Magic Takes Step to Hall

Magic Johnson, who ran the Showtime Lakers with exceptional and enduring charisma, is a finalist for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, a mere detail on his way to Springfield, Mass.

Twenty-three others--including Laker teammate James Worthy, Laker assistant Tex Winter and Laker consultant Bill Sharman--also were nominated Wednesday for induction. Sharman, already in the Hall of Fame as a player, is a finalist as a coach and would join John Wooden and Lenny Wilkens among those twice honored.

The inductees will be announced June 5 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be held Sept. 27.

From the moment he retired--for a second time, after playing 32 games in the 1995-96 season--Johnson’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame was inevitable. He left as the game’s all-time assists leader, though John Stockton has since passed him. Johnson averaged 19.5 points and 11.2 assists, was a part of five NBA championships and was league MVP three times.

From a hotel room in Atlanta on Wednesday morning, Johnson said the Hall of Fame, for the first time, felt “real.”

“It still has to be validated,” he said. “But it’s great. I can feel the Laker tradition. I followed in the footsteps of so many greats, from [George] Mikan on. Jerry [West] and Wilt [Chamberlain], Elgin [Baylor], all those guys. Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], then James and myself. You just carry on the tradition of other guys. Then, of course, there were the guys you patterned yourself after, like Oscar [Robertson].”

Worthy has been a finalist before. “He deserves to be in,” Johnson said. “James Worthy was not only great in the regular season, but he was the best playoff player I’ve ever seen. If the other guys are going to be in there, guys James competed against like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, he should be in there too. Nobody raised his game in the playoffs like James Worthy. He should be in there.”

Winter, who turned 80 in February, has been nominated several times before, only to be disappointed.

“It’s better than not being considered at all,” he said Wednesday morning. “I think it’s more important to my family and my former players than it is to me, actually.”

The finalists:

Players: Johnson, Maurice Cheeks, Adrian Dantley, Bobby Jones, Chet Walker and Worthy.

Coaches: Larry Brown, Lefty Driesell, Lute Olson, Sharman, Eddie Sutton.

Contributors: Jerry Colangelo, Junius Kellogg, Winter, Harlem Globetrotters.

Veterans: Early Lloyd, Forrest Anderson, Grady Lewis.

Women: Cathy Rush, Kay Yow, Harley Redin.

International: Dino Meneghin, Drazen Petrovic, Pedro Ferrandiz.