The NBA : Choice Was His, So Magic Was His Choice

The envelope, please:

And for most valuable player in the National Basketball Assn., the winner is . . .

Chris Engler.

A little joke there, folks. Magic Johnson, of course, should be a landslide winner, even if the Michael Jordan Fabulous Flying Circus is the most eye-popping show currently on tour.

Jordan of the Bulls is a cinch to become the highest-scoring guard in league history, surpassing Nate (Tiny) Archibald’s 34-point average in 1973.

But there has been little doubt that Magic will add the MVP trophy to his collection. The Lakers are his team now, not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s, and while there has been much fuss about Johnson’s increased scoring--he’s averaging a career-high 23.9 points a game--Magic also is leading the league in assists again with 12.4 a game and needs just 13 assists to break his club single-season record of 968.

Jordan, to be sure, is not as one-dimensional as he has been portrayed. He also leads the Bulls in steals and blocked shots, and is among the leaders in assists and rebounds. But when it’s winnin’ time, no one has done it better than Magic, night after night.

Still wondering where Engler fits into all this? Well, someone must think he’s valuable, because Engler has played for eight NBA teams, including New Jersey twice and Milwaukee three times. The 7-foot backup center, who was signed by the Nets for the balance of the season, hopes to save enough money to go to law school.

Other deserving award-winners, in one man’s opinion:

Rookie of the year: Chuck Person, Indiana.

Sixth man: Ricky Pierce, Milwaukee.

Defensive player: Michael Cooper, Lakers.

Most improved: Karl Malone, Utah.

Coach: Pat Riley, Lakers.

All-NBA team: Johnson and Jordan, guards; Moses Malone, Washington, center; Larry Bird, Boston, and Dominique Wilkins, Atlanta, forwards.

Second team: Lafayette (Fat) Lever, Denver, and Isiah Thomas, Detroit, guards; Akeem Olajuwon, Houston, center; Charles Barkley, Philadelphia, and Kevin McHale, Boston, forwards.

The most controversial choice first: Choosing Riley as the league’s best coach leaves one open to the charge of hometown honking at worst and tunnel vision at best. After all, deserving candidates abound: Jack Ramsay at Indiana; Mike Schuler, Ramsay’s replacement at Portland; George Karl at Golden State; Mike Fratello at Atlanta.

It’s common knowledge, of course, that the toughest part about coaching the Lakers is making sure Magic, Kareem, James Worthy, Byron Scott and the rest show up at the right arena every night. The players will take care of the winning.

Maybe that’s true. But it’s funny how nobody was saying that last spring, when the Lakers were shocked out of the playoffs by Houston. And it’s funny, too, that Riley should receive so little credit for his part in the transition from a Kareem-centered team to a Magic-centered team, a shift of focus that could have torn some teams apart.

Johnson and especially Abdul-Jabbar deserve the lion’s share of credit for making the switch without letting egos interfere. But the feeling here is that Riley’s sensitivity to both men was a critical factor, too. And besides, let the record speak for itself.

Pierce was a throw-in to the deal that brought Terry Cummings to the Bucks from the Clippers in 1984, but became a starter when Sidney Moncrief went down with a knee injury. Moncrief is back now, but Pierce is still averaging about 30 minutes a game and has nearly doubled his career scoring average of 10 points a game.

Cooper, of course, would have been a worthy choice for sixth man, but he’s a lock to be named the top defensive specialist.

The Times’ other pro basketball writer, Chris Baker, would have chosen Michael Cage of the Clippers as most improved. “He was a consistently good player on a bad team,” Baker said.

Baker also preferred Schuler to Riley as coach; Darrell Griffith as best sixth man; and Ron Harper of Cleveland as rookie. He also would have chosen Olajuwon ahead of Malone on the All-NBA team.

“Akeem had a super year considering everything the Rockets went through--losing the two guards because of drugs and Ralph Sampson’s injury,” Baker said. “I thought he did more for his team (than Malone did).”

They’re having an invitation-only 40th birthday party for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar next Monday at Patout’s, a Cajun-style restaurant in Westwood. The Laker center will turn 40 Thursday in Salt Lake City, where the Lakers will play the Utah Jazz.

Among those scheduled to attend are actors Elliot Gould, Alan Thicke and Charlie Sheen; singer Sheena Easton; musician-composer Quincy Jones; and entertainment industry biggies Jerry Weintraub, Brandon Tartikoff, and Irving Azoff. Abdul-Jabbar’s Laker teammates are supposed to be there, too.

Just when you thought it was safe to turn up the dial: Dick Vitale, the mouth of college basketball, has been hired to broadcast the NBA final series on ABC radio.

The Atlanta Hawks have asked that Jack Madden not be allowed to officiate any more of their games after an incident last week in which Madden instigated an argument with Hawk president Stan Kasten. It occurred during a game in which the Hawks shot 19 free throws to Cleveland’s 59.

Rod Thorn, the NBA’s vice president of operations, explained why the league can’t accept Atlanta’s request, even though Madden was fined.

“If you allow any team to eliminate a referee--and in this case, a referee who’s rated at the top of his profession--you are left completely open for the Portland Trail Blazers or the Los Angeles Lakers to say, ‘I don’t like X referee and I don’t want him working when our team plays. How do you make a schedule out when you allow that to happen?”

NBA Notes Meaningful numbers: The Lakers are 16-0 in Sunday games, 13-0 in games in which Kurt Rambis scores in double figures. . . . Bernard King of the Knicks received a $200,000 bonus from a shoe company when he played for the first time in two years last week. King had been out with a knee injury. . . . The Celtics are 19-21 on the road and will finish with a losing road record for the first time in the Larry Bird years. They have lost 4 straight and 9 out of 10 on the road. . . . The Atlanta Hawks gave Julius Erving a jersey bearing No. 53, which Erving wore in two exhibitions for the Hawks in 1972, when his NBA rights were in dispute. Erving then went back to the American Basketball Assn. . . . The NBA has had 20 black head coaches, four of whom are coaching now: K.C. Jones of Boston, Don Chaney of the Clippers, Bernie Bickerstaff of Seattle and Lenny Wilkens of Cleveland. There are also two black general managers: Cleveland’s Wayne Embry and the Clippers’ Elgin Baylor.