'Winning Time': What's the Real Deal with Magic Johnson's Son, Andre Johnson?

By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 7, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 7, 2023 |

HBO’s Winning Time returned this week, opening the second season with a Lakers victory over the Boston Celtics in the first game of their 1984 playoff matchup before jumping back to shortly after where the first season left off: After the Lakers’ 1980 NBA Title. While that title was a big deal in the first season, in the second season it “doesn’t count” because it didn’t come against their rival, the Boston Celtics. This must also mean that the championships the Celtics and Lakers accumulated between 1980-83 also do not count. Considering how much time the opening episode covered (much of the 1981 season nearly up to the playoffs), I suspect that season two will end with the 1984 Celtics series.

But first: The 1981 season would be important to the Lakers’ dynasty for a number of reasons. Jerry Buss played Succession with his kids; the Lakers would lock down a number of their players ahead of free agency; Paul Westhead would introduce The System; and Magic Johnson would miss 100 days with a knee injury that very well could have been career-threatening. Those 100 days were well-documented at the time by Sports Illustrated, but the coverage was mostly about what his absence meant to the team and what his return eventually would mean, as well.

What the article did not include, however, was the off-the-field drama. As depicted in the series, Magic Johnson did, indeed, father a child with an ex-girlfriend, Melissa Mitchell, although she has been (heavily) fictionalized in the series as Rhonda Mitchell. Andre Johnson was born in February 1981. Magic returned to the court the next month, in March 1981.

The circumstances surrounding the birth of Andre Johnson, however, are likely fictionalized. In fact, that’s almost a certainty because the manager who proposed buying off the mother of Magic Johnson’s child, Steve Harris’ Dr. Thomas Day, was fictional himself (as was his daughter, with whom Magic slept in the series). It seems like the writer conflated the child Magic had with Melissa Mitchell with the child he allegedly also had with Renee Perkins, who claimed that Johnson tried to strong-arm her into an abortion. She also claimed that the lab that took blood samples from both her and Johnson lost the results.

Andre Johnson, by the way, is 42 years old now, and while he leads a private life, he used to have a pop-culture and sports podcast and is currently employed as Executive Vice President of Business Development at a digital sports league.