Scoreboard Goes Bust : It’s 203-202, but There’s No Reason to Be Defensive in Magic’s Charity Game
Given a choice between guarding Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson Sunday night at the Forum, Michael Cooper decided to leave his Defensive Player of the Year (1986-87) credentials at home.
“I ain’t guarding anybody,” Cooper said. “Who are they going to guard? I’m shooting tonight. Anything from 2 feet of the other side of half-court on in.”
For a Midsummer Night’s Magic--as Magic Johnson’s third annual charity game is called--you come armed with a shooter’s mentality, or you don’t come at all.
They may never have a 200-point winner in a National Basketball Assn. game, but both winner and loser broke that scoreboard-busting level here in a 203-202 exhibition won by the White squad over the Blues.
When Kiki Vandeweghe laid in a feed from Jordan to make the score, 200-199, Blue, the Forum scoreboard read “Tilt.” There is no “2” in the hundreds column, so they reverted to “00.” That’s when the sellout crowd of 17,505, rising to the spirit of the occasion, broke into a chant of “De-fense, De-fense.”
It seemed only fitting when Jordan, who led all scorers with 54 points, made two free throws with two seconds left to give the Whites the lead. But the team that had the ball last won, as Portland’s Clyde Drexler, who made 14 of 18 shots and scored 29 points (which made him only the fourth-leading scorer on his team), threw in a fall-away, buzzer-beating, 18-foot turnaround jumper over Atlanta’s Cliff Levingston that swished through the net as time expired.
The game, and a black-tie dinner held the previous night, raised more than $650,000 to benefit the United Negro College Fund, according to the game’s organizers.
The game, televised in the past on Prime Ticket cable, was not shown this year per order of the NBA, according to Lon Rosen, Johnson’s publicity liaison. Rosen said the league has prohibited the airing of all such summer all-star games, speculating that fear of saturation was the reason.
There was one no-show: Philadelphia’s Charles Barkley, who had a uniform waiting for him at the Forum but was nowhere to be found at game time. On most nights, Barkley qualifies as a headliner for the 76ers, but on this night it is safe to say his absence was barely noticed.
Just trying to keep up with the scoreboard was cause for vertigo. It was 57-53 after one quarter, 106-97 at the half, and 149-148 after three quarters. Who was ahead? It didn’t matter. This game wasn’t played for win or place, just show. Where else could you see a team huddle break into a dance in time with the Laker girls?
If it wasn’t Dominique Wilkins throwing down a tomahawk dunk, it was Reggie Miller launching a 35-footer. There was 5-foot 4-inch Spud Webb posting up 5-3 Muggsy Bogues, and for comic relief there was Arsenio (“Coming to America”) Hall--who served with Rob Lowe as celebrity coaches--slipping a few bills into the hands of referee Tommy Nunez. Mark Aguirre could score 23 points in the first half and hardly create a ripple because he didn’t rate high enough on the spectacle scale.
And of course, there was the sight of Johnson throwing his one-of-a-kind passes to Jordan for his one-of-a-kind jams, Magic materializing in Air. If you couldn’t be there to see it in person, just close your eyes. Of such scenes are playground fantasies fashioned for a generation.
Despite his best intentions, Cooper wasn’t able to escape his defensive reputation. Magic saw to that, three times clearing out the court so that he could go one-on-one against his teammate. Johnson got the better of the matchup all three times, faking Cooper into the air while scoring on the first occasion, then drawing fouls the last two times. The last call against Cooper incited a mock fight between the Laker guards.
Cooper said this was the first time he has played basketball this summer, because of the ankle injury he suffered in March. Cooper said he intends to see Dr. Robert Kerlan later this week to see whether he can begin workouts.
“I’ve touched a basketball twice,” Cooper said. “I picked it up and passed it to the kids both times.
“I was told by the doctors to stay away (from the game) and leave it alone. The only exercise I’ve been getting mainly has consisted of using my vocal cords and walking.”
Cooper set aside any fears about his ankles when he took part in the dunk contest.
Another player who has yet to recover from the aches of last season is Isiah Thomas, who tested his bad ankle for the first time since he hobbled onto the court for the seventh game of the NBA finals here six weeks ago.
“There’s still some swelling,” Thomas said. “The trainer asked me if I was sure I wanted to play. I have to do something to test it, to see where it’s at.”
Johnson has said that playing in the finals against Thomas, perhaps his dearest friend, was the most difficult thing he has ever done as a player.
“It was difficult for me, too,” Thomas said. “Things that I wanted to share with him (like the birth of his first child)--he’s one of my best friends, but I just couldn’t.
The whole atmosphere that was created between he and I was one of such--what word am I trying to say?--it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was played up to be.
“But it was good, though--it created a lot of interest.”
If Detroit should make it to the finals next spring, would Thomas prefer someone other than the Lakers as opponent?
He shook his head.
“I want them guys,” he said. “If I get back to the finals, I want to beat the . . . out of them. That’s just how I feel.”
That, however, could wait 10 months. On this night, it was all for fun--and charity.