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Magic Is Looking and Playing Like a Rookie Again

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Aware of the growing perception that the Lakers have grown too long in the collective tooth, Magic Johnson took matters in his own hands.

Maybe younger floor leadership would help, and Magic could supply that. He stood in front of his bathroom mirror one morning last week, pondering his reflection, like Hamlet contemplating the skull of Yorick.

Then, alas, zip-zop, Magic lathered up and shaved his face clean. The famed Magic Johnson goatee-and-mustache ensemble, his constant companion since his first season in pro ball, swirled down the drain.

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Instant youth movement. Johnson looks five years younger, a significant cut down from his creaking 29 years. He looks like Earvin Johnson Jr. Jr.

“I just wanted a change,” Magic explains. “I was standing there at the mirror and I said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ I had thought about it for a long time, but I was scared for the change. You’ve been like this so long. This is my 10th year (with the foliage).”

I know how he feels. A guy forgets what’s under there, and it’s a rock he isn’t sure he wants to turn over. He remembers vaguely there was a good reason he grew the stuff in the first place, but he can’t remember exactly what the reason was.

Magic liked his new look, though, and apparently whatever young women he has chanced to encounter since shaving are of a common mind in their evaluation.

“They like it,” Magic says with a shrug.

This is not what you would call an objective jury. Magic could walk around wearing a Groucho Marx face kit and still manage to get a date or two. He’s not the kind of guy who constantly has to scramble for female companionship.

He says the new face hasn’t made him play any younger. The stats say otherwise. Maybe the shave afforded Johnson decreased wind resistence, or has psyched out his opponents, but in three games without the shrubbery, Magic is averaging 24.7 points, nine rebounds and 12.3 assists.

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The Lakers lost the first game with Earvin Jr. Jr. at point guard but easily won the next two. One theory is that it took his teammates one game to adjust to the new face in the lineup, team chemistry being a delicate beast.

Fortunately, at the exact moment Magic was shaving, James Worthy was growing back his beard, thus maintaining a cosmic balance in Lakerland.

Magic’s recent play, even pre-shave, has been superb, some of the best stuff of his career. As the end of the regular season approaches, he is locked in a three-man race for the league’s most-valuable-player trophy.

The award will go to Magic, Air Jordan or Mailman Malone. If you want an MVP trophy in this game, friend, don’t show up with a weak nickname.

I get the feeling that Magic has a slight edge right now, deservedly so. With all due respect to Worthy, Byron Scott, A.C. Green and the boys, it’s frightening to think where the Lakers would be without Johnson. They’d be up the L.A. River without a boating permit.

Johnson seems to be busier than usual on defense, especially helping out away from his man. But the most dramatic aspect of Magic’s current game is his repertoire of spin moves when he attacks the basket on the fly. Wayne Gretzky or Brian Boitano will throw you the same kind of spins, but they’re digging in with steel blades.

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For opponents, trying to body up on Magic when he’s in his swirling mode has got to be as risky as sticking one’s hand into a Cuisinart.

Jordan has a good shot at his second consecutive MVP because he has revamped his game in recent weeks to a more selfless style, dishing off to teammates, appealing to a broader range of hoop purists. Also to Jordan’s advantage, Mailman’s soul-rattling game has risen to a scary maturity this season, and he might divert some of the Western votes.

None of this, I honestly believe, concerns Johnson right now. The real season looms, and the Lakers are staggering. When you’re mopping up the end of the regular NBA season and a game against the Miami Heat is crucial, there is cause for alarm.

Civic concern is growing. Have the Lakers lost their edge, other than the one on Magic’s razor? Are the dynasty days over?

On the bulletin board in the Lakers’ locker room is a blowup copy of a letter to the editor in a Southland newspaper. The author bitterly writes off the Lakers, citing, “loss of killer instinct” and “loss of appetite.” He prophecies: “It is obvious they will not go all the way this year.”

Personally, I don’t see the Lakers going down so meekly. While accidentally snooping in their locker room recently, I noticed at one dressing stall a copy of the magazine, “SWAT Weapons and Tactics--’For the Prepared American.’ ”

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No killer instinct?

I see the Lakers swatting, sweating and swirling their way to the NBA Finals, although it will be a close shave.

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