}
SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, September 1992
11
Magic Johnson returns to NBA's Lakers
The Associated Press
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Unable to leave the game he loves even to fight for his life, Magic Johnson returned to pro basketball yesterday.
Source: The Associated Press
Less than a year after retiring because he had contracted the AIDS virus, Johnson announced that he will play again this season for the Los Angeles Lakers and said it was only natural.
"I'm playing again," he said, beaming. "Yeaaaa. Finally."
"That court is where I belong, no matter what happens," Johnson said, speaking in the same room where he had his sad, shocking heydea last Nov. 7.
Johnson probably will not play full time — 50-60 games is the starting point for this season and he will be checked and double-checked by doctors who admit they do not know just what the grind of professional basketball will do to a man with Johnson's medical condition.
But from the parquet floor of Boston Garden to the Roman pillars of the Forum, he will be back, wearing No. 32, flashing that big smile and playing the game as only Magic can.
“It’s time to go back to work; it’s time to have some fun,” Johnson said. “I think the positives outweigh all the risks. That’s not saying there are no risks, because life itself is a risk. But being out there, I won’t be worried about that. If I was concerned about that, I’d still be retired.”
The mood this time was decidedly different from that of his retirement announcement 327 days ago. This time, Johnson frequently laughed and joked with his wife and reporters, flashing his famous trademark smile.
"This is a lot more relaxed," Johnson said "It was much tougher then because I was having to say goodbye."
Johnson's wife, Cookie, said she was behind his decision to return
Since Johnson announced his retirement, there had been a steady stream of speculation and controversy about his future, mixed with his triumphant appearances in the NBA All-Star Game in February and the Olympics this summer. It was that
"That court is where I belong."
Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Los Angeles Lakers
success and the lack of additional medical problems that convinced Johnson to return.
"The true test for me was playing against the players in practice on the Olympic team and watching as I was just getting better and better, playing hard against them every day, going at it like it was a regular game," Johnson said. "Also, getting back here, putting on 15 pounds, playing every day, as we did this morning with the guys at UCLA.
"I'm feeling good and it's time to get back to what I was doing."
Johnson, 33, said there was never a time after the Olympics that he thought he would not return, but waited to make the announcement because, "Now is the perfect time. It's only a week until training camp."
The Lakers report to Honolulu on Oct. 8 to begin preparations for the season. Their first game is Nov. 6 against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Michael Mellman, Johnson's doctor and a Lakers team physician, said the 6-foot-9 superstar's decision to play again would present a new challenge in treating an HIV-positive patient.
"There's some good and not some so good," Mellman said. "He's a unique man."
Just how much Johnson plays will be determined as the season progresses and he undergoes repeated tests.
"He's going to listen to his body, and
'e're going to listen to him," Mellman said.
Johnson said he had called Jerry Buss, the Lakers' owner, on Saturday to tell him he had decided to return, and that final details of a contract would be taken care of in the next day or two.
Johnson said his limited schedule
"I'm not going to miss the good ones." Johnson said.
Johnson made his decision public four days after resigning from President Bush's National Commission on AIDS and 10 days after scoring 32 points in an exhibition game he sponsors each summer to benefit the United Negro College Fund.
He said quitting the AIDS commission was unrelated to his decision to return to the Lakers, and added he would consider rejoining the commission if Bill Clinton was elected President in November.
Johnson stunned the nation and basketball fans worldwide when he revealed his illness last November, seemingly ending a 12-year NBA career that included five championships with the Lakers.
He was named to the AIDS commission eight days later. When he resigned Friday because of what he called a lack of support from the Bush administration, he vowed to continue his fight against AIDS.
Johnson is the NBA's career leader in assists with 9,921 and was the Most Valuable Player in 1987, 1989 and 1990. He was the MVP in the All-Star Game on Feb. 9 in Orlando, Fla., scoring 25 points and making three consecutive 3-pointers in the final minutes.
Johnson's return follows Bird's retirement from the Celtics by six weeks. Bird arrived in the NBA at the same time Johnson did and joined with him in leading a league-wide resurgence in the 1980s. The Lakers and Celtics won eight championships between them in the decade.
rights to the NBA, said it would first be able to showcase Johnson on Super Bowl Sunday, Jan. 31, when the Lakers are at Boston. NBC announced its NBA schedule on July 13 and said it had no plans to change it to get the Lakers on earlier.
Although he had not played a regular-season game for the Lakers, he was voted onto the Western Conference's starting lineup by fans and decided to play.
