Without Their Magic, Lakers Are Seeing How That Other Team Lives

Our basketball team, the Lakers, and our goofball team, the Clippers, are having problems.

Their records are practically reversed, but neither team is at the top of its game right now. The Lakers, for the first time all season, are struggling. The Clippers--well, they would have to improve just to refer to themselves as struggling.

The Lakers’ problem is that Magic Johnson, the best basketball player on Earth, is injured. Michael Cooper, the Magic of sixth men, also is injured. The Laker backcourt all of a sudden is Byron Scott and pray for rain.

The Clippers’ problem is that they are the Clippers. The Clippers wouldn’t be the Clippers without a problem.

Their latest falderal is whether or not Gene Shue should be permitted to remain as coach. Shue, believe it or not, is willing to continue as coach, ample proof that Gene is either a first-class optimist or a world-class masochist.

Los Angeles is supposed to have two National Basketball Assn. franchises, but as of today, it still has one NBA franchise and one CBA franchise. The Clippers probably couldn’t even beat five guys with MBAs.

Clipper owner Donald Sterling doggedly resists our advice to move this outfit to Orange County, where it is wanted, or to Honduras, where another plane load of unwelcome Americans won’t even be noticed.

Sterling reportedly suggested the other day that he is so disappointed with the Clippers’ (cough) improvement, he might be forced to take drastic action, such as getting rid of coach Shue and/or General Manager Elgin Baylor. Knowing the Clippers, they probably would give these jobs to Tom Flores and Cookie Rojas.

Sterling was hoping the Clippers would get more immediate results from their three first-round draft choices: Reggie Williams, Joe Wolf and Ken Norman. As it turned out, very few NBA teams got immediate help. Most of them are in the same boat as San Antonio, although the Spurs at least have the excuse that their draft pick is still off on some boat.

The Knicks did get Mark Jackson, one pick before the Clippers got Norman. The Clippers sure could use Jackson, but then again, the Clippers sure could use anybody. They could use Norm Nixon. They could use Dick Nixon. This is a franchise that licked its lips the day the Boston Celtics cut Greg Kite.

Gene Shue took charge of a 12-70 team, and asked for three years to make things right. Maybe he should have asked for three decades, but what the heck, at least give him the three years. It’s not his fault that the Clippers keep refusing to make the trade that would help the franchise most--namely, Benoit Benjamin to anybody, for $100 cash.

The young players still need a chance to develop. Wolf and Norman might still turn out fine. Williams, when he plays head-to-head against Magic Johnson, looks as though he would prefer to be anywhere else, but a lot of people associated with the Clippers feel that way. At least we know that, having been coached in college by John Thompson, Williams will be a good guy to have around when a fight breaks out.

Although he is hurt now, Williams’ injury hardly affects the Clippers the way Johnson’s affects the Lakers. A game without Magic is like a day without sunshine. He is the heart and soul of the Lakers, not to mention the head and the feet. He is Octo-Man, the player with eight hands. He is scorer, passer, rebounder, thief, cheerleader, playmaker, shooter, defender, morale officer, good will ambassador, social director, spokesperson, assistant coach, chief of intelligence and captain of tomorrow, when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar becomes captain emeritus.

Until the Magic Man from Michi Gan got hurt, the Lakers were unreal. They stomped people. They killed people. They were the best they’d ever been, with apologies to the firm of Wilt, Jerry & Elgin. They went deep, deeper, deepest. They had not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six players who would not have disgraced the NBA Western Conference All-Star team. Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy are authentic all-stars, but Cooper might as well be one, and this was the year Scott and A.C. Green really blossomed.

Another NBA championship was not a foregone conclusion, but another trip to the finals definitely was. It was Detroit the Lakers had to be worried about, or maybe Atlanta, or you know who, the Boston green jox.

Now, Johnson and Cooper are ailing, and Dallas and Portland are feeling better. It also didn’t help that Houston picked up Sleepy Floyd and Joe Barry Carroll from Golden State in exchange for the man who makes Benoit Benjamin look like Bill Russell, the overrated, overpaid, overblown, overgrown, over-easy Ralph Sampson.

Chances are, the Lakers will be all right. Pat Riley, overdue for coach of the year, will find a way. Or, Jerry West will find another Mychal Thompson out there somewhere. Golden State’s such a bunch of suckers, they’d probably trade him Chris Mullin for Dancing Barry.

Also, you can count on Magic Johnson being there when the crunch is on. Magic could play a whole game on his knees and still get 20 points and 15 assists. Thirty points, if it was against the Clippers. No groin pull is going to stop him. David Copperfield’s handcuffs couldn’t stop him.

The sooner he gets back, the better, however, because it isn’t helping the Lakers’ confidence any to be going out there and losing games to Phoenix. Losing to Phoenix on Saturday night, man, that was embarrassing. That was like losing to . . . uh, you know. Those little rascals across town.

If the Clippers do relieve Gene Shue when their season is over, they might consider asking Pat Riley to coach both teams. That team couldn’t do much worse, even if the coach was sending in plays by phone.