He Wants to Put Magic Touch on Lakers

Magic Johnson may have failed as a talk show host, but he has been a huge success in the business world and has his sights set on owning the Lakers.

In an in-depth interview that will be on ESPN’s “Up Close Prime Time” tonight at 6:30, Johnson, a 5% owner of the team, tells interviewer Roy Firestone he would love to own it outright.

“It’s going to take four or five years to be in a financial position to do it,” Johnson says. “If the situation presents itself, I’ll own them.”

Laker owner Jerry Buss, informed about what Johnson says in the interview, on Thursday said, “I have no intention of selling the Lakers, but if I did, Earvin would be one of the most knowledgeable and astute owners in the NBA.”

And if Johnson doesn’t become the next Laker owner? “I’d like to have David Stern’s job,” he tells Firestone. “I’m serious. I would be good at it.”

Johnson touches on a number of topics during the one-hour program in which Cal Ripken is also featured.

Of the Johnson segment, Firestone said, “This is the most uplifting, the most incredible success story I’ve ever done. Here is a guy who eight years ago, after revealing that he had tested positive for HIV, was shunned by everyone.

“Today, he owns five companies, employs 500 people, including some Crips and Bloods, grosses $20 million a year and may be the No. 1 urban entrepreneur in the country.”

The interview, conducted in one of Johnson’s 15 theaters at his complex in Baldwin Park, gets emotional at times. Of course it wouldn’t be a Firestone interview if it didn’t.

“Yes, he cries,” Firestone said. “But it didn’t take a lot of prodding on my part.”

THIS SHOULD BE GROOVY

A special two-hour “SportsCenter of the Decade” show, focusing on the 1960s, will be on ESPN today at 4:30 p.m. It is part of the yearlong ESPN/ABC “SportsCentury” project.

Co-anchors Chris Berman and Charley Steiner go through three wardrobe changes and at times don wigs to capture the flavor of the decade. Berman didn’t get a haircut for two months in preparation.

At 7:30 on ESPN, after the Firestone special, Secretariat is profiled as the century’s 35th best athlete, as selected by a panel of experts. Is a horse an athlete? Obviously the panel thought so.

Two other “SportsCentury” specials will be on ABC this weekend. The century’s top seven coaches, as picked by the panel, are profiled in a two-hour show Saturday at 3 p.m., with Berman serving as host. Yes, John Wooden is on the list. Then on Sunday at 3 p.m., in another two-hour show, the most influential people in sports are profiled. Bob Ley is host.

WORLDLY WOMAN

The NBA is seen in 199 countries in 41 languages via 105 international broadcasters. Games are shown in full or edited into a 2 1/2-hour or one-hour format, and there are a number of regular features and specials customized for different parts of the world.

Overseeing this huge operation from the NBA Entertainment headquarters in the New York area is the senior vice president of international television and business development. Her name is Heidi Ueberroth.

Ueberroth, 33, is the second oldest of Peter and Virginia Ueberroth’s four children.

Skeptics might say her father, the former Los Angeles Olympics chief and baseball commissioner, got her the job. But, even though her last name may have opened some doors along the way, it didn’t propel her to such heights in the sports world.

“My father was a father first, a career counselor second,” she said. “He probably did more to help my friends than he did to help me, but he did give me plenty of good advice. The most important thing he told me was to get out and talk to people and learn what kinds of jobs are out there.”

Heidi Ueberroth, a Vanderbilt graduate who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, joined the NBA in 1994 as director of international media programs. She was promoted to senior vice president in February.

SHORT WAVES

Besides wall-to-wall NBA playoffs this weekend, another highlight is an Oscar De La Hoya fight that is not on pay per view. De La Hoya’s contract with HBO calls for him to make one non-pay-per-view appearance on the cable network per year, and Saturday night’s fight against Oba Carr at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas is it. A bonus is that the companion fight, Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Goyo Vargas, is also pay-per-view quality. . . . Recommended viewing: Channel 9, coming off two Laker playoff telecasts, offers a live half-hour pre-fight show tonight at 10:30 from Mandalay Bay, with Alan Massengale serving as host. In one taped segment, De La Hoya tells Massengale he has a new-found commitment to boxing.

