Magic Has a Lot Up in the Air : Basketball: He says that he is leaning toward playing, but not necessarily with the Lakers. He also drops shoe endorsement.

Expanding on hints he has been dropping for months, Magic Johnson said Wednesday that he is leaning toward returning to the NBA--but not automatically to the Lakers.

In an impromptu news conference at the Olympic men’s basketball team’s hotel, he also criticized President Bush’s handling of the National Commission on AIDS.

After disclosing that he was HIV-positive last November, Johnson was named to the commission by the President. They later met in the Oval Office to discuss it, but Johnson has since grown disenchanted and has talked of resigning.

“I was both (surprised and disillusioned),” Johnson said of his experience on the commission. “(Bush) appointed me for the publicity. I know that now. I didn’t know it then.”

Johnson arranged Wednesday’s session to announce that he was leaving Converse, the sneaker company he has promoted since joining the NBA in 1979.

He said he and the company had agreed to sever ties last fall, and he now has an offer from another shoe company, a further suggestion that he is leaning toward a comeback.

“Yeah, I’m leaning toward it because of the way I’m playing,” Johnson said. “But I don’t know if it’s going to be with the Lakers.

“What it comes down to, if I come back, I want to have a shot at winning (a championship), and I don’t know if we have enough.

“I’m still tied to them emotionally, but where are they going? Is James (Worthy, subject of recent trade rumors) leaving? Are they going to rebuild?

“I met with Jerry (West, Laker general manager). I said, ‘Jerry, what if I didn’t want to come back with the Lakers, is that all right?’ ”

And West’s response?

“ ‘No!’ ” Johnson said, laughing. “ ‘It wouldn’t be all right.’ But I wanted to put it on their minds.”

When asked if the New York Knicks were a possibility, Johnson said it was not out of the question but would be difficult to work out.

“It would be nice to go to the Knicks,” Johnson said. “Pat (Riley) is not a five-year plan kind of guy and that’s what I need.”

Johnson has talked of returning to play 60 of the 82 regular-season games, allowing him to sit out games on consecutive nights.

He had refused to discuss his CD4- or T4-cell count, but Wednesday, Johnson said it has been rising since November, although he didn’t give specifics.

Johnson’s doctors, AIDS specialist David Ho of New York and internist Michael Mellman of Los Angeles, first advised him to retire, ruling out Olympic participation, too.

But Johnson says they also told him to continue working out and were pleased at his body’s response.

“The problem was, they never had anybody, first of all, who was in a situation in terms of running, jumping and playing basketball (who is) as big and strong as myself,” Johnson said. “They had never dealt with anybody like me. This is what they’re saying to me.

“They felt that running would make my T-cell count go down, but what has happened, it’s been the other way, so everything is going great.

“We’re going to meet (after the Olympics). I think my final count will determine how they feel.

“My wife says it’s cool. She’s different now than she was when I first retired, you can believe that. At first, it was, ‘You’re not playing. No way am I going to let you go back’--because everybody was telling her that.

“And now, after she’s seen what’s going on, she sees me working out as much as I’ve been working out, and my T-cell counts keep going up, and she says ‘OK.’ And then she sees the All-Star game and the Olympic thing and she says, ‘Oh, OK, I can let you out of the house.’ ”

Johnson says any comeback would be for only one season.

Said Laker owner Jerry Buss in a prepared statement: “As he has said . . . he won’t make a decision until he returns from Barcelona and meets with us. Until then, speculation is probably premature.

“However, if he does play again, I cannot imagine him playing for anyone other than the Lakers.”