One Million People Can’t Be Wronged : Magic Will Make Token All-Star Appearance Despite Bad Knee

Now that we know Magic Johnson will play in Sunday’s All-Star game, there are just two other areas to clear up.

First, Johnson will start. And second, Pat Riley isn’t thrilled about the whole thing.

Riley, who coaches the West team, said he is going to limit Johnson’s All-Star participation to something like “a token appearance” in order to protect Johnson’s knee.

Johnson did not decide until after Thursday night’s game at Houston that he would not risk hurting his knee any further if he played in Sunday’s game at Reunion Arena. Johnson made his choice even after Riley privately advised him against it earlier in the day.

Riley said Friday that the decision was always up to Johnson.

“I’m not a doctor,” he said. “If he tells me he’s all right, then he goes. He says he doesn’t feel any pain. He could have gone home if he had wanted to.”

Johnson received 1,060,862 votes for the All-Star game, more than any other player in history, so naturally the NBA had closely followed his decision whether to play or sit out.

While they were waiting for Johnson to make up his mind, the NBA studied its options.

“It’s simple,” league spokesman Brian McIntyre said. “If Magic doesn’t play, then we cancel the game.”

That won’t be necessary now, of course. Just to be on the safe side, though, Riley doesn’t plan on playing Johnson long enough to damage the knee he injured nearly four weeks ago.

Riley said he will start Johnson, play him for 10 or 12 minutes, take him out for the rest of the half, start him again in the third quarter and play him a little more in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve talked about this,” Riley said. “I’ll see how he’s going if it’s not too good, then he won’t play much at all. I could say to go home and get therapy, but that’s not what this is all about.

“He got a million votes,” Riley said. “He should be in Dallas, be introduced and even start. But he might make only a token appearance.”

Johnson missed six straight games and seven overall after he severely bruised his right knee in a collision with Larry Nance during a game with the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 14. He has played the last two Laker games wearing a rubber-like sleeve beneath a thick knee pad.

Johnson said Wednesday night after a victory over Dallas in his first game back that he was considering sitting out the All-Star game.

The next morning, the Laker General Manager Jerry West contacted Rod Thorn, the NBA’s vice president for operations and placed the odds of Johnson’s availability at better than 50-50.

Johnson said there was only one question he wanted answered before deciding to play in the All-Star game, so he asked Laker trainer Gary Vitti.

“What I wanted to know from Gary was reassurance. I don’t think we’re worried about hurting it (his knee). I just wanted to know whether rest would do more good than playing on it.”

And so what was Vitti’s response?

“He’s playing, isn’t he?” Vitti asked.

That’s the way it looks. Now it’s up to Riley to see how much.