Magic Takes It Into His Own Hands

Earvin Johnson Jr. modestly dubbed the shot his “junior, junior, junior skyhook.”

But there was nothing junior about the shot that killed the Celtics Tuesday night at Boston.

It was not a junior sky hook.

It was a do-or-die hook.

An in-your-eye hook.

A mystique bye-bye hook.

An easy-as-pie hook.

Easy?

Easy.

The Garden is rocking, thundering. The Lakers are down by a point with seven seconds left. Magic has the ball on the wing.

How is Magic feeling? How do you think?

“I’m feelin’ good,” he said, recalling the moment. “I wanted it in my hands. It’s like both of us (Larry Bird and Magic) wanted it. I thrive on that, you know.”

We know, we know. But sometimes we need a little reminder, like a game-winning, series-turning, ultra-clutch shot like this.

A graceful, arching hook shot over 6-foot 11-inch Kevin McHale, with Larry Bird rushing up to lend assistance and the collective hate and fear and frenzy of 14,890 fans thundering down.

This is what former National Basketball Assn. coach Hubie Brown was talking about before the series when he discussed what it takes to win in the Garden, something only one team in the world--besides the Celtics--manages to do in pressure time.

“You have to have the personality to take on the crowd,” Brown said. “You have to know you are in control of your profession.”

If anyone was ever in control of his profession, it was Magic Johnson Tuesday night. The Lakers struggled for 48 minutes. Magic dug in and took over.

He finished with 29 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, in one of his greatest performances. In the first half, he carried the team. In the end, he was there, just happy to have the ball.

With 20 seconds left in the game, time out and the Lakers trailing by one, Magic had an idea. The next play would be a pick down low for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, guarded by Robert Parish. Parish would fight around the pick.

In the huddle, Magic leaned close to Kareem and said:

“Set him (Parish) up. He’s gonna go over the top (of the pick). Fake over the top.”

On the court, Magic held the ball and looked toward Kareem.

“Sometimes he (Kareem) don’t look,” Magic said. “I said to myself, ‘Oh, please look,’ and he did and he was open.”

Magic rifled a 12-foot-high pass over the rim, and Abdul-Jabbar turned it into a Kareem Ka-ram. When Kareem pulled off a similar play in Game 2, CBS color commentator Tom Heinsohn commented, “Kareem doesn’t have many more alley-oops left.”

He won’t need many more, not this season. The Celtics are down, 3-1, and the Lakers have once more de-mystified the Garden.

The Celtics even trotted out their version of Showtime, a modest list of celebrity spectators that included Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Big John Studd (a famous wrestler, for you non-sports fans), Wayne Gretzky and Dr. J. Surely these superstars counteracted the evil, anti-Celtic vibes radiated by Jack Nicholson, but it still wasn’t enough.

What now for the Celtics? Now that the Garden magic has failed, do they petition to move Game 5 to French Lick, Ind., or Hibbing, Minn.?

Or do they wait and pray for Magic Johnson to do something wrong?

In four games, Magic is averaging 28 points, 11 assists and 8 rebounds. He is 18 of 19 from the free-throw line and 47 of 80 from the field.

And, something new this year, he is taking and making the big shot. Credit boy wonder Pat Riley, the coach who gave Magic the green light six months ago.

“A year ago, I would’ve went inside to Kareem (on that final play),” Johnson said. “I wouldn’t have had the confidence of shooting.”

A year ago that junior, junior, junior skyhook wasn’t even a gleam in Magic’s eye. He would throw in a hook now and then, but mostly in games of H-O-R-S-E. In six months, since Riley ordered him to look for his shots, Magic has developed the second-best hook shot in the NBA.

Or is the best?

Tuesday, as any idiot could have predicted (and this one did), the game came down to a simple matter of Magic vs. Bird.

Bird’s dramatic three-point bomb with 12 seconds left gave the Celtics a two-point lead. A few seconds later, Magic got his turn.

Monday afternoon, discussing his relationship with Bird, Magic had said: “Oh, we go out there and look each other in the eye. ‘Yeah, I want you.’ ‘I want you, too. ‘

“You’re scared for either one of us to have the ball at the end.”

Terrified.

What can you do with a Magic Johnson or a Larry Bird, who are oblivious to pressure, who play better when the heat is on, who get mad and yell and clap for the ball from their teammates when the fans are frothing at the mouth and an entire season of pain and effort and hopes and dreams is on the line?

You stand aside, give the big boys the ball, and let them play a physical and mental game the rest of us can only imagine.