While he brought plenty of intangible benefits to pro basketball, with his extremely entertaining style of play a key part of the "Showtime" era Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s, and bringing in countless new fans with his intense rivalry with the Boston Celtics' Larry Bird, Magic Johnson's influence was additionally felt in basketball terminology and the NBA rulebook.
Johnson ranks third all-time in the statistical category of "triple-doubles." That refers to a game in which a player amassed double-digit totals in the divergent fields of scoring, rebounding, and assists. Johnson's NBA predecessor Oscar Robertson racked up 181 triple-doubles, to Johnson's 138, but when Robertson played in the 1960s and 1970s, nobody ever called his achievement by that name. Johnson tripled-doubled so regularly that the basketball community took notice, according to the NBA, and a phrase was coined in his honor.
Organized basketball, at the professional, college, and high school levels, according to The Morning Call, follows a "blood rule," also known as the "Magic rule." Per the Orlando Sentinel, the NBA developed and enacted the policy in the early '90s, following Johnson's announcement that he had the viral, blood-borne illness AIDS, which necessitates a stoppage in play and the temporary sidelining of a player should they suffer a cut or bleed out of an open wound.
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