"They said we ruined baseball," Johnson said. "Well, I guess we didn't."
"What the Celtics and Lakers were able to do, and Michael Jordan's Bulls, was to bring in new fans - fans that were, 'Oh, I don't know about the NBA,' Johnson said, 'but the play was so good, and the Celtics and Lakers and Bulls were so dominant, people said, 'Oh man, I want to watch them.' 'It's the same thing happening here.'"
Magic Johnson celebrated the Dodgers' championship amid confetti and congratulatory video boards and dismissed critics who claimed the team "ruined baseball." He warned other owners that desperation for a salary cap could destroy a sport experiencing growth and credited the Dodgers with helping fuel baseball's rise. Historical parallels were drawn to the NBA, where Lakers–Celtics rivalries and Michael Jordan's Bulls transformed a marginal league into a global attraction by bringing in new fans. The NBA leadership capitalized on that momentum, while baseball leadership risks undermining current success by pursuing drastic rule changes driven by cap urgency.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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