Lakers Criticized by Magic : Pro basketball: The players seem to have lost their pride, he says.

It used to be in vogue to go watch the Lakers play, but now the in thing seems to be deriding the Lakers, and the latest to join in is Magic Johnson.

“I don’t think the guys have pride,” Johnson said. “I see teams coming in here laughing at us.”

Johnson, in Atlanta on Thursday night to play in an exhibition at Georgia Tech, was interviewed by TNT’s Craig Sager.

A portion of the interview was shown during halftime of Friday night’s Golden State-Utah game on TNT, and it will be shown in its entirety Monday night during halftime of a Cleveland-Detroit game.

Sager asked: “How painful is it to pick up the newspaper and see the Lakers (near) the bottom of the Pacific Division instead of the top?”

Said Johnson: “It’s more painful going to games. That’s painful.

“What’s so bad about it is the fact that it is something that you have built up and you have pride in that. I never thought in my wildest dreams that after I retired it would be this bad so quickly.

“The thing that really disturbs me--and this is the first time I’ve said this because I haven’t been interviewed by anybody on this subject--what’s so painful is the fact that I don’t think the guys have pride.

“We had pride. We lost a game and you’d think we had lost 20 games. Nobody said a word. We showered and no words. And we came back and made a point the next game we were going to kick somebody’s butt because we weren’t going to lose two games in a row.

“We took losses hard, and I don’t think I see the same thing now. I don’t see it and I’m there all the time. I don’t see guys getting better, and I don’t know if they’re not working at it or what. It’s tough for me.

“This is the first time I’ve said it, and now L.A.’s going to go crazy saying, ‘Oh, you didn’t say it to us.’ ”

Said Laker General Manager Jerry West, reached at his home Saturday: “It’s really not that provocative. A lot of people think much the same way. . . . They just don’t say it. Magic has the right to say whatever he wants to say.

“Where I disagree with him is where he says we’re not getting better. I think we’re making progress.

“We have some nice young players, but they really haven’t learned what it takes to win in this league.

“You have to remember that when Magic played, not only was he a great player, but he was also fortunate enough to play with one of the greatest players of all time (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

“It’s different now and Magic, like a lot of us, has a tough time dealing with it. I know this much. I know Magic wants us to win.”