NEW YORK- Magic Johnson smiled, because of course he did. It is the smile that conquered a city. It’s the smile that eased our anxieties for decades.

In 1980, the boy smiled and told Los Angeles he would lead the Lakers to a championship on a night without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In 2012, the old man smiled and told Los Angeles that he would lift the Dodgers out of bankruptcy and return them to baseball’s promised land.

It really is magical: with a legendary Laker as one of the owners, the Dodgers are now the most popular team in Los Angeles.

“The city has gone crazy with this team.” Johnson said Wednesday nightdressed in a Dodgers jacket with a block D on one side and the Dodgers logo on the other.

“It’s been crazy. You think, yeah, I’m a Laker, but I’m also a true blue Dodger. Hopefully one day they will win it again, but right now the city is the property, today, of the Dodgers.”

The winning bidder for the Dodgers in 2012 was an entity called Guggenheim Baseball. That meant nothing to Los Angeles. Mark Walter, the money guy, was from Chicago. Stan Kastenthe baseball guy, he was from Atlanta.

Johnson put his credibility on the line. He joined them and promised Los Angeles that these guys would be winners. He had told Walter and Kasten that there would only be one way to win.

“If all we want is to make money, then I’m out,” Johnson said he told Walter. “I don’t want to be part of this.”

The morning after Guggenheim Baseball won the bid, I met with the owners in a conference room about 10 miles from Yankee Stadium. Kasten highlighted the development of the players.

Johnson did not. The New York Yankees were his model, the perennial big spenders. The Angels had just signed Albert Pujols.

“The teams are investing” Johnson said that day. “That’s what you do when you put a winning team on the field. We are not going to be different from those teams.

“Plus, we would love to copy the success of the Yankees. If you’re asking yourself, ‘Do we want to be the Yankees?’, the answer is yes. We want to win the World Series. “We want to win.”

The Yankees haven’t won the World Series since. The Dodgers have won twice.

The Dodgers won the National League West every year from 2013 to 2019, replenishing the minor league system and developing a talent pool second to none in the industry. But Kasten, who managed the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals before joining the Dodgers, had never signed a player for $100 million. Neither did Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations.

Finally, starting in 2020, the Dodgers went all out: Mookie Betts that year, for $365 million; Freddie Freeman, in 2022, for $162 million; Shohei Ohtani last December, for $700 million; Yoshinobu Yamamoto, last December, for $325 million; Tyler Glasnow, last December, for $136.5 million; Will Smith, an extension last March, for $140 million.

The first three hitters in Wednesday’s lineup: Ohtani, Betts and Friedman.

The Dodgers’ final two and only draft picks: Smith and Gavin Lux.

The last of their eight pitchers and the Dodgers’ only draft pick: Walker Buehler.

“From the first day I met Mark, he was just like me,” Johnson said. “He wanted to win. It was competitive. And he wasn’t afraid to spend the money. I think we showed it to everyone.

“I think that’s why we were able to attract talent. But you also have to give a lot of credit to Stan. “He said we had to strengthen the minor league system and we did both.”

If the Yankees were Johnson’s model, well, look who’s dancing now.

“This is what the country and the world wanted: for the two of us to play against each other,” Johnson said.

“This is the franchise with the most history, right? Do it against the Yankees, here in New York…”

His voice trailed off, but he smiled again. He made some comparisons to Freeman, the World Series MVP.

“He was Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant,” Johnson said. “That’s who I compare him to, that level of dominance on the biggest stage. All those guys did it on the biggest stage. All those guys did it in a championship series, too. “I’ve never seen a baseball player do it like that.”

Johnson raised his voice, just a little. For four years now, he and the Dodgers have heard about how their 2020 championship, in a pandemic-shortened season, needed an asterisk or some other form of punctuation.

“There are no question marks,” he said. “I hated that whole Covid thing. I didn’t like people saying those kinds of things about us, even though we won the World Series. But this time there is no doubt: we are going to have a good time.”

And Johnson wouldn’t leave the field at Yankee Stadium without a few kind words for Fernando ValenzuelaWHO died last week. The Dodgers will parade on Friday, what would have been Valenzuela’s 64th birthday.

“Only a few guys have taken over L.A.: Kobe Bryant, Kareem, this other guy wearing No. 32 and Fernando,” Johnson said. “When he pitched, we were all watching. If we didn’t see it live at Dodger Stadium, we were watching it on television.

“He was just the sweetest guy. He was humble. I think that’s why everyone loved him. Not only was he dominant as a pitcher, but he was the nicest man. I wish I was around to see this. “We lost a true icon, right up there with the greatest to ever play the city of Los Angeles.”

That other guy wearing number 32 is the biggest winner in the city of Los Angeles. He has won, as a player or owner, with the Lakers, Dodgers, Sparks and LAFC. He has taken us from parade to parade, from Showtime to Shotime.