From the Beginning to the End, It’s Magic : All-Star Game: After pregame expressions of affection, he scores 25 points and is MVP of West victory.

If parting this was, it was such sweet sorrow.

If it turns out to be prelude instead, don’t be surprised.

The master of any moment, Magic Johnson returned from a three-month absence Sunday, scored 25 points in the West’s 153-113 romp and was named the most valuable player of the NBA All-Star game.

And this story is not winding down.

In four months, he will join the U.S. Olympic team.

After that?

He keeps getting closer to saying he’ll come back next season, and Sunday he went right to the edge. Asked if he plans to return to the NBA if he feels good after the Olympics, he replied:

“Probably. Maybe.”

That wasn’t vintage Johnson, the player Sunday (“If you ask me how I played, I played OK”), but it was the vintage showman.

He made nine of 12 shots.

He sank three three-pointers in the fourth quarter, including a backing up 25-footer on the final attempt of the day.

He hit a 15-foot jump hook over Detroit’s Dennis Rodman, who had never eased up before and wasn’t about to start here.

“Dennis told me, ‘I’m gonna guard you tough. You’re not scoring on me,’ ” Johnson said.

“I couldn’t wait to post him up.”

The game, dominated by Johnson’s appearance, which had become a national controversy, was more theater and less a contest.

The East players seemed to accept supporting roles and didn’t even muster All-Star level intensity. The 40-point margin was an All-Star game record.

It was more a collection of moments.

--Johnson and Isiah Thomas exchanging their usual pregame kiss on the cheek, standing at half court in a thicket of mini-cams and microphones.

--The crowd cheering 15 seconds before Johnson was introduced and for the next 1:40, until the Star-Spangled Banner.

--The East players breaking their line while the crowd applauded and crossing the floor to embrace Johnson: first Thomas, then Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and on down the line.

“First of all, I was shocked,” Johnson said later. “But I enjoyed every hug, every high-five that I received.

“Those are the things that you take with you forever. You take this whole moment. You bottle it up and you never let it out.

“It’s like I’m in a dream and I don’t ever want to wake up, because I got the NBA back in me for a day and it’s great.”

It could not be said by game time that all doubts about the propriety of his appearance had disappeared.

Controversy remained and promises to continue, as Johnson steps up levels of competition.

In Sunday’s New York Times, columnist George Vecsey wrote:

“It is not exaggerating to say that no athlete has ever felt so much support, so much love. . . .”

Striking a different note, the Orlando Sentinel’s Larry Guest wrote:

“Persistent rumors have emerged, suggesting a basketball game may intrude into the busy schedule of this weekend’s Magic Johnson HIV/AIDS Workshop.”

Johnson said he knew there were questions in the minds of his teammates, but Saturday’s practice got everyone over the hump.

Golden State’s Don Nelson, making his All-Star coaching debut, held a real practice rather than the usual walk-through, with players actually asked to run full court.

“I’m a dummy,” Nelson said. “I didn’t know.

“I had a normal kind of practice. I thought it was light, personally. But I wanted them to run the fast break we were going to use and run our motion offense. Most of all, I wanted Magic to have a chance to scrimmage, to see where he was. I knew after that long away, he had to be wondering, ‘Where’s my game?’ I thought that really calmed him down.”

The West controlled the opening tip and the ball went to Johnson . . . whose pass was intercepted.

His first shot was a short hook, which he left short. He rebounded the miss and was fouled.

When he hit the first free throw a fan yelled: “MVP!”

Not to be denied his chance to contribute to the moment, the official scorer gave Johnson credit for a second-quarter shot that he missed but Houston’s Otis Thorpe tipped back in.

Thorpe said what everyone was saying: “It’s all right.”

Johnson entered the fourth quarter with 16 points, but Portland’s Clyde Drexler had 22 and how would it look, giving the MVP to the No. 2 scorer?

Not to worry.

Johnson got into a three-point duel with Washington ace Michael Adams. Johnson made 24% of his three-pointers last season and less than that this preseason, but now he knocked in two in a row. Adams made his first, missed his second.

Late in the game, Johnson was guarding Thomas, who started speed dribbling back and forth between his legs, looking to penetrate. Johnson made him take a 20-footer, which Thomas missed. The crowd roared.

Then Johnson guarded Jordan, who settled for another jump shot and missed. The crowd roared louder.

Then Johnson hit his 25-footer.

“If this is going to be it for me, I wanted to go out this way,” Johnson said.

“I wanted to get Isiah one time. Get Michael one time. The only person I missed was Larry (Bird, home with a bad back). I wanted Larry one more time, but I’ll get Larry on the blacktop. We’ll go behind his house.”

Johnson thanked the fans for voting him in, Tim Hardaway for not complaining about it, his wife, the press, the other players (“I’d like to thank all the guys because that was a lot of money out there, well over $100 million--with Michael taking up the bulk of it”).

“He stops two of our greatest players one-on-one without help,” Nelson said. “He makes that shot. It was a storybook ending. It was Disneyland, and we’re here.”

They don’t call him Magic because he does card tricks.