From the First, This Was One Special Player

“How else can I explain those rainbows when there is no rain? It’s magic.” --”It’s Magic,” 1948, Sammy Cahn and Jules Styne.

E for enthusiasm: For many Laker fans, their first memory of Magic Johnson as an NBA player is the opening night of his rookie season in 1979, when he leaped into a startled Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s arms after the Laker center scored on a skyhook at the buzzer for a one-point victory over the San Diego Clippers.

“Hey,” Abdul-Jabbar, already a 10-year NBA veteran, told him, “we’ve still got 81 more of these.”

E for excellence: Actually, the Lakers had to play more games than that in Magic’s rookie season. They reached the finals, where they had a 3-2 lead over the 76ers before Game 6 at Philadelphia. But Abdul-Jabbar didn’t make the trip because of a sprained ankle.

No problem. Magic filled in at center, finishing with 42 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists as the Lakers won the game, 123-107, and their first championship since 1972.

“I strive under pressure,” Magic said.

Believing in Magic: After that game, 76er Coach Billy Cunningham predicted that Magic was “going to be right up there with Jerry West and Oscar Robertson, maybe better, before he’s through.”

Winning the Oscar: Eleven years after Cunningham had looked into his crystal ball, on April 15, 1991, Magic passed Robertson as the NBA’s all-time assist leader with No. 9,888. When the game was interrupted, Magic delivered a tearful tribute to his parents in Lansing, Mich.

“You think of all the times you played shirts and skins, running around as a kid, hoping one day to get to the NBA, not knowing about this day,” he said later. “I think I cried for all those times, maybe, when I was out there shoveling off the snow, shooting half-court set shots against my father, him beating me with that old set shot.”

Trivia time: After the Lakers had won a coin flip in 1979, giving them the right to draft first, they chose Magic. Who was the second player drafted?

Crying on the inside: Magic faced the most difficult crisis of his NBA career in 1981, his third season, when he asked to be traded because of differences with Coach Paul Westhead. Magic wasn’t traded, but Westhead was fired the next day.

The public perception that Magic was becoming a prima donna, and the accompanying boos he received in arenas around the league, put him in a reflective mood.

“Everybody thinks I’m a happy-go-lucky guy who never lets anything bother me,” he said. “But a lot of things bother me. They bother me like they bother anybody else. But no matter how bad things go, I’m still supposed to be smiling.

“The problem is, people only get to see what the newspapers, the magazines and the TV shows say. They don’t know the real Earvin Johnson. They know Magic Johnson. I don’t think they’ll ever know Earvin Johnson.”

On the other hand: Five years into his professional career, Magic said: “I just love the games. Just to be out there. Whenever I am, I’m in my own little world. It’s the only place I can really relax, let it flow, be myself. Out there, I can let go of it all. That’s me out there.”

Trivia answer: UCLA’s David Greenwood, by Chicago.

Bird watching: The player whose career Magic’s will be linked with throughout history is Larry Bird. They met in the NCAA championship game in 1979 and three times in the NBA finals. Each won three MVP awards. Perhaps because they were so much alike--competitive--it took them several years to become friends.

“We used to never even speak to each other,” Magic said in 1987. “We both wanted to win so bad that we hated each other. I respected him, but I didn’t like him.”

Quotebook: On winning the second of his three MVP trophies after the 1988-89 season, Magic said: “Winning, that’s what it’s all about. I may not be the greatest, but I’ll tell you what: I’ve got a whole lot more diamonds (in championship rings) than a lot of guys who play this game, and that’s all I’m concerned about. That’s how I want to be remembered.”