There’s No Magic About It, You Just Have to Play a Game

The idea was to watch Magic Johnson for an entire game. Just Magic. Focus on the Lakers’ floor leader and notice some of the little things he does that make him one of the greatest athletes ever to wear short pants.

This is Magic’s seventh season, and so far it’s been OK. The Lakers are off to the best start in the history of this franchise, and guess who’s running the floor show? Johnson leads the league in assists with 13.6, and is averaging 16.8 points and 7.2 rebounds.

The suspicion is that Magic Johnson, at age 26, is playing the best basketball of his life right now. Even he doesn’t dispute that.

“I thought last season was my best,” Magic would say after the game. “But this one seems like it’s even better than that one.”

So let’s do a little Magic watching.

The first thing I noticed was that I picked a bad night. Sunday night, the Lakers were playing the Chicago Bulls, a franchise that is about four decades old and still looking for its first fast break.

What this means is that the tempo of the game is shot to hell. Instead of showtime, you get slow time. How can Magic Johnson, the wizard of the transition game, be brilliant if there’s no transition?

Even the crowd has a little trouble getting emotionally involved in a game like this. Sunday’s Forum crowd of 17,505 is the quietest sellout audience in the world of sport.

The game opened with Magic guarding George Gervin, his old playground pal. When the Lakers had the ball, Johnson was guarded by Orlando Woolridge, a quick, strong, 6-9 forward who plays most the game above the rim.

During the course of the game the 6-9 Magic would guard Woolridge, 6-3 Kyle Macy, 6-3 Quintin Dailey and 6-8 forward Gene Banks. Magic’s been in the league seven seasons and nobody has figured out what position he plays. As a 6-9 point guard, he’s still an unclassified freak.

Early in the first quarter Magic drives the lane, has his shot swatted away by 7-1 center Jawann Oldham, tips the ball back at the rim, tips it again and the shot goes in. A guard drive and a power-forward follow.

A few minutes later Woolridge gets clearance for takeoff and lifts off for a power swoop to the hoop. Magic switches quickly off Macy, his man, and flicks the ball out of Woolridge’s hands, off his knee and out of bounds.

“Yea, baby,” Magic says.

Pretty exciting stuff so far, eh?

But that last bit illustrates what Magic did best Sunday night--clogging. Sounds like something you’d call a plumber for, but it’s simply sagging off your man and clogging up the key, helping out with enemy guys driving the gut. Magic is a real pain in the rear at this.

Occasionally it backfires. He sags into the middle and the driver dishes out to Magic’s man, Gervin maybe, and Gervin rattles in a 17-footer.

Mostly Sunday, Magic’s clogging causes a lot of Bull problems. One time Magic is under the basket defending a Bulls semi-fast break. Dave Corzine has the ball at the top of the key, fakes to shoot, Magic fakes to rush out at Corzine, who buys the fake and throws inside, and Magic retreats and bats the ball to a teammate.

By halftime, Magic has thrown one spectacular pass (to James Worthy), got his hands on a lot of Bulls passes, and hasn’t shot much.

Let’s look at the box score: 6-for-7 from the floor, 5-for-6 from the line, 17 points, 6 rebounds (to lead everyone), 9 assists (no one else in the game has more than 4).

Magic won’t make any highlight films tonight, but he has led the Lakers to a 62-57 halftime lead.

The second half was more of the same. Magic winds up with 17 assists and 8 rebounds, both game highs.

Kareem Abdul-Jabber gets 27 points and reserve center-forward Maurice Lucas gets 21. Which brings us to another facet of Magic’s game--funneling.

It looks easy. Stand 20 feet from the basket and lob the ball to your big man posting up inside. But there’s an art to it. Why do you think Kareem has decided to stay around and play until he’s mandatory retirement age?

“If you’ve got a chance to get the ball inside, if there’s any room at all,” Maurice Lucas says after the game. “Magic is one of three guys in the league who can drop it on you at any time.

“The other two? Isiah (Thomas) is one. The other one, I’d have to search my memory.”

Magic isn’t concerned that the Lakers never really took their lightning bolts out of their golf bag in this game. You want to play slow, we’ll play slow and beat you that way, too.

“Every team is trying to slow the ball down on us,” he says. “They don’t run after they rebound, and if they’re big and rough, a lot of fouls stop the game.

“I’m kind of glad. We need games where we’re not running, so we can work on executing our half-court offense. A lot of people think we can’t win playing that way.

“You just have to play the game, play the way the tempo is. It may take me out of the game in terms of making pretty passes, but that’s OK.

“You just have to play the game.”