CBS offers a unique golf doubleheader Saturday, the first LPGA Philips Invitational Honoring Harvey Penick at 10 a.m., followed at noon by the PGA Colonial. The LPGA tournament, honoring the late golf instructor of Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and others, is the brainchild of Terry Jastrow, the president of Jack Nicklaus Productions. The announcing crew features hosts Verne Lundquist and Bill Macatee, plus essayist Jack Whitaker in his return to CBS, where he worked from 1962 to ’81. . . . ABC announced on Thursday a five-year extension of its Indianapolis 500 contract that reportedly will pay the speedway between $13 million and $14 million per year, an increase of about $4 million.

IN CLOSING

What’s the deal with TBS and TNT and those weird camera angles from above and from behind the basket during the NBA playoffs? And on free throws we often don’t see if the ball goes in the basket. Turner executives should check out the Laker telecasts on Channel 9, where executive producer Susan Stratton is in charge, and on Fox Sports West, with Jerry Romano producing and Doug Freeman directing. They may learn how basketball games should be covered.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for May 15-16, including sports on cable networks:

SATURDAY

*--*

Over-the-air Channel Rating Share NBA playoffs: Lakers at Houston 4 12.7 33 NBA playoffs: San Antonio at Minnesota 4 6.5 20 NBA playoffs: Orlando at Philadelphia 4 5.7 18 Baseball: Dodgers at St. Louis 5 4.5 10 Horse racing: Preakness Stakes 7 3.1 8 Boxing: Alfred Ankamah vs. Tito Mendoza 9 2.3 4 Golf: PGA, Byron Nelson Classic 2 2.1 6 Boxing: Luisito Espinoza vs. Cesar Soto 34 1.4 4 Bowling: PBA tournament at Akron, Ohio 2 1.0 3 Track and field: Oregon Classic 2 0.8 3

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****

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Cable Network Rating Share Auto racing: NASCAR Pontiac Excitement 400 ESPN 0.9 2 Tennis: ATP Italian Open ESPN 0.5 2 Soccer: MLS, New England at Columbus ESPN2 0.4 1 College baseball: Stanford at UCLA FSW2 0.3 1 NFL Europe: Scotland vs. Rhein FSW 0.2 1 Baseball: Atlanta at Chicago Cubs WGN 0.2 1 Baseball: San Diego at Cincinnati FX 0.2 0 Golf: Senior Las Vegas Classic ESPN 0.1 0 NHL playoffs: St. Louis at Dallas ESPN2 0.1 0

*--*

****

SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share NBA playoffs: Sacramento at Utah 4 10.5 25 NBA playoffs: New York at Miami 4 7.0 19 Baseball: Dodgers at St. Louis 5 4.2 11 Golf: PGA, Byron Nelson Classic 2 2.5 7 Auto racing: CART Rio 200 7 2.1 5 Horse racing: Inglewood Handicap 2 1.0 2 NHL playoffs: Detroit at Colorado 11 0.8 2

*--*

****

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Cable Network Rating Share NBA playoffs: Detroit at Atlanta TNT 1.2 2 Soccer: U.S. women vs. the Netherlands ESPN2 0.8 2 Auto racing: Formula One Monaco Grand Prix FSW 0.7 2 Baseball: San Francisco at Houston ESPN 0.6 1 Tennis: ATP Italian Open ESPN 0.5 1 Golf: Senior Las Vegas Classic ESPN 0.3 1 Auto racing: Indianapolis 500 practice ESPN2 0.1 0

*--*

WEEKDAY RATINGS: Monday--NBA playoffs, Lakers at San Antonio, Ch. 9, 11.1/18, TNT, 3.8/6; Philadelphia at Indiana, TNT, 2.5/6

Note: Each rating point represents 51,350 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.