Magic Johnson wanted to fight Howard Stern over race, AIDS jokes

nypost.com:

repeating his desire for COVID-19 austerity, but there was once a time that his jokes were so off-color and insensitive that Magic Johnson wanted to “hit” him.Johnson goes over this in his upcoming Apple TV+ docuseries, “They Call Me Magic”, which debuts on April 22 and was covered by Variety.The former Lakers great’s issues with Stern are discussed within the context of “The Magic Hour”, an ill-fated syndicated talk show that Johnson hosted in 1998 that was universally panned.Stern was apparently particularly merciless in mocking the show on his radio program, and Johnson’s producers responded by booking him as a guest.Stern opened his appearance by telling Johnson that he was a great basketball player but his talk show needed work. “The thing you need to work on, in my estimation, seriously, is you’ve got to stop trying to talk like the white man,” Stern told Johnson. “It’s the truth.”Stern said Johnson was being coached to be “anti-ebonics”.“I say, let it fly,” Stern declared. “Earvin, what you need to do, my brotha, is to really get down with it.

Everyone’s trying to get you to talk like the white man. I think this show should loosen up and you should talk ebonics all you want.

You know what I’m saying?”“I grew up in a black neighborhood,” Stern continued, after suggesting that Johnson’s speech coach should be hung from the rafters. “I’m blacker than you are.

Trust me. I’m the blackest black man you’ll ever meet, and I’m telling you right now, when I lived in Roosevelt, Long Island, which is a black ghetto, everyone talks like this [pantomiming ebonics].