Magic Johnson

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Earvin "Magic" Johnson used to dominate the basketball court. Now, a team of restaurant developers is helping him own the food court, too. Sodexho USA's Retail Brand Group, an Allentown subsidiary of the Gaithersburg-based food services giant, is working with hoops legend Johnson to develop three restaurant concepts through his Magic John Enterprises that will trade on Johnson's sports and business success. Plans call for a sports bar, a sandwich shop and a Magic Johnson Marketplace food court, brand group officials said this week.

Outside Baltimore, most of the sporting world will hardly take notice of tomorrow night's Morgan State-Towson football game, beyond a line in the agate of their Sunday sports section. And, unless something really weird happens, the contest won't get a mention on any of the national highlights shows.But, for the Tigers and the Golden Bears, their alumni and fans, the game does have extra significance, and that's why it's good that Channel 2 will air the contest."When you're doing the game, you can tell that it has an extra meaning for these kids," said Scott Garceau, Channel 2's sports director.

HE ALWAYS had the sweetest moves.Like in the 1986 playoffs when he faced down Larry Bird. Juking, jerking, stutter-stepping, he toyed with Mr. Bird, then stepped out and popped a jump shot that fell through the net just as pretty as you please.Basketball aficionados -- and suddenly there were a lot more of them -- were thunderstruck. "Did you see that move? Did you see it?"New movesWe spent more than a decade watching his moves. But the move Michael Jordan is making now is unlike any he's ever made before.

The Cordish Co. is preparing to demolish the US Airways Arena in Landover to make way for a $150 million retail and entertainment complex