Rodman Does a World of Good for the Lakers

On the morning of Nov. 7, 1991, Kurt Rambis is preparing for practice with the Phoenix Suns when the phone rings.

It’s about Magic Johnson.

He is announcing his retirement because he has contracted HIV, and could use some support.

Rambis walks out of practice without explanation, drives directly to the airport, and arrives in Los Angeles in time to become the only out-of-town player at the news conference.

*

Saturday morning, Magic Johnson is sitting in a hotel room in Hawaii when the phone rings.

It’s about Kurt Rambis.

He has just been named Laker coach, and could use some support.

Johnson pulls out a pen and paper and starts diagraming.

*

A smart, exciting, controversial player made a breathtaking appearance on the Forum floor last weekend.

Only, it wasn’t who you think it was.

Not only was the magic back, but so was Magic.

After spending the Del Harris regime in virtual exile, Johnson has been summoned back by an old friend to help instill some old attitudes.

“He said, ‘What you do think? I want your help. I want you at practice,’ ” Johnson recalled of Rambis’ phone call.

Loosely translated, Johnson’s answers were great, yes, and yes.

It was the first time he’d heard those questions from a Laker head coach in nearly five years.

It was common knowledge that under Del Harris, he was as much hindrance as hero.

He rarely attended workouts. He was rarely asked for his advice. The former Laker patriarch was treated like an eccentric old uncle.

Welcomed everywhere, and wanted almost nowhere.

“Del didn’t want me to be there, so I wasn’t there,” Johnson said Monday.

Harris could not be reached for comment.

Johnson, a team vice president, said he was never strictly ordered away from the players, but that he understood his place.

“I like Del, he is a good man, but he just wasn’t interested in learning from all of our experience,” Johnson said. “He wanted to do it his way.”

That’s not a bad thing. Rambis is the same way. He has already said that he is not trying to create another Showtime.

“We’re a different team in a different time,” Rambis said. “I want them to focus on being their own team in their own era, playing their own kind of basketball.”

That said, Rambis also understands that their kind of basketball would work well with Magic Johnson touching the ball.

Not coaching it. Not controlling it. Not doing all sorts of tricks with it.

Just touching it.

That is also not a bad thing.

As badly as the Lakers need what Dennis Rodman has, they also need what Magic Johnson had.

“He just wants to know what I see, what I think might help,” Johnson said. “I reminded him that this team could run two or three plays that we ran, he wanted me to write them down . . . that sort of thing.”

Johnson will not be at every practice, but he will show up. And when he does, he will be wearing his sneakers.

“There is as wealth of knowledge in this organization that can only enhance a coach,” Johnson said. “It’s great that we have a coach that wants to use it.”

Rambis and Johnson are friends not only because they share an agent, Lon Rosen, but also a philosophy.

“He wants to get some movement, like we used to do,” Johnson said. “So do I. We have to take advantage of the great one-on-one players that we have. You can’t do that in a set offense.”

Johnson said he nudged Dyan Cannon at Sunday’s game and noted, in amazement, “We haven’t had 90 against a good team in the middle of the fourth quarter in I don’t know how long.”

Johnson said he left the Lakers’ 106-90 victory over Houston with his head full of platitudes.

“The excitement, the energy, the fans--we haven’t had this feeling for a long time,” he said.

How long?

“Since I was playing,” he said.

Only one thing can kill this new surge.

We all know who that is.

One of the guys who helped create it, of course.

But unlike the rest of us who can only sit around and hope Rodman doesn’t act up, Johnson is doing something about it.

He’s challenging Rodman.

Threatening him, even.

“This is Dennis’ last hurrah in his career, he’s got to make good. If he doesn’t, it’s all over for him,” Johnson said. “This is the perfect city for him. It can translate into a lot of things, like movies . . . but if we cut him, it’s all over.

“He’s marketed himself so well for so long but . . . we can do him just as much damage as he can do us. He loses, just like we lose.”

He thinks Rodman understands this, and it will motivate him in a way that no silly concept like character or integrity can.

“He knows this is his last platform . . . never underestimate that fact,” Johnson said.

But like the rest of this town, Johnson is holding his breath.

“It’s a crapshoot for us,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s either going to go one or two ways. Dr. [Jerry] Buss is going to look like a genius, or our franchise will go down a notch in class.”

Johnson, who initially pushed for Rodman’s signing because he thought the Lakers needed to get tougher, backed off when Rodman’s delays turned into a sideshow.

“I felt we should have pulled out,” Johnson said. “I thought with all the publicity, it was becoming a circus. A distraction to Del, a distraction to our team.”

Johnson said he told Jerry West, and West agreed.

“Jerry never really wanted it either, that was no secret,” Johnson said.

Johnson then said he got “sick” watching parts of Rodman’s Planet Hollywood news conference.

“Those parts that didn’t involve the Lakers or basketball, you know what I mean,” he said. “It would have been classier if . . . well, they did it their own way.”

But as soon as Rodman signed and Harris was fired, Johnson showed up to greet Rodman at practice.

“If he’s going to be here. I’ve got to accept him,” Johnson said. “And so far, he’s been professional. He’s done everything we asked.”

Even being 30 minutes late to his second practice?

“I’m not concerned about practice. . . . We did a lot of stuff for Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] at practice. What you have to look at is the games. He can be that Dennis after 10:30.”

In games, Johnson said, he has been impressed by Rodman’s attention to little things.

“He already sets the best picks on our team,” he said. “Our picks had been terrible.”

He also said he brings a certain attitude.

“He’s a winner, he’s been there, you can tell from just watching him,” he said. “He has what this team needs.”

So does somebody else we know, Magic. You never left, but welcome back.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.