Cooper Near Return to Lakers in Dual Capacity : Basketball: He may serve in front office and as assistant coach. Magic’s team wins Magic’s game in overtime, 182-180.

Michael Cooper, author of the Coop-a-Loop, hopes to complete his biggest circuit yet, from the Lakers to Italy and back.

He and the Lakers are talking about a job that would be split between the front office and assisting the coaching staff.

“I couldn’t have written a better script,” Cooper said before Sunday night’s appearance in Magic Johnson’s all-star benefit.

“To be able to turn around and come back would be incredible. My aspiration is to be a head coach at the college level. You have to start somewhere so why not start at the top?”

Cooper left the Lakers a year ago and signed for three years with Il Messagero but the Italian team has bought out the remainder of his contract.

“They opted to sign Rick Mahorn,” Cooper said. “It didn’t bother me. We did better last season than they had since 1982. We left on friendly terms.”

They were threatening to shoot the lights out again, literally, at Mid-Summer Night’s Magic, before Earvin Johnson’s white team settled for a sedate 182-180 overtime victory over Michael Jordan’s blue squad Sunday night.

Johnson’s benefit for the United Negro College Fund was played before an estimated 16,000 in the Forum.

Johnson and Jordan were scheduled to be teammates but Derrick Coleman of the blues was a no-show, so Johnson traded Jordan away to preserve competitive balance.

The game was balanced as it could be. The white team led, 175-172, before Rex Chapman threw in a 30-footer with five seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime.

In the extra two-minute session, Charles Barkley dunked the rebound of Johnson’s missed hook to break a 180-180 tie.

Shawn Kemp led the blues with 49 points and Jordan had 37.

Barkley led the white squad with 38 and Johnson had 27.

Jordan, as usual, took highlight film honors, throwing down a dunk over Herb Williams that was so spectacular his teammates on the bench ran to the other foul line to congratulate him.

Notes

In case you were wondering, Magic Johnson, who said during the NBA finals that he was consider retirement, says he will be back. “My body and mind feel good,” he said. “I’m ready to go. . . . We (the Lakers) can compete for a championship. I still feel we have to add a player and there. I’d like to see us get a big man. Not an overbearing big man, just a guy who can stand there, block some shots, put his body on some people. Like an Elden (Campbell) but a bigger version.” . . . Johnson greeting vacation-bound Mike Dunleavy, asked, “How long are you going for?” Replied Dunleavy: “Until they make me come back.”