NBC, which has exclusive network
League glad to see Magic return to play
The Associated Press
Larry Bird summarized the feelings of most people yesterday after learning that Magic Johnson was returning to the Los Angeles Lakers.
"I am thrilled for Magic, and I am glad he will be able to continue playing," said Bird, who retired six weeks ago. "I'm sure that he and his family have made the decision that they feel is best for him, and I wish him all the luck in the world. It will be great to watch him play again."
NBA commissioner David Stern stressed his concern for Johnson's health. Johnson retired last year when the tested positive for the AIDS virus.
"We have conferred with his doctors, who have advised that they are comfortable with Magic's decision to return to active competition." Stern edited.
New York Knicks coach Pat Riley, who led Johnson and the Lakers to four NBA champions in the 1980s, said jokingly, "I wonder if there was anything I did to make him want to play against me."
Lakers forward A.C. Green said he had practiced with Johnson recently and was impressed with his physical play.
"I've been playing with him for three weeks," Green said. "He's been taking it to me, and I've been hitting him. I'm glad to have him back."
Lakers announcer Chick Hearn, who mourned Johnson's retirement announcement on Nov. 7, 1991, said he was thrilled about Johnson's return and predicted it would boost the Lakers, their fans and the NBA.
"I saw the diligent work he's been putting in," he said. "I believe he's in the best physical condition I've ever seen, and I'm the only person in the world who's seen him play every single game since college."
Big Eight honors Kansas runner
Kansan staffreport
Michael Cox, (right), runs with junior John Hays (middle) and senior Jason Teal. Cox was named Big Eight Runner-of-the-month.
Cox finished first on the team and seventh overall at the Jayawhak Invitalized on Sept. 12 at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence. He ran the 8,000-meter course in 24:38.
Last year, Cox had the best time on the team in five of eight meets. He has run in two NCAA meets with Kansas.
Cox said he was looking forward to running in the team's next meet, the Nike Invitational on Oct. 3.
"It's going to be a big meet with more than 20 teams and 200 people in the race," he said. "I'm going to run to win it."
Kansas is ranked No. 15 in the NCAA poll released yesterday.
Crew teams begin season regattas
By Kristi Fogler
Kansan sportswriter
At 6 a.m. they gather in the cold and dark, ready to row.
It was less than 40 degrees yesterday when the varsity KU Crew team put their boats into the water to begin the one and a half hour practice.
The team has almost 120 members, 32 vinyard and the rest restroom. It is the host of a variety of sports.
The varsity team practices daily at 6 a.m., the novice team has two practice sessions at 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. at Burcham Park, Second and Indiana streets.
The team will practice in the water until the Kansas River freezes, Rob Catloth, crew's coach, said, then the team will move indoors for weight
The team placed first in the women's lightweight four, women's open four and the women's open eight. To qualify for lightweight events, women must weight 130 pounds or less, and men 160 pounds or less. In addition, women must men's lightweight and open eights and third in the men's open four.
Moines, in Des Moines, Iowa, the team took second place behind Minneapolis Boat Club. Catloth said about 15 teams competed in the regatta. KU was the ton collegiate team.
Junior Michael Amick said the highlight of the regatta was beating a Harvard team in the men's open four.
in the first varsity regatta of the season last weekend, the Head of the Des
Teammate Jason Hatfield said he set his sights on a bigger goal: Wisconsin.
"We beat Harvard, what's left?" he said.
"Men's crew is not as experienced as women's," Johnson said. "Basically, we're building up experience."
Aaron Johnson, sophomore captain, agreed.
Hattfield said. He said that realistically Kansas could place second in the Midwest Championships in Madison, Wix, next spring behind Wisconsin.
The men's team now is working on rebuilding. The men's team was first year all year and this year all the members are first-year varsity rowers, Haftfield said.
Catloth said he wanted to increase the size of the team so that the team could compete with teams from Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue and Notre Dame.
"Number one is Wisconsin, then there are six to eight crews at our level and then like 40 below us," Catloth said.
Wisconsin, where crew is a varsity sport, is the best team in the Midwest.
The men's team will travel with the
Mason bars public media from practice
The novice team will hold their first regatta Oct. 11, Catloth said the emphasis of the regatta was not on competition but on learning how a regatta worked. He said that since the regatta was scheduled during Parents Weekend, the regatta would give parents the opportunity to see their students in action and learn more about crew.
women's second team to The Head of the Iowa Regatta, Oct. 18 in Iowa City, Iowa. The same day the women's open eight team will travel to Boston for the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta. The team placed second nationally in that event this summer at the national championships in Cincinnati.
