This Show More Than Lives Up to Its Billing

The move, the one everyone came to see, occurred with 3:59 remaining in the first quarter and got Inglewood tingling again. Magic Johnson missed a shot, but Vlade Divac grabbed the basketball and gave it back. That’s when Magic put a head-fake on Latrell Sprewell of the Golden State Warriors that put poor Latrell in a spell, announcing to one and all that the Golden State’s greatest warrior had returned.

Come on, four years off, a guy should be a little rusty. Nineteen points? Ten assists? Eight rebounds? You ain’t gonna believe this, Laker likers, but Earvin Johnson the sequel looks eerily like the original. All he needs is bigger hair and a goatee. Where did this guy REALLY spend the last few seasons--Michigan State?

“I feel like he never left,� Divac said.

What a show. Phantom of the Forum.

“It was so much fun,� Magic said. “Man!�

He plays pretty well, for an owner.

Liquidating his 5% piece of the action so he could get back in on the action, Magic Johnson made his move from management to labor Tuesday night at the Forum, where he made the kind of moves executives only make in their dreams. If ever Elden Campbell, Eddie Jones, Cedric Ceballos and Nick Van Exel had second thoughts about inviting the old-timer back, this persuaded them that they had done the right thing. The old dude can still hack it.

No sooner had they pushed the PLAY button on “I Love L.A.,� Mr. Johnson’s opus, when into the game he came to press FAST FORWARD. Enthusiasm rocked the House of Buss. Up in the balcony, Jerry Buss applauded his business partner turned employee. Down in a runway, Jerry West joined 17,505 other people who, like him, could not sit down. Elvis hadn’t left the building; Elvis was back in the building.

Wild. Crazy.

He took a short shot. Missed it, short. OK. Needs to get back his touch.

Then he stole the ball, peeled out, peeled off a pass to Anthony Peeler. Three-point shot. “Assist, Magic Johnson,� P.A. announcer Lawrence Tanter spoke into a microphone, a familiar phrase from a familiar voice.

Wilder. Crazier. What next?

Magic made his way to the hoop, laid one in. Lakers 23, Visitors 10. Like old times.

And then it happened, just before Coach Del Harris looked over at Derek Strong and told him to report into the game in place of that old legend out there. Then came the move, the one that confirmed it, the one that made it clear that Magic Johnson might be larger, stronger, more muscular, less spectacular than before, but he still had arms like an octopus and eyes in the back of his head.

Magic followed his miss. Divac took the rebound, fed it back. Sprewell spread his wings. Magic pretended to pass the basketball in the general direction of Hollywood Park. Sprewell followed his misdirection and moved in the general direction of the kid with the towel who mops up the sweat. On radio and TV, Chick Hearn said Sprewell fell for it “like a carp going after a worm.�

Magic laid it up and in.

“What did you think of that fake, Latrell?� the fallen Warrior was asked after the game.

“Hey, what could I think?� Sprewell shot back. “He got me. That was a sweet move.�

And that ended the game, though not the show. Magic Johnson played 27 minutes of his homecoming game, and guess what? Golden State never led. Not once did the Lakers fall behind. They won the game by 10. Their total of 128 was the highest by a Warrior opponent in a regulation-length game all season.

“I asked him how it felt to be back, before the game,� said Divac, the only Laker aside from Campbell ever to have played in an NBA game with Johnson before this. “He told me he was a little nervous. I told him I was a little nervous. Five years, is long time.�

The losers were impressed. Everyone was.

Dream Team teammate of old Chris Mullin said of Magic, “All the good things he used to do, he still does. He’ll never lose those skills. If you turn your head for a minute, he’s gonna find your man. He’ll never lose that.�

It was like watching a Magic Johnson impersonator. The resemblance was uncanny. OK, a little thicker around the hips, a little rounder in the cheeks. But otherwise, yeah, he’s got him down cold.

Magic Johnson took back his old locker, put on his old uniform, was up to his old tricks. The night was a total success. Well, almost total. He didn’t make the All-Star team. And two more rebounds, eight more steals, he could have had a quadruple-double. Well, maybe next time.