Portland Observer, March 18, 1982 Page 15
Lakers work their Magic -------------------------
by Ullysses Tucker, Jr.
It was an evening o f no-look pas
ses, lo b dunks, high fives, sky
hooks, smiles, deadly jumpers from
the co rn e r, fake behind the back
passes, aggressive defense, and it
was sim ply magical. Yes, “ M agic”
Johnson, the six-fo o t-n in e p ro to
type fro m M ichigan State led the
Los Angeles Lakers traveling show
to Portland and trounced the locals
120-108.
According to Johnson, the Lakers
are playing some very good basket
ball fo r this time o f the year and it
should carry over into the Western
Division playoffs.
“ O ur rh y th ir is b e autifu l,” said
Johnson after confusing the Blazers
w ith 24 points, ten rebounds, nine
assists, four steals, and he one o f six
Lakers in double figures. “ A team
needs this type o f flo w going in to
the p la y o ffs and we have it. W ith
us, we started on defense very ag
gressively and that carried over to
the offense but we’ re s till playing
tough D. I feel pretty good about
the team and the way we’ re going,”
(smiling).
“ M a g ic ,” also believes that the
reason why the Lakers are so suc
cessful is because everyone on the
team knows their roles and under
stands role-playing.
“ W hen you have players going
out o f their assigned roles it spoils
the entire chemistry o f a team,” he
said seriously. “ For any team to be
co m petitive as well as successful,
every player must accept their role
and do their job. We do it w ell.”
C urrently, “ M agic” is second in
the N .B .A . in assists and th ird in
steals. He was ranked in the top ten
in re bound ing but his average
slipped slightly, yet he still leads all
guards in this category. W ith his ten
rebounds against the Blazers, John
son needs only fo rty-five assists to
NBA expands
Pro Am teams
by Ron Sykes
Jim
M c M illia n ,
H a rth o rn e
W in g o , John W illia m s o n A1
Skinner, Dick Garrett, Frankie San
ders, Johnny H ig h , W illie N o r
wood, Sam W orthen, O llie T aylor
Ralph Simpson and Wali Jones.. . .
Once N B A starters, but where are
they now?
They are all playing in the N B A /
Pro A m leagues, th a t’ s where.
These city leagues, which consist o f
anywhere from six to 12 teams in 10
N BA franchise cities, are the brain
c h ild o f Joe A xelson, the N B A ’ s
Vice President, Operations, and are
being developed by Cecil W alkins,
N B A Referee Development adm in
is tra to r. A ll leagues are indepen
dently organized adult leagues run
by state or city agencies, civic organ
izations and top independent ama
teur basketball leagues.
Last season, the NBA established
six p ilo t training programs fo r ref
erees in Denver, Houston, Los A n
geles, M ilw aukee, New Y ork and
San Francisco.
A fte r a recent Pro Am E re c to rs
meeting in Chicago, the various city
league d ire cto rs decided to allow
other Pro-Am cities to participate in
this national N B A program on an
associate membership basis.
Leagues w ill function at their own
expense under m odified N B A /P ro
Am league guidelines fo r the firs t
tw o years in Chicago, D etroit and
Greater O hio (C leveland-C olum -
bus-Toledo). Plans for San Antonio
to link up with Dallas and Waco to
fo rm a Southwest Texas Pro Am
league are now in progress, while on
the West Coast, Seattle and P o rt
land A A U teams w ill com bine to
fo rm a S e a /P o rt Pro Am league.
Finally, New York City has consoli
dated w ith Westchester and New
Jersey to fo rm the Greater New
Y ork/N ew Jersey Pro Am league.
The purpose o f the Pro Am
league is to provide organized lei
sure tim e basketball a c tiv ity fo r
young adults, competing alongside
top am ateur, collegiate, sem i-pro
and exprofessional athletes in NBA
local franchise cities.
The program also serves as a
“ grass roots” part o f the NBA Ref
eree A c q u is itio n program , and is
also being used as an additional pro
motional outlet to aid the local NBA
team in selling basketball in its
hometown city. Although the latter
w ill not apply to the T railblazers,
w ho re g u la rly draw th e ir 12,666
fans.
Look fo r Portland/Seattle entry
to begin play next season.
become the firs t N .B .A . player in
ten years to have 600 rebounds and
600 assists in the same season
(Havlicek, Boston, 1971-72). John
son’ s 19.0 scoring average is th ird
behind A bdul-Jabbar and Jammal
Wilkes.
When questioned about whether
the Lakers could win w ithout K ar
eem Abdul-Jabbar as suggested by
sevral sp o rtsw rite rs around the
country, “ M agic” was quick to as
sess the value o f the “ Big Fella” in
spite o f his being close to w inding
up his wonderful career.
