Lakers: Here We Go Again

The other shoe dropped Monday. Magic Johnson has thrown his size 15s next to the size-22 footwear of Shaquille O’Neal.

No more hints. No more whispers. Johnson said loud and clear that he wants to come back to the Lakers and play with the recently signed O’Neal.

“What we have to do, we only have seven guys on the Laker team and we’re trying to get that together right now,” Johnson said in Atlanta, where he was working the U.S.- Angola Olympic basketball game for NBC.

“My situation can be resolved at any time. . . .”

The earliest Johnson could play is January, because the Lakers have renounced his rights.

The reaction from the Lakers?

Dead silence.

Neither owner Jerry Buss nor Executive Vice President Jerry West had any comment. Nor could they. Johnson has told reporters he wants to return for a third time to the club he led to five NBA titles in the 1980s, but he has not yet broached the subject with the Laker hierarchy.

Assuming he will, a lot of issues must be cleared up before he can unretire for the third time.

Such as:

Johnson’s last farewell--The Lakers’ first-round playoff elimination by the Houston Rockets at the end of last season left everyone unhappy. Johnson questioned the role carved out for him by Coach Del Harris. Of some of his teammates, Johnson said, “We don’t trust each other.”

West and Harris weren’t happy either. Harris questioned the public comments of Johnson and other players, saying, “We’ve got a lot of coaches on this team, don’t we?”

Said Johnson: “They were probably upset with a lot of factors at the end of last season. And they should have been. I was too. That’s why I didn’t really want to come back, because I was upset with a lot of the things that were going on.

“We all were upset. That’s how it should have been. Losing is not good for anybody.”

West, according to a source close to the team, has not ruled out a return by Johnson.

Johnson’s priorities--A former minority owner of the team, Johnson had to divest himself of his interest in the club to play. He has not ruled out reacquiring that interest, which would prevent his returning again.

Johnson’s status--The Laker guard/forward sent a letter of resignation to the league at the end of the season, meaning three-fourths of the owners would have to approve his return.

League sources say some owners are skeptical, viewing Johnson’s latest comeback as a convenient ploy to circumvent the salary cap for a Laker team that has already spent nearly all its money, the largest chunk going to O’Neal.

Johnson’s ability--He would be returning at age 37. Does he still have the skills and the stamina to compete at the NBA level, and would he be able to make a worthwhile contribution on a team with no player older than 28?

Six other NBA teams seem to think so. Lon Rosen, Johnson’s agent, said he received his sixth inquiry Monday about Johnson’s availability, but declined to name the clubs.

“If he just wanted to play basketball,” Rosen said, “he could go to one of those six teams. All of them have made substantial offers, in the millions of dollars.”

Instead, Johnson told NBC on Monday, “I’ll take the minimum [from the Lakers].

Pro-rated from January on, that would come to about $150,000.

But that would be fine with Johnson, who seems to see himself coming back in a different role from the one he left.

Johnson would like to return as a player/assistant coach, serving as a mentor to O’Neal, 24. Johnson went as far as to say O’Neal had asked him to return. O’Neal said Monday he has not spoken to Magic about the possibility, but smiled when asked about it.

“It’d be nice, “ O’Neal said. “I need to talk to Magic first. . . . It’s his city. . . . Whatever he wants to do I’m behind him.”

With the experience of playing on the dominant team of the ‘80s, and at least some of the skills remaining from the days when he was one of the most dominant players ever, Johnson envisions himself making a maximum contribution with a minimal number of minutes on the court.

At $150,000, that looks like a bargain.

But don’t look for a decision soon. Who knows what the Lakers will look like in January?

If they are sailing along with a 28-5 record, blowing people away like the Lakers of old, West and Harris won’t want to upset things.

But if the Lakers are struggling at 16-15, and O’Neal seems disillusioned and Nick Van Exel and Cedric Ceballos are ready to explode, Johnson might be just what the doctor, Jerry Buss, orders.

And his pledge after the season never, ever to return?

“Let’s go back to the press conference,” Johnson said. “What I said was, I really still want to play but I couldn’t because I didn’t think the Lakers were in a position to win. And if I wanted to continue to play, what did I say? I had to go somewhere else, which I didn’t want to do. I never said I really didn’t want to play.”

At season’s end, Laker officials were reportedly happy to see him retire.

And now?

“Say it [if they are],” Johnson said. “Don’t hold it.”

Staff writers Mark Heisler and Bill Plaschke contributed to this story.