THEY BELIEVE IN MAGIC

Earvin (Magic) Johnson stands at the top of the key, surrounded by rows of big-eyed youngsters watching his every move.

He goes to the right, and a wall of purple T-shirts mirrors him. If he shouts out “Deny,” he is echoed in unison.

Johnson has used his magic to choreograph a group of nearly 300 youngsters to react to his commands.

At his five-day summer basketball camp, the National Basketball Assn.’s most valuable player serves as conductor, drill instructor and friend to players ages 8 to 17.

Johnson’s basketball camp opened Sunday at the UC San Diego gymnasium and concludes today. Campers pay $400 (which includes housing and meals at UCSD) or $200 for those who stay off campus. The day begins at 8:15 a.m. and concludes about 9 p.m.

And they learn the first lesson quickly. Magic is in charge.

“You have to set the tone right from the beginning, because you’ll lose them if you don’t,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I tell them that if they are here for me and just for me and looking at me and wanting to be around me, then they are here for the wrong reason.

“I let them know that we are going to be all business. They can enjoy me at lunch and dinner, and that’s about it, because I want them to work hard and get to play basketball and learn basketball.”

When Johnson had the group practice jump shots empty-handed and shout “Swiiishhh,” nobody laughed. If you get caught laughing, Johnson snaps into his drill-instructor routine and begins assigning push-ups.

“One side, he is all work,” said Myles Meshack, 9, from Los Angeles. “And the other side, he is just like a regular person.”

Said Casey Swirnoff, 10, from Phoenix: “I never thought (Johnson) was like that. I never thought he would be that strict, but it’s OK because we have to learn. If you don’t sit up straight, he’ll make you do push-ups.”

But when Johnson missed a shot from the foul line, he assigned five push-ups to himself, as the group began calling out the numbers loudly.

“Sometimes, I have to punish myself,” Johnson said. “It’s all part of the discipline.”

Soon after the first day, Johnson’s image as a superstar was replaced with that of a coach. Instead of gawking at the Lakers’ point guard, the players were attentively following his orders.

“You have to have a balance of both (coach and superstar), and that’s what happens,” Johnson said. “They look at me, when I’m demonstrating something, as ‘Magic Johnson the coach who is teaching us and I better listen because I want to learn.’ And that’s good.”

Myles said it was difficult to imagine playing basketball while being studied by Johnson, but his shyness soon wore off.

“You want to do (well) because you see Magic Johnson right next to you,” he said. “It’s sort of hard at first. He’s just like a regular person, but he knows a lot about basketball.”

That is the impression Johnson hopes all of the campers formulate.

“You want to let them get to know you as Earvin Johnson the person, as well as Magic Johnson the basketball player,” he said. “They get to see the crazy side of me. They see that I’m a caring person. They get to ask me about the NBA, they like to know how many cars I have, how many girlfriends, that whole thing.”

The camp is not just for the kids. Johnson said that basketball takes up most of his time and the camps offer a form of relaxation. He runs similar camps in Thousand Oaks and in Michigan. He also appears at several camps across the nation.

What draws him to the camps is the youths’ enthusiasm.

Earlier this week, one of the campers was asked to sink a hook shot. He tried and failed 10 times. On the 11th attempt, he heard “swish.” The youngster screamed with delight.

“Not only did he go crazy, but all of the other guys went crazy for him, too,” Johnson said. “Just to see him react to those other guys going crazy, that’s better than anything you can ever imagine.”