Magic Johnson gifted his wife Cookie $1 Million to let him come out of retirement to play basketball. Magic Johnson had an outstanding career playing for the Lakers, where he won multiple championships.
Johnson, during a physical before the 1991-1992 season, found out that he had contracted HIV, and immediatly retired from the sport he loved. He later became a coach for the Lakers, which wasn’t his passion.
Johnson, however, decided that he needed to get back on the basketball court, but he would have one big mountain to climb before even thinking about coming back and playing basketball. The mountain he would have to climb was convincing his wife Cookie into letting him play basketball again.
“My wife told me, ‘That’s it, one (season) and get out.’ Or she’ll leave me. Cookie always told me I was coming back: ‘No way you’re working out three times a day, and you’re not coming back, you can’t tell me.’ I said, you haven’t given me your OK yet. So I bribed her. I gave her a million dollars.”