No places will be awarded in the regatta, which will feature teams from Kansas State, Washburn, Wichita Falls, and Oklahoma University in St. Louis, Cathedral, said.
Bv David Bartkoski
Mason said that an incident Thursday before the Jayhawks' game against California prompted him to make the decision.
Kansan sportswriter
"The reason I say that is because it was a couple days worth of quotes by players and interviews by players. Along with that there were some very accurate drawings of some new things we had in for the game, even to the point where they had some of our key check words."
Kansas football coach Glen Mason has closed practice to the public and media for the remainder of the season.
Mason said he did not think the packet had any bearing on the result of the California game.
"I arrived at the stadium and a guy handed me about five sheets of paper that had very accurate notes about our practice," he said. "I assume it was from someone from the media. If I knew exactly who it was, I would tell you. But I don't know."
Doug Vance, assistant athletics
director at Kansas, said this was the first time since he came here in 1983 that practices were closed for an extended period of time.
"We have an open policy with an asterisk kicker," he said. "At times, we may ask for special plays not to be reported. And at times, we've closed practice for a really big game. But I know that since 1986, practices have been pretty much open to the media."
"At the last minute, we changed or eliminated any of the stuff that was in there," he said.
He said he did not want to have to worry about what someone was writing down during practice.
"I want to be able to go out there and coach and evaluate my team," he said.
Kansas joins Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas State as Big Eight schools with closed football practices.
Chris Anderson, interim associate sports information director at Nebraska, said practices there had been closed for about 20 years.
Larry McAlister, assistant sports information director at Oklaahoma, said Sooners' practices were open before the first game of the year.
"Once the season starts, practices are open for about 30 minutes to the media," he said. "After that, they have to leave."
David Plati, sports information director at Colorado, said almost every practice at the university was open to spectators and journalists.
She said the media had opportunities to see parts of the beginnings and ends of practice in Lincoln.
Colorado, Iowa State and Missouri usually have practices open to the public and the media.
"Our policy is real lax," she said. "We don't ever shut the gates."
Golf team ekes out KU Invitational win
By Kristi Fogler
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas men's golf team won the KU Invitational yesterday, despite poor play by the Jayhawks. Kansas senior Jim Young placed first individually after a sudden-death playoff.
Kansas 'varsity team, which had a 15-stroke lead going into yesterday's final round, won by only 3 strokes more than Kansas State and 12 strokes more than Indiana. Kansas' in seventh, 20 strokes behind first.
Junior Jeff Moeller tied with Young, who played for the second team, for the Kansas' best score in yesterday's round, both shot 1 over par, 73. Senior Brad Bruno had the lowest three-round total for the varsity Jayhawks, 8 over par. 224.
Junior John Hess, who shot 7 on par, 79 yesterday, said the team's performances were good.
Fifteen teams competed at Alvanan Golf Course in Lawrence.
"They had such a big team lead,
Randall said of Monday's lead. "Individually they tried to win something.
They put too much pressure on them."
"We played horrible," Hess said. "All the guys in the lead after the first day played horrible. It feels like we got 10th place out of 10. But a win's a win."
Kansas coach Ross Randall said he accepted the win even if the team did not play to its potential. Randall said the golfers would improve if they played to their potential.
selves. They'll think about this and think they're hucky they won."
Randall did praise Young who finished first in the tournament after a two-hole, sudden-death playoff with a Florida State player.
Randall said he hoped the poor play would make the team work harder.
"They all feel terrible," he said. "I had to remind them that they did win. If you can get away with playing like this, you're lucky."
"He's been here for five years, and nobody's worked as hard as Jin has." Randall said. "I'm delighted for him, all that hard work paid off."
Young said consistent play was the key to his success.
"I played steady and kept my head," Young said. "I made a couple of mistakes today, but I didn't let them get me down.
"I am so incredibly excited. This is my first win in college. This is my first college ten."
Randall said Young would travel with the varsity team next weekend to play in a tournament in Seattle.
"Everyone kept telling me, 'You got a chance to win. You got a chance to win,'" he said. "I'm so excited and proud of myself."
After Young double bogeyed on the 16th hole, he said he thought he did not have a chance to win.
Randall said if the golfers needed a new mental attitude if they wanted to
"How you go at it mentally determines how you do physically," he said.
Paul Kotz/ Special to the KANSAN
John Hess, Leawood junior, hits his second shot on the tenth hole at the Alvaram Golf Course during the KU Invitational. Coming into Monday's final round, Hess was in first place and ended with a 79 yesterday.