Magic a Doer as Well as a Talker

This is the postgame routine now. Water for the throat instead of ice for the knees. Taking off a suit instead of putting one on. And, in one definite improvement, the private dressing room on the Paramount lot (complete with a personal shower) sure beats the locker room at the Great Western Forum.

We’re so used to seeing Magic Johnson be “on” whenever he’s in public that it’s a little strange to see him “off,” looking tired, hoarsely giving instructions to members of his staff.

If the weariness seems unusual, so does Johnson’s new position as the subject of so much criticism. After nearly 20 years of favorable reviews for his college and pro basketball career, Johnson has taken some hard shots for his new talk show, “The Magic Hour.”

The Chicago Tribune said the show “lurches along like a game between the New York Knicks and the Miami Heat.” The New York Daily News reviewer asked “Do you believe in Magic? After this dismal a start, I certainly don’t.”

Even old ally Sports Illustrated, which has deemed Johnson worthy of its cover 22 times, weighed in on the negative side by saying the show “isn’t just bad; it’s historically bad.”

The ones whose opinions ultimately matter the most--the viewers--have slowly dwindled into cancellation range, pulling in a 1.5 rating before Howard Stern’s appearance brought a ratings bump.

But every day when it’s time to take the stage, Johnson still cranks up the voltage on the smile that won this city’s heart 18 years ago. And it takes only a few minutes into an interview with a newspaper reporter before he’s back to his old form, the energy flowing, the laugh tumbling out almost uncontrollably. Depressed? Hardly. Remember, this is the same man who even smiled at times during the news conference on the day he told the world he had HIV.

“I’m not going to get down,” Johnson said. “It’s not going to get to me. And it hasn’t. It takes a lot to get to me. And I haven’t seen that yet.

“Man, I wonder if anything’s ever going to get to me?” he wondered, looking up at the ceiling. “I don’t know. When you know yourself and you’re comfortable with you, and you love you and you know that you’re giving the best that you can give, and you know that with time, you’re only going to get better because you’re putting in the work, the criticism doesn’t bother you.”

Watching Johnson in the host’s chair on weeknights reminds me of what remains the most jarring sight I’ve ever seen in sports--that of the tall, lanky Michael Jordan standing in the outfield of a minor league baseball stadium in Alabama.

He looked so out of context. But he also looked happier than at any time during the previous NBA season, including right after he won his third championship. After so much success Jordan--like Johnson now--found joy in merely trying, even if he did strike out 114 times. Jordan dreamed of playing baseball first, and Johnson had spoken about his desires to have a talk show as long as seven years ago.

“You know what? It’s similar,” Johnson said. “He had critics, I’ve got a lot of critics. It’s the same thing. But one thing about the two of us is, we’ll try something. And we don’t mind being criticized about it. We can take the heat, but we enjoy ourselves. See, most people won’t take the risks that we take. But we’re man enough to stand up and say, ‘Hey, I gave it a shot.’ Even if we can’t do it, we gave it a shot. And we’ll bounce back and do something else.”

The NBA Register includes the baseball statistics in Jordan’s entry, and that .202 batting average does nothing to diminish all of the other numbers and accolades shown on the page. Likewise, it’s doubtful Johnson will go down in history as a failed talk show host.

He already has found a strong second career as a businessman. He estimates that by the end of next year his growing portfolio will include 10 movie theaters, eight or nine Starbucks coffee houses, eight to 10 shopping centers and three TGI Friday’s restaurants, and his Magic Johnson Enterprises and the subsidiary, Johnson Development Corp., will control $500 million worth of real estate.

What makes people like Johnson and Jordan different isn’t just their willingness to try. It’s also their inability to be content with success. Winning one championship or most-valuable-player award wasn’t enough. They had to keep adding things to their game. They craved victory more and more.

Johnson won’t concede defeat, either. He isn’t ready to give up on the show this early in the game, especially after watching the time it took Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien to win over viewers.

Doing the talk show gives Johnson a bit of the exhilaration he used to get from playing in the NBA, but it doesn’t completely replace it. He knows nothing will. So he remains a little restless, looking for more to do in this so-called retirement.

“Yeah, I need things to drive me,” Johnson said. “The Lakers drive me, owning part of the team. That drives me. Business drives me. My son working at the theaters now, getting to introduce him to the business, that drives me. That keeps me happy. Yeah, I’m always searching for a new challenge. Because that’s what I need.”

Today it’s the show. Tomorrow it might be . . . who knows? The only thing he definitely won’t do is run for mayor. (Yes, he has had requests.) He had a taste of politics when he went through a squabble with Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas over the development of a Crenshaw district mall, and that was enough to keep him away.

Everything else remains in bounds. If this talk show thing doesn’t work out, and if things keep going the way they have at Dodger Stadium this season, there just might be a baseball manager’s job opening up in October.

As another talk show host used to say, hmmmmm.