Magic Johnson opens up on his relationship with Kareem Abdul Jabbar: "If you hit a shot like that 81 more time, I'ma jump in your arms 81 more time”

When Magic Johnson was drafted as the No. 1 pick by the LA Lakers in 1979, nobody could have predicted what would come next. Over the course of the next 13 seasons, Johnson showcased a skillset the NBA had never seen. Standing at 6-foot-9 and weighing in at 220 pounds, Johnson had the build of a forward but the skillset of a guard.

Throughout his career, Johnson remained with the Lakers, winning five championships to go along with three MVPs. What surprised many about Johnson, however, was how he handled his rookie year.

Johnson joined a locker room led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was in pursuit of his first title since his 1971 championship with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Magic Johnson was selected as Abdul-Jabbar's rookie. He was tasked with things like getting the veteran big man his Gatorade during timeouts and buying him food on the road. Although the 7-2 Abdul-Jabbar was known to be stoic, it wasn't going to fly with Johnson, who was an eager young rookie.

Johnson recently opened up on one of his first encounters with Abdul-Jabbar. He recalled that on one of the first days of training camp, he asked the veteran which hand he liked to have the ball thrown to. It was something that perplexed Abdul-Jabbar, who admitted that nobody had asked him that question before.

Fast forward to the first game of the season, and the information proved critical to Johnson assisting on the game-winning play. Johnson said:

"First game, we down one, three seconds to go we throw it to him at the free-throw line. The boy turns shoots a sky hook, on that I go running. I've never seen nobody shoot the sky from the free-throw line.

"You know me, I wear my emotions on my sleeves. I went running, I jumped on him. I'm hugging him, choking him. Damn that was a good shot."

Jabbar, of course, wasn't too keen on Johnson celebrating that much after just one win. When the team got back to the locker room, Jabbar called Magic Johnson over to discuss the situation with him. Johnson added:

"'Rookie don't ever do that again, we have 81 more games we can't be this high after the first game.' So the whole locker room looking now what am I going to do, and they talking, oh he got scolded.

"So I walked away and I came back to him. Listen, now I'm looking up at 7-2, 'If you hit a shot like that 81 more time, imma jump in your arms 81 more time.'"

The comments were made on a recent episode of "Club Shay Shay," where Johnson recalled the situation to Shannon Sharpe.

Check out the conversation beginning around the 32-minute mark below.

Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - A Dynamic Duo

LA Lakers introduce Byron Scott.

In the pair's first season together, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar captured their first championship. Thus began a long and successful partnership that saw the duo win four more championships.

To date, the dynamic duo remain one of the best pairings in history given the level of success they reached during their time together. The way Magic Johnson sees things, Abdul-Jabbar is one of the smartest players he's ever encountered during his time in the NBA:

"We took off, our relationship took off, the team took off. So I love Kareem, smartest athlete I've ever met in my life, he's amazing."

Check out some of their highlights from the time they played together for the LA Lakers!