Three Lansing District Athletes Have Gone on to Win NBA Championships

Three former Lansing School District athletes have won NBA Championships. They are all from different eras, but two superstars did overlap with playing days.

First, there is the one and only Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. Magic won a State Championship at Everett High School in 1977 and his head coach was George Fox. He also won an NCAA Championship at MSU beating Larry Bird and Indiana State in Salt Lake City. Bird’s team was undefeated going into that great game. After college, it was Tinsel Town for Earvin where he played many years with the Los Angeles Lakers. There he won five NBA Championships and received multiple awards for his greatness on the hardwood. He was simply Magic!

Then, there was another one of Lansing’s favorite sons, Sam Vincent, out of Eastern High School. He won a State Championship with the Eastern Quakers and Paul Cook was his head coach. He also was the first Mr. Basketball in the great state of Michigan. He played at MSU and was drafted in the first round by the Boston Celtics. He was a teammate of Larry Bird too. Sam Vincent won one NBA Championship in his playing career with the Celtics.

His brother of course is Jay Vincent from Lansing who won an NCAA Championship with Magic at MSU. Jay also played for many years in the NBA.

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The third man to win an NBA Championship from Lansing is Bryn Forbes out of Sexton High School where he won two State Championships with his teammate and best friend Denzel Valentine. Valentine is also an NBA player, and both played at MSU. Their head coach was Denzel’s dad Carlton Valentine out of DeMatha High and MSU.

Bryn Forbes was an undrafted free agent who played with San Antonio for a few years. Then he signed this past offseason with the Milwaukee Bucks, and they just won the NBA Championship on Tuesday night. He did have a solid season, but in the last game where they won the NBA Crown, he didn’t play due to the coaches' decision not to play him. Bryn Forbes still contributed big time for the Bucks' success during the course of the season. He will get a Championship Ring.

So far, those are the only three athletes who played for Lansing that went on to win NBA championships. Hopefully there will be many more in the future!