EAST LANSING - On the same weekend that Michigan State and Michigan meet on the football field, the Spartans will honor one of the greatest basketball players of all time. On Saturday, Nov. 1, Michigan State will dedicate a statue of Earvin "Magic" Johnson outside the Breslin Center prior to the football game. The following day, Johnson will team up with the Harlem Globetrotters, with Larry Bird serving as an honorary coach, to face Michigan State in the Spartans' first exhibition basketball game of the 2003-04 season. The game will be televised by ESPN at 2:30 p.m.

"Magic Johnson has done so much for Michigan State and the Spartan basketball program," said Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo. "Since the day I came to MSU, I've been impressed that he always returned to Michigan State and Lansing every summer. Even today, he remains a loyal supporter of our program. He shows the true Spartan family spirit that is passed on to other players. As a player, he epitomizes the kind of player I dream about having in this program, which is one that always thinks team first. He is also a great role model as an elite basketball player, teaching that elite players have the ability to make everyone around them better. It's only appropriate that we honor him with a statue on what is sure to be a great weekend celebration."

"I never could have accomplished great things without being surrounded by great people," said Johnson. "I'm so pleased that I'll be able to share in this weekend with my teammates, who fought with me on the way to an NCAA Championship, and Coach Heathcote who taught me to be a perfectionist and believed that a 6-foot-9 player could be a point guard. I'm happy that Larry Bird will be there. We've had some wars, but he is what a basketball player should be. I look forward to playing with the Harlem Globetrotters, who are ambassadors for our great game. And I'm excited to see Coach Izzo and the current Spartans, who are among the elite teams in college basketball today. It's always great to be back home."

The weekend celebration serves as the beginning of a season-long celebration of the 25-year anniversary of the 1979 Michigan State NCAA Championship team. The team and head coach Jud Heathcote will be in attendance to watch their fellow teammate be honored. Among other events scheduled throughout the season to recognize MSU's first basketball championship is a 1979 Final Four reunion tournament in the Coca-Cola Spartan Classic, featuring all four schools from the 1979 Final Four (MSU, Penn, Indiana State, DePaul).

"With a universally-recognized figure like Magic Johnson having won a high school and college championship in his hometown, it's appropriate that he have a statue," said Michigan State athletics director Ron Mason. "To see him return to Michigan State and play with and against our current players shows what a great program Coach Izzo has built."

In addition to being joined by his former Spartan teammates, Johnson's one-time rival and long-time friend Larry Bird will share in the weekend festivities. Bird and Johnson became linked during the 1979 NCAA Championship game, as Johnson led the Spartans to a 75-64 victory over Bird's Indiana State squad. The two then moved on to the NBA where they developed a fierce rivalry and a friendship that has lasted even longer. When Johnson became the only Spartan basketball player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 27, 2002, Bird delivered his induction speech. With Bird slated to serve as honorary coach for the Harlem Globetrotters squad, while Johnson plays on the team, it will mark the first time the duo has teamed up since winning a gold medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics as members of the original USA Basketball Dream Team.

The exhibition contest will mark the second time that Johnson has played with the Globetrotters. In 1997, he joined the team for a 126-114 victory over the College All-Stars. This will be the second meeting between the Spartans and the Globetrotters, as MSU stopped Harlem's 1,270-game winning streak with a 72-68 victory on Nov. 13, 2000. The first meeting was part of the first-annual Fall College Tour for the Globetrotters, who will be making their fourth tour this season. Among the stops for the Globetrotters this year is a contest at 2003 NCAA Champion Syracuse on Nov. 11. At the 2002 Final Four, Tom Izzo coached a group of NABC All-Stars to victory over the Globetrotters. The link between Johnson and the Globetrotters goes even deeper as both were inducted into the Hall of Fame on the same day in 2002.

This year, Michigan State is expected to set the world record for basketball attendance with a crowd of more than 75,000 at "The Basketbowl" when the Spartans play Kentucky on Dec. 13, 2003. The Globetrotters hold the current record of 75,000, established when they played an exhibition game in Berlin's Olympic Stadium on Aug. 21, 1951.

The statue will consist of a bronze sculpture of Johnson on a pyramid shaped base. The total height of the sculpture and base is approximately 12 feet tall, with the actual statue of Johnson less than nine feet tall. The cost of the project is approximately $250,000 and is funded entirely through private donations. In the sculpture, Johnson has the basketball in one hand, his vision is up the court and he is directing his teammates with the other hand, all of which were attributes that made him one of the greatest basketball players of all time and the man who made "triple-double" part of the basketball vocabulary. His body appears to be erupting from four abstratct characters at the base of the sculpture, symbolic of the four levels of play where he won championships (high school, college, NBA, Olympics). The statue is titled "Always A Champion."

The statue is being designed by sculptor Omri Amrany from the Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt-Amrany, based in Highland Park, Ill. Amrany's previous works include the Michael Jordan statue in front of Chicago's United Center, a Harry Caray statue at the entrance to Chicago's Wrigley Field and six statues of great Detroit Tigers at Detroit's Comerica Park. Most recently, he's completed statues of Vince Lombardi and Earl "Curly" Lambeau at Green Bay's Lambeau Field and a statue of Al McGuire at Marquette.

Following a championship senior season at Lansing Everett High School, Johnson arrived on the Michigan State campus in the fall of 1977. He earned All-America honors in both 1978 and 1979. He was a two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection and the recipient of the 1979 Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball Award. In 1979, he led Michigan State to its first NCAA Championship, defeating Bird's Indiana State squad in the highest-rated basketball game televised in NCAA history. After his sophomore season, Johnson was the first player selected in the 1979 NBA Draft. Voted one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, he led the Los Angeles Lakers to five NBA titles. Individually, he was a three-time league MVP, three-time NBA Finals MVP and two-time NBA All-Star Game MVP.

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