Johnson Return Not Good News For The Sonics

Having been through a half-dozen Magic Johnson comeback stories, this column is being distributed on Etch-A-Sketch newsprint. In case he backs out yet again, simply shake the sports section once, blank out this space and write your own column.

If indeed this comeback is a keeper, or at least holds up overnight, the sports world will be as happy as the Sonics are dismayed.

None of the Sonics will admit to that, of course. They are saying the predictable things about Johnson’s return being great for him and the game. What they know is the NBA’s Western Conference, which has come up unusually docile this season, has just added the basketball equivalent of Mike Tyson.

And he belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers. This is bad news of the highest order for the Sonics. For the enlightened sports fan who has properly blown off the NBA until football is over, the Lakers are nearly tied for second place behind Seattle in the Pacific Division, having won eight of the past 10 games.

The Lakers last spring dispatched the Sonics 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs, after whipping them 4-1 during the regular season. Since the Sonics won the 1979 NBA title, their postseason record against L.A. is 2-15.

If the Lakers owned Seattle any more completely, we would be sending our property-tax payments to Jack Nicholson.

The prime reason for such domination has been Johnson, the unmatchable talent. In last spring’s playoffs, Johnson wasn’t in uniform. But the Sonics have established that it isn’t necessary to be anybody special to beat them in the playoffs.

It’s true this version of Johnson won’t be the same. He is four years older and 30 pounds heavier since we last saw him in shorts, during the Barcelona Olympics. All this makes him is a little slower, but no dumber, weaker or less likely to throttle the Sonics should the teams meet in the postseason. There is simply more of Johnson to not stop.

Undoubtedly he will flail some in the first few weeks of his return. During his layoff, he has been a fitness fiend and has played hoops steadily. But as Michael Jordan established last spring, there is only one way to get in NBA condition, and it isn’t by bunting the runner over.

But conditioning and timing are trifling matters. Looming over his return is the toll upon his health exacted by HIV. That is why he left the game. But notice when he is returning - midseason.

Because knowledge of HIV is limited, no doctor is certain about its consequences on such an elite athlete. It’s a safe guess that an entire NBA season would be debilitating. But how about a half-season, with limited practices?

The issue that stopped Johnson’s earlier return, ignorance about HIV, seems to have waned in the NBA since his November 1991 admission, in no small part by his own awareness campaign. Few objections have been heard by current players, many of whom have played in pickup games with Johnson over the years.

Also in his favor now is returning to a contending team that he won’t have to carry, particularly from the point-guard position. Johnson will eventually bounce Elden Campbell from his starting power-forward position and more often play a big man’s game, his back to the basket.

There is another issue driving him - 1996 is an Olympic year, and Johnson wants desperately one of two unclaimed spots on the U.S. team. Already USA Basketball has said one of the spots will go to a big forward. Until Monday’s announcement, the likeliest candidate was the Sonics’ Shawn Kemp, who is having a career year. But with the chance to send Johnson’s beaming mug worldwide for three weeks this summer, NBC will weigh in and tell Kemp, “Hey, my man, love your game, but … “

Just another reason for Sonic fans to clap a softly.

There will be others who will be even less thrilled, for non-sports reasons. Johnson still will be annoying to those who feel the promiscuity that led to his disease is a rotten example. They are right.

Unfortunately, if we use stupidity in private behavior as a filter through which we strain our sports figures, too often we would be left in big-time sports with BYU against nobody. If the same filter were applied to business and politics, well … you make the call. The space in the dictionary between condone and condemn isn’t big. There’s just enough room for Johnson, and the rest of us.