Park Rebounds With a Key Assist by Magic

At East Compton Park, where loitering gang members and drug dealers often outnumber children at play, things started falling into place Tuesday like Magic.

Los Angeles Laker star Earvin (Magic) Johnson and three other National Basketball Assn. players dropped in at the Atlantic Avenue playground to teach youngsters about dribbling, slam-dunking and free-throwing. By the end of the day, the park itself was learning about rebounding.

Sparked by the enthusiastic turnout, recreation officials began making plans for the playground’s first-ever after-school reading program. Leaders of a community sports league talked of introducing new teams at the park. And mothers who had escorted their children to the playground without fear for the first time in years were thinking about coming back.

At the center of it all was the 6-foot, 9-inch Magic.

The 30-year-old Laker guard brought along teammates Larry Drew and Michael Cooper and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Gary Grant for a free basketball clinic for neighborhood youngsters. Johnson arranged for free T-shirts, tennis shoes and lunches for the 300 children who signed up in advance for the two-hour sports tutorial.

Hundreds of others, including adults, turned out to listen to the basketball tips and admire the sports stars up close.

“Normally, I wouldn’t let my kids come to the park because it’s too rough,” said Lawana Stephen, a Compton mother of three. “But this kind of activity is nice. It gives kids who would probably just be hanging out something good to do.”

The expanded after-school park program was proposed Tuesday to Johnson by Mary Lee Gray, senior deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana. She told Johnson marketing manager Lon Rosen that the basketball star had brought “kids, adults, senior citizens, ex-gang members” and others together to East Compton Park for the first time.

Rosen said Johnson readily agreed to back the program.

“There are some things that Magic wants to try here,” Rosen said. “He knows the importance of role models to children.”

Details about the after-school program will be worked out in coming days, Rosen said.

Backers hope that Johnson--either with his own funds or sponsors--will provide some of the money necessary to run the program, while the county and local groups and such clinic participants as the Community Youth Sports and Arts Foundation and the Brotherhood Crusade contribute matching funds.

The new athletic program was promised by Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials who run a growing sports league program from the sheriff’s Lynwood station, said Bob McCall, a county recreation supervisor in charge of East Compton Park.

“It took something like this to get things going,” McCall said, watching lines of children practicing their free-throws under Johnson’s guidance.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Manny Anaya, a coordinator of the program and one of those helping at Tuesday’s basketball clinic, said sheriff’s sports programs already established at other parks include karate, baseball, soccer, baseball and boxing.

Working with groups of 50 youngsters between the ages of 6 and 18, Johnson and the other professional players managed to offer each child some personalized instruction during the two-hour clinic.

“You just open your arms and say, ‘I care, I love you,’ ” Johnson explained during a break. “The motivation is to let people know that other people care about them and they don’t have to turn to crime or drugs.”

From the background, Lynwood resident Charlie Edwards watched as Johnson put his own two sons, Rance, 11, and Christopher, 13, through their paces. “Things like this can give kids incentive,” said Edwards, a pipe fitter. “It puts something other than gang things on their minds.”

Ten-year-old Jason Keith of Los Angeles was enthralled when Johnson put his hands on his shoulders. Magic reached down to steady the boy when his shot toward the hoop fell about five feet short.

“I felt like I was his son,” Jason grinned afterward. “It felt good.”