“ Listen B ro, Kareem means a
great deal to me and this organiza
tio n . People th in k th a t we d o n ’ t
need him because we won a few
basketball games w ith o u t him and
th a t’ s not true. W’e need him bad.
Kareem is a big money player. He
blocks shots, rebounds, scores, and
he is a w inner. Sure, we can go a
stretch o f games and w in w ith o u t
him but there’ s no way we can go 82
hard games w ithout him . He’ s our
leader and inspiration,” said John
son.
Earlier in the season, a frustrated
“ Magic” told sportswriters in Utah
that he wanted to be traded or then-
coach Paul Westhead had to be ter
m inated because he did not agree
w ith his coaching philosophy. A t
the time, Johnson believed that the
team was to “ ro b o tlik e ” and not
fa s tbreaking enough. A few days
later Westhead was relieved o f his
duties and replaced by former Laker
Pat Riley even though Laker owner
Jerry Buss contended th a t Jo h n
son’ s comments had nothing to do
with it.
To “ M agic’ s” disbelief, sports
w rite rs c iritic iz e d him and fans
booed him at every arena the Lakers
perform ed in, even at the Forum .
He was labeled as the spoiled brat
w ith the lo n g -te rm m illio n d o lla r
contract and a cry baby. Now that
,
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r
JIM
FISHER
10115 S.E. STARK*
• 226-^260
(Photo: Jim m y Robinson)
the smoke has cleared from the inci
dent, and the Lakers are standing
alone on the to p o f the N .B .A .
Western D ivisio n — the nasty cries
and critical articles are gone.
“ Yeah, people are starting to fo r
get about i t , ” he said. “ They used
to treat me so bad and boo me but
now they are just into good basket
ball. I guess you could say that I ’ m
winning them back over around the
league and our fans respect good
basketba ll. 1 hated fo r people to
have passed ju d g m e n t on me so
q u ic k ly . Some p ro b a b ly s till have
that negative perception about me
but 1 d o n ’ t w o rry about it. They
don’ t know me. As long as I can re
late to the young people o f the
world, I could care less about what
they th in k. They’ re the ones I care
about. They respect me. I just want
to relate to the young folks out here
— that’ s who I care about.”
_ .
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On the road to New Orleans
h in d Sam P erkins and James-
W o rth y should have little tro u b le
beating A labam a at Raleigh. The
Midwest being played at St. Louis
w ill see H ouston beating M issouri
in a squeaker and Kansas St. flying
past Boston College. Then Kansas
St. should outlast H ouston in the
final. In the mideast being played at
B irm in g h a m .. .U A B should beat
Ralph Sampson’ s Virginia team and
the Louisville Cardinals get the nod
over M innesota o f the B ig-ten.
L o u is v ille w ill beat U n iv e rs ity o f
A labam a at B irm in g h a m fo r the
mideast title . In the west being
played at P ro v o .. .Fresno State w ill
take on the num ber one seed
G eorgetown. The Hoyas are on a
ro ll, but i f they aren’ t careful Fres
no w ill roll them right back to D.C.
We see this as a good one. But i f
y o u ’ re be ttin g take Fresno w ith
points.
Oregon State, No. 4 against Ida
ho, No. 6. In their only other meet
ing the Vandals completely dom in
ated the Beavers, w in n in g 70-59.
T his one w ill be d iffe re n t. Take
OSU and the Beavers to w in the
West title and dance on B ourbon
Street.
More on OSU:
As a team, OSU is averaging 16.6
assists per game, an assist ra tio o f
.608. The Beavers are forcing an av
erage o f 20.0 turnovers a game by
opponents and are averaging 8.6
steals per game. So to say Lester
Conner is on a roll would be an un
derstatement. The 6-4, A ll-A m e ri
can guard leads OSU in scoring, re
bounding, and steals. No small feat
for a guard.
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MALL 205
"M A G IC " JOHNSON
,
While many are talking about the
road to New Orleans, the site o f the
1982 National Collegiate champion
ship, being held on March 29, others
are just happy to be en route to such
places as Raleigh, N .C ., St. Louis,
M o ., B irm in g h a m , A la ., and
P ro vo , U tah. The fie ld o f 48 has
now been reduced to 16, and after
the smoke clears this weekend there
w ill be just fo u r and those are the
gifted few that w ill dance on Bour
bon Street.
Oregon State, a fte r dow ning
Pepperdine 70-51, is one o f those
happy to be in the q u a rte rfin a ls .
A fter all these Beavers had tried un
successfully on three o ther occa
sions to make it past the first round.
B ut, then, we should remember
that this is a d iffe re n t OSU team
and one that 1 predicted earlier
would go a long way.
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M 205
JIM
FISHER
10115 S.E. STARK •
• 226-2260