Magic Hints at Unretiring Once Again : Pro basketball: He doesn’t rule out returning for the 1995-96 season, although it’s not likely.

The other sneaker dropped Monday, when Magic Johnson, hoping to play in the 1996 Summer Olympics, refused to rule out a return for the 1995-96 NBA season.

No, there is nothing imminent. No, it isn’t likely. Yes, he propped the door open again.

“You know, I can’t come back for the playoffs because I’m an owner,” he said at a news conference, promoting his participation in the Southern California Summer Pro League.

How would he deal with that if he decided to return next season?

“Maybe I’d slide it over to my wife,” said Johnson, laughing.

However, Johnson’s agent, Lon Rosen, said that won’t satisfy NBA rules.

“I can’t do that, either?” said Johnson, laughing. “How about my father?”

NBA rules say it would have to be an outright sale, not a mere transfer. Laker Vice President Jerry West couldn’t be reached for comment, but insiders said it’s unlikely the building Lakers will invite Johnson back. People close to Johnson said it’s unlikely he’ll go elsewhere.

“If he was coming back, and that’s a big ‘if,’ ” Rosen said, “it’d probably be with the Lakers. But I don’t think he’s coming back.”

Said Johnson: “First of all, I wouldn’t give Jerry West a headache. No. 1, you have to understand, the Lakers have turned to youth. I would never come in and try to jeopardize what they have. If there’s a situation there, fine. If not, if I came back--it’s all hypothetical--it might not be here.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m playing as good as I’ve ever played. I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been in my life because my body has fully recovered from all those injuries and everything that you have.

“I’ve learned to deal with the virus, which I didn’t know what was going to happen when this all first went down. What I know now, if I had known it then, I probably would have never retired. But those are things you have to go through. So we’ll see what happens.

“My life is great. I’m a businessman, I like my life the way it is. It’s not like I’ve got to run back to basketball because I have fulfillment in my life. But I love to play.”

Johnson, on playing in the Olympics:

“Do I expect to play? I don’t know. I want to play. I don’t see there’s 11 better basketball players than me.

“There’s always a risk of that (being turned down), but if that happens, I can deal with it. You have to understand too, it’s what you can bring to the team and I think I can bring a lot to the team, much like I did with Dream Team I. My role will be different, probably, from anyone else’s, like it was with Coach (Chuck) Daly--a guy between himself and the players.

“I helped, not only the actual team out but I also helped USA Basketball out. We were supposed to get, like, $65,000-$70,000 a man from T-shirt sales. Someone said, ‘Why don’t we just give it back to USA Basketball?’ So I told Larry (Bird) that’s what we should do. So instead of really taking it to the team, that’s what we did. Things like that, normally young guys might not understand. I can explain it to them. You know, ‘You don’t need $60,000.’ ”

On friends he might get to play in the Olympics with him:

“I’m hoping only one, really. That’s Michael. I think I can talk him into it. Michael won’t do it unless he has to. He has to have somebody with him that he likes and likes to hang out with.

“He’s amazing. Forget the basketball. He would go play golf from 7 a.m. to, like, 6 p.m. We would eat, he’d go to the game, crush ‘em in the game. Then we would play cards and sit up and talk till 6 or 7 a.m. Now, he’d get one hour of sleep--I lie to you not--get right back up, play another 18 holes of golf, come back, play again.

“Now I’m tired, I’m ready to go to sleep. ‘No, no, no, M.J., you can’t go to sleep, you’ve got to stay up with me, all night.’ And that’s what we did, for two or three weeks. Now I’m sitting up there like a zombie all day. That’s what he likes to do so if he can’t have that, he won’t play.”