 5.2 billion dollars today. Instead, Johnson chose Converse's deal of 100,000 dollars per year.

Despite missing out on a huge amount of money, Johnson's net worth is still very impressive at 600 million dollars.

The 62-year-old is regarded as the greatest point guard of all time and is one of the best NBA players in basketball history.