Magic Johnson left an indelible mark on basketball in the 1980s. He not only permanently defined The Los Angeles Lakers tradition and mystique and led the franchise to five NBA championships, but he also pulled the league out of a dark place and made it what it has become in the modern era.

He is generally considered the greatest passer in basketball history (he was the NBA’s all-time leading passer for a period), and he often made the type of fly ball passes that no one else could make. But there are those who consider someone else, perhaps Hall of Famers Isiah Thomas or John Stockton, to be the greatest passer the game has ever known.

Thomas sought to settle that dispute when he responded to a question on X (formerly Twitter) by saying that Johnson was, indeed, the greatest passer in NBA history.

As Thomas alluded, Johnson’s 6-foot-9 frame allowed him to see over most defenders assigned to him, and his sublime court vision allowed him to recognize when a teammate was open before that teammate even realized he was open.

He averaged 11.2 assists per game, the most in NBA history, and led the league in assists per game four times. He only went three full seasons without averaging double digits in assists.

Johnson is tied with Stockton for the most assists in a playoff game. He had 24 assists in Game 2 of the 1984 Western Conference Finals against the Phoenix Sunsand he had at least 20 assists in nine other postseason games.

He was, of course, a close friend of Thomas’s for much of the 1980s. They became fierce rivals when Johnson’s Lakers faced Thomas’s. Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals for two consecutive years, and it was during this time that their friendship deteriorated greatly.

This article was originally published on LeBron Wire: One of Magic Johnson’s fiercest rivals claims he’s the best passer of all time

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