Magic Says He’s Retired for Good, but . . .

Will someone please set up an Internet site so that I could periodically check in and get a daily update for the following:

1. Magic Johnson has repurchased a part of the Lakers or another team.

2. Magic’s current business ventures.

3. Magic is retired/unretired.

4. Magic will play for the Lakers/Pat Riley.

5. Which position Magic will play (this may have to be updated more frequently).

FRED SCHOR

Los Angeles

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Magic Johnson looked around the NBA and found what many fans see: a bunch of spoiled children interested only in themselves, not in playing a team sport. Magic decided to retire rather than be a part of this disgusting spectacle. Thanks to Magic for once again showing good taste.

JIM VINT

Redondo Beach

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Magic Johnson says he’s retiring on his own terms. Ha! Kareem retired on his own terms. Dr. J retired on his own terms. Magic is retiring (so he says) after a final month in which he embarrassed himself, the team and the fans. If Magic does stay retired, he saves himself the embarrassment of demanding a large amount of money that the Lakers wouldn’t pay and finishing off his career in another city on another team that he would hate from start to finish.

GENO APICELLA

Los Angeles

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Magic, you know it is time to go when you can’t teach new dogs old tricks.

DANNY SANCHEZ

Huntington Beach

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MAY 15, 2001--Basketball great Magic Johnson yesterday announced his decision to again rejoin the Lakers in time to play the first half of the third game of the Western Conference finals against the Phoenix Suns. Magic scored 11 points but appeared a little rusty coming back from his four-month retirement that went into effect in January during the third quarter of a game against the New York Knicks.

During halftime of yesterday’s game, Johnson’s agent announced his client’s decision to again retire, revealing Magic’s displeasure with the team’s performance and his need to resume his business activities.

Laker General Manager Dennis Rodman expressed the team’s deep appreciation for the boost in morale Magic gave the team in the first half. Rodman intimated that there was a good chance that Johnson would again come out of retirement for the fourth quarter of next Saturday’s game, his business obligations permitting.

LEONARD TACHNER

Newport Beach

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If Magic Johnson so chooses, his greatest role in American history still lies ahead and can greatly overshadow his tremendous achievements on the basketball court.

How? Very simple. If he took the lead in establishing black-owned and operated retail stores in the inner cities, especially food supermarkets, which are labor-intensive, “Magic’s Markets” in L.A. and other cities could provide the kind of food and service that suburban residents now enjoy.

It may sound presumptuous, but Magic can be in black economic development what Martin Luther King was in other areas. As an elderly white male raised in the Deep South, I do not write this in cynicism but in full confidence that it can be true.

REV. GRAHAM R. HODGES

Liverpool, N.Y.