Game report -- Magic Johnson All-Stars, Sat. 7/14

He almost looks more like George Foreman than the Magic Johnson I remember, but the old man can still pass. Not only that, he still knows how to step it up in the 4th quarter.

I was disappointed at the absence of other pro-caliber players on the floor (well, pro basketball caliber, anyway). The "Young Guns" roster included names like Baron Davis, Shawn Marion, and Chris Mills, but they were nowhere in sight, leaving Jeff McInnis as their only NBA player.

Magic's team was scrub city as well, with a handful of past 2nd-round picks who never stuck in the league (Trevor Ruffin, Greg Graham, Anthony Pelle).

The big surprise was the appearance of Snoop Doggy Dogg (oops, now that he's older, he goes by the more mature Snoop Dogg) on the bench in the 1st quarter ... and his entrance into the game when Magic took a breather at the start of the 2nd quarter.

To say the least, Snoop does not have what we fans would call "an NBA body." In fact, he played wearing full-length Lakers warmup pants instead of shorts -- presumably so no one could see his embarrassingly scrawny legs.

At first, his game looked mighty undernourished, too. On his first two possessions, his man blew past him off the dribble for a layup, and then raced ahead of him for a fast-break hoop. (A little too cool for the whole "running" thing, Snoop consistently trailed the pack getting back on defense.) In just a few minutes, he'd racked up three fouls.

But to his credit, he made some solid cuts to the hoop and showed a good touch, converting his first four shots (all layups). And the one time he got the ball on the wing -- his teammates seemed to consciously avoid putting him in a situation where he'd have to put the ball on the floor -- he actually made a shimmy move and took his man off the dribble, nearly converted a layup despite being fouled, and calmly sank both free throws. So he proved he wasn't entirely out there as a joke.

Between Snoop's nonexistent D and Magic not quite exerting himself on that side of the floor either, the Young Guns steadily built a 20-point lead. But midway through the 4th quarter, Magic Johnson decided to stop pacing himself and show the crowd what he could still do.

Suddenly, he regained several of the "20 steps" he told the crowd he'd lost in a short pre-tipoff speech. When he wasn't storming coast-to-coast on a fast break, he was abusing someone in the post. And the rest of his team picked up on his intensity, defending more aggressively, making sharp extra passes, and nailing open shots (for a long stretch, Snoop had actually been their 2nd leading scorer). With just under a minute left, the Young Guns' lead had been cut to 3 points, and the crowd was going absolutely nuts.

But the Young Guns decided not to buy into the storybook finish, intercepting an outlet pass to Magic at midcourt to tack on a free throw on the ensuing foul, then watching Snoop airball a 3-point attempt from the corner (it only went about 15 feet).

The Young Guns were led by McInnis -- who dominated the ball just as if it was a Clippers game -- and Ed O'Bannon and NFL pro Tony Gonzales, who demonstrated once again that undersized PFs rule the summer leagues. 49ers wide receiver Terrell Owens also contributed about a dozen points, mostly on fast-break hoops.

 

It definitely was entertaining. A friend of mine brought his girlfriend, who is from New Zealand and had never seen a basketball game before. I told her afterward that she should probably quit while she was ahead, since it would be all downhill after this one.

Having either Magic or Snoop Dogg on the floor for nearly the entire game meant there was always something worth watching, even for non-hoops fans.



------------------