THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Go Magic! Want Fries With That?

Yes, this town is teeming with team spirit as its basketball team competes in the NBA Finals & Humidity Festival. Everywhere you look, you can see it:

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That’s what it says on the marquee outside Shoney’s, one of the hundreds of family restaurants that line the streets.

What with your family of four forking out $120 or more to get into Disney World, Universal or Sea World--and that’s before buying the kids that first furry toy Mickey, Kong or Shamu--a bargain dinner comes in handy.

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Over at Popeye’s Fried Chicken, they’ve got the Magic spirit too. Also at McDonald’s (the phone book lists 52 in the area), Pizza Hut (55), Waffle House, IHOP, Sizzler, etc.

City Hall is draped with Magic colors. The large ape that threatens the subway train in Universal’s Kongfrontation is wearing a Magic jersey, as are most of the statues in town.

The politicians are solidly behind the guys. On City of Orlando stationery, Commissioner Nap Ford congratulates the players, adding he was “damn sick and tired of the media trashing of this team.”

This was posted on the Magic’s bulletin board for the sake of motivation, support or perhaps just paranoia. The guys on SportsCenter might be having their fun, but locally everything’s pretty upbeat. The Orlando Sentinel puts out an eight-page special section after every game.

The clergy is behind the team. General Manager Pat Williams once actually made a season-ticket pitch from the pulpit at the First Baptist Church. A local minister has a TV advertisement, shot at practice with Magic players cavorting behind him, in which he details the spiritual lessons one can learn from the team.

Orlando is actually a pretty place, dotted with lakes, that bills itself as “The City Beautiful.” Like a lot of towns that have yearned for major league status, it is disappointed to find that having arrived, it’s getting less respect than ever.

Sen. Bob Graham--that’s United States senator, as in don’t these guys have anything better to do?--responded to some predictably cutting remarks by the Washington Post’s Tony Kornheiser in a Sentinel column.

Wrote Graham of Orlando’s place in the sports firmament:

“The 106-year-old Amateur Athletic Union is moving from Indianapolis to the Orlando area. Baseball’s Houston Astros train in Osceola County. And get this, the Golf Channel has picked metro Orlando as headquarters.”

Kind of makes you wonder how they get anything done, what with all those exhibition baseball games, AAU meetings and cable TV shows.

Of course, pandering to the locals is a time-honored scam in politics, as well as in sportswriting, so no one should get upset if a correspondent has some fun that allows the readers back home to bask in the certainty that Life Is Better Here.

We Californians, an embattled but hearty people, know life really is better here. Of course, it might be good if we got that trial over before our next team makes the finals and 500 smart-alecks get off the plane wondering how they can work it into their stories.

REPORTS FROM CHICAGO: THE PROSPECTS GATHER

Chief beneficiary of the pre-draft camp was the high school kid, 18-year-old Kevin Garnett. Hoping for news of a test score that would enable him to play in college, he wasn’t sure he’d attend. Then he showed up and had a monster workout.

Assuming he’s still in the draft, he may go before the first senior and after the four sophomores at the top. A mock draft by general managers has him going to Minnesota at No. 5.

Ed O’Bannon’s surgically repaired knee was “flagged,” meaning doctors noted the possibility of future problems.

There are mixed reports what this will mean. Magic personnel director John Gabriel said he still expects O’Bannon to go in the top 10. In the general managers’ draft, he’s listed at No. 6, to Toronto, but he may drop a few slots.

As usual, the top players showed up only to be weighed, measured and examined.

However, 6-foot-10 Wisconsin sophomore Rashard Griffith worked out, to show everyone what he could do, he said. Better they didn’t know. Projected to go in the 10-12 area, he dropped to Phoenix at No. 21 on the GMs’ list.

The Clippers, picking second behind the Golden State Warriors, would be happy with either 6-9 Antonio McDyess or 6-5 Jerry Stackhouse. Of course, among the Clippers, everyone has an opinion, and especially Donald T. Sterling. The Donald reportedly likes 6-11 Rasheed Wallace, perhaps the greatest talent but certainly the biggest gamble.

It would be nice if the basketball side of the operation got to make the call, but these are the Clippers, so we’ll see.

WAITING FOR EARVIN, A SEMIANNUAL EVENT

Amid growing speculation he’ll decide not to return to the Lakers, Magic Johnson is still struggling with his decision.

Here’s a word of advice: Don’t.

A comeback might not go so smoothly. It might not be fun. The young Lakers are eager to escape the giant shadow of Showtime and here would come its embodiment.

He’ll finally have to retire sometime and it’ll hurt as much in a year or two as it does now. Why not stay retired?

For Johnson, the kid in the candy store of life, decisions are excruciating choices between one joy and another.

In 1992, he decided to return in Barcelona after having a ball with the Dream Team. Then he went to Hawaii with wife Cookie and enjoyed lying around so much, he started to reconsider. Then he came back to play in his summer charity game and got so emotional walking down that runway, he decided to come back, after all. Then, when it turned into a hassle, he left.

Time to get on with his life and let them get on with theirs.

FACES AND FIGURES

So far, Miami’s search for a coach hasn’t done much for the Heat, but it’s running up budgets in the NCAA. Massachusetts’ John Calipari, who also interviewed with the Boston Celtics, is working on a new deal at the school. His old deal already gave him the proceeds of one game a season--which he got to designate (last year it was against Arkansas). Cincinnati’s Bob Huggins talked to the Heat, then signed a 10-year extension at the school. . . . You’ll never believe this but: Someone else out there may want Dennis Rodman. Said Coach Rudy Tomjanovich of the Houston Rockets, desperate for a rebounding forward: “I’ll never say never. I’ll say this, we’re always looking for some ways to improve the club. You never know what might happen to Dennis over the summer. If he comes back bald and says he’s a changed person, who knows?” . . . Greg Kite, honored along with other former Magic players, said: “Maybe they should erect a statue of all of us outside the arena. If we hadn’t lost all those games in the early years, they wouldn’t have done so well in the draft.”