Still Showtime : Lakers’ Worthy Is Now Being Asked to Be Leader Off the Court, If Not On

Last one out of the dynasty, get the lights.

That means you, James Worthy.

If the torch is being passed to a new generation of Lakers, it’s Worthy doing the handing off, all of 32 and suddenly the last of his kind. This was never in the job description, not this transition game.

“People look at the Lakers and say, ‘They’re a bunch of young kids,’ � General Manager Jerry West said. “But we still have James Worthy. People associate him with the last link of truly great teams.�

Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are in retirement. A.C. Green is in Phoenix. Michael Cooper is in the front office. Byron Scott is in limbo, waiting for a destination for this season. Kurt Rambis is a Laker again, but only after five seasons away with three other teams. That leaves Worthy as the last real link to the teams that won five NBA titles and eight Western Conference championships.

Despite some contemporaries such as Rambis and James Edwards, this team has three prominent players who were born in the 1970s, one of whom, Doug Christie, will probably start ahead of Worthy.

“It’s kind of odd,� Worthy said. “It’s not the best feeling in the world, being the only guy still around, except for Kurt coming back. But I understand that’s the way the league works.

“Byron was here for so many years, and I thought A.C. would be around another couple of years. But it can happen that quickly. One day, I’m the last one.

“I can remember coming into the league and being under the likes of Kareem, Jamaal Wilkes, Magic, Norm Nixon and Bob McAdoo,� he says. “Now I find myself in that situation. Guys are telling me how they were in junior high, watching us beat the Celtics in ’85. I can’t be that old.�

Worthy is starting his 12th season and suddenly being asked to adjust. For the first time as a pro, he doesn’t figure to start full-time, a role he played 69 times last season before being replaced by Elden Campbell for the final 13 games. And the usual grand scale of success, the Lakers having averaged 56.6 victories in his career, may slide again after a 39-43 finish in 1992-93.

But of all the changes, as dramatic as the others may become, the biggest will be in personality. The Lakers want him to break out of character and be more vocal, to take control behind the scenes as he used to on the court. Actually, the Lakers, facing a probable leadership vacuum, don’t want that as much as they need it.

Only two years ago, Johnson, a teammate for nine seasons, described Worthy as someone who prefers to be left alone to be the quiet star, someone who doesn’t want the rah-rah.

How is Worthy handling the Laker leader role?

At the first team gathering, the annual dinner meeting the night before camp opened, he addressed his teammates, urging that the team’s past success be used as a springboard to success in the future.

“To me, being comfortable is irrelevant,� he said on another occasion. “All 12 guys understand somebody has to do it, the constructive criticism or the encouragement. That has to be there on a team. Whether I’m comfortable with it or not, I am the only guy who has been around here all this time and seen as much.�

Said Coach Randy Pfund: “I think if you watched the playoffs (last season), you saw James on the bench really get into it. You saw him get the guys together on the floor and off the floor. As his career has entered the later years, I think he really has understood he can be a huge help to this organization and to this team by being more active in this role. I think he’s assumed that.

“He’ll never be the type of leader that a point guard or Earvin would be, but in his own way I think he has assumed that role very well.�

That has turned out to be only the first of the encouraging signs. Come game time, Worthy has also performed, exhibitions or not.

He made all nine of his shots in 19 minutes against the Clippers and their young forwards Oct. 20 at Las Vegas. The next game, against Miami at the Forum, he made four of seven shots and scored the Lakers’ final six points in a two-point victory. The next night, he scored 23 points against Seattle’s tough defense, making 11 of 11 free throws.

The result of his playing in seven of the eight exhibitions--he sat out one because of a sprained ankle--was a team-high 14.7-point average and 52.2% shooting.

The torch-passing business can sometimes do that to a guy.