Magic Out of the Playing Business : Basketball: He rules out another comeback, saying he has too much going on outside the game.

Magic Johnson said Tuesday he is staying retired--forever.

Ending another round of speculation that he would make another comeback, the former Laker superstar permanently ruled out a return to the NBA, closing the door to future conjecture and deciding once and for all that he prefers business to basketball.

“I’m never coming back,” he said by phone from Michigan. “That’s it. And I’m saying that with a smile. I’m comfortable with my decision.

“It’s all over. I’m going to just move on with my businesses and have a good time with my family and my [touring] basketball team. . . . I’ve just got so much business stuff going on that I can’t commit to basketball like before.”

Johnson anguished over the decision because, he said, he feels he can play and make a significant contribution to the Lakers, for whom he probably would have been the sixth man while playing guard and forward. The three-time NBA most valuable player said his health is good and he is convinced that a return would not have raised the same concerns about an HIV-positive player because peers are better educated on the topic than during his aborted comeback in the fall of 1992.

At the same time, he turns 36 next month and would probably have played only another two seasons. For that, he would have had to sell back his 5% ownership in the Lakers, purchased a year ago for about $10 million, and greatly reduce his workload in outside interests that range from movie screens to malls.

It was one of those ventures--the recent opening of Magic Johnson Theaters in the Crenshaw District--that convinced him to stay retired.

“It probably happened just then,” he said. “When we opened and I saw the people thanking me, that was it. I thought I was going back up until then. If the theaters hadn’t opened, I would have come back. But when I go there and everybody comes up and thanks me, that’s a great feeling. That’s a feeling I’ve never had.”

Johnson said that he still has an interest in becoming one of the two players who will be added to the 1996 Olympic team and does not rule out the possibility that he will be a coach again.

He remains vice president and part-owner of the Lakers, is part of Jerry Buss’ group that has looked into buying the Kings and intends to try to bring an NFL team to Los Angeles.