The NBA / Sam McManis : Magic’s Unexcused Absence From KC Game Costs Buss a Fine

When the Lakers ended the regular season April 14 with a relatively meaningless game at Kansas City, they left Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson back in Los Angeles, and didn’t let James Worthy leave the bench.

Those moves, obvious attempts to rest players for the playoffs, didn’t cost the Lakers a victory--they beat the Kings, 122-116--but one of them did cost owner Jerry Buss some money.

When the NBA Board of Governors met in New York last week, the Lakers were fined what one source called “a substantial amount” for leaving Johnson behind for no apparent reason.

It had been announced that Abdul-Jabbar had a sore right knee and the flu. No reason was given, however, for Johnson’s absence, although Coach Pat Riley indicated a few days earlier that he wanted to rest his star guard before the start of the playoffs.

Buss apologized to fellow owners at the meeting of the Board of Governors, but neither Buss nor Forum spokesman Bob Steiner was available for comment Monday.

Three days before the regular season ended, Johnson indicated that his knee had been giving him trouble. “I think my knee needs a rest,” he said after a 28-point, 17-assist performance in 41 minutes against Golden State April 11. “But I like to play. That’s the fun part of the job, playing the games.”

The next night, Johnson played only six minutes in a victory over Seattle at the Forum.

The Kings’ game against the Lakers was the club’s last in Kansas City, since the franchise is moving to Sacramento for next season. When the Laker starters were introduced and Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar were not announced, the crowd of 15,434 booed.

Except for the $100 courtside seats, where actor Jack Nicholson and other notables often sit, fans in Section 29 at the Forum have perhaps the best seats for Laker games. Those seats are near midcourt and close enough for fans to inspect Pat Riley’s designer cuff links.

But if the season-ticket holders in Section 29 and a portion of Section 9 want to keep their choice locations for next season, they will have to pay more than twice as much as they did this season. The Lakers announced earlier this month that ticket prices for those season-ticket holders will be increased from $27.50 to $60 a game.

The reason, according to Forum officials, was that “circumstances” led the franchise to expand its senate terrace seats. The senate-seat program allows ticket holders to attend all public functions at the Forum.

Because of the demand for senate seating, the Lakers gave their season-ticket holders three options:

--They can renew their present seats for $60 a game.

--They can retain their seats by joining the senate terrace program for $5,800 a year.

--They can move to another section, depending on availability, for the old price.

The deadline for ticket holders in Sections 29 and 9 was last Friday, but many have yet to respond, according to Steve Chase, Forum director of marketing.

Many season-ticket holders in Sections 9 and 29 have expressed displeasure over their uprooting. Forum President Lou Baumeister said that fans don’t realize that they can still find good seats if they want to move.

“I think some of them just assume they can’t find comparable seats,” Baumeister said. “But if they take the time to look at it, there are plenty of good seats. I can understand why they get so upset. But we made a decision to do this.”

In a recent interview, Buss said prices were raised because the Lakers have the highest payroll in the league, not because of Buss’ reported financial troubles, which he has denied.

No one gave the Cleveland Cavaliers much of a chance in their first-round series against the defending champion Boston Celtics, and, as expected, the Celtics have a 2-0 lead going into tonight’s game in Richfield, Ohio.

But at least the Cavaliers are making the Celtics work hard. Cleveland has lost the two games by a total of five points. After Sunday’s two-point loss at the Boston Garden, Cavalier Coach George Karl was described as being encouraged and frustrated at the same time.

“It’s depressing,” Karl said. “For the first time, I sensed some feelings of distraught in the locker room after the game. But we have two days to get our confidence back. We haven’t given up on ourselves yet.”

When Karl was talking to reporters after Game 2, Cleveland owner Gordon Gund interrupted and told Karl: “We have the best team and we’ll show them Tuesday.”

Although the games were close, the Cavaliers still extended their winless streak at Boston Garden to 21. They’ve also lost 21 straight overall against the Celtics.

Much has been made of the Phoenix Suns’ siege of injuries this season. When the Suns and Lakers meet tonight in Game 3 at Phoenix, fans will be given first-aid kits as part of a promotion with Blue Cross.

But it so happens that the Suns were not the team most hurt by injuries or illness this season. The New York Knicks led the league in losing players. Knick players missed a total of 325 games, whereas the Suns were a distant second with 269 missed games. The New Jersey Nets were third with 222 missed games.

Boston Celtic President Red Auerbach told the New York Times that he had never seen so many players injured in one season.

“It’s the worst in memory,” Auerbach said. “Play seems to get more physical and competitive each year. A lot of the injuries have to do with big salaries. Players are pushing each other around a lot more than in past years.”

Norman Scott, the Knicks’ team doctor, offered this solution: “There would be fewer injuries if we eliminate back-to-back games and three and four games a week. But that’s unrealistic when you have to crowd an 82-game schedule into a certain number of days.”

Add Injuries: Before Game 1 of the Lakers-Suns series at the Forum Thursday night, a Phoenix sportscaster, seeking a suitable site for his live remote, asked someone to point out the exact spot on the court where Sun guard Walter Davis slipped and badly injured his knee during the exhibition season.

Phoenix is suing the Lakers and Forum over Davis’ injury.

There are 5,040 possible draft orders for the seven teams involved in the draft lottery May 12 in New York. The NBA contacted MIT mathematics professor Richard Dudley to figure out exactly how many combinations were possible.

“It’s a simple case of seven factorial,” Dudley said.

Right.

Those accusing the Philadelphia 76ers of not having played inspired basketball so far in their first-round series against Washington can partially blame it on Philadelphia basketball fans.

A season-low crowd of 7,170 showed up for Game 1 Wednesday, and there were 9,612 for Game 2 Sunday.

That lack of fan interest in the playoff games is not unusual. Last season, only 47 of the 79 playoff games were sellouts, and Boston, Portland and Dallas were the only teams that sold out all of their playoff games.

The average NBA attendance during the regular season, however, was a record 11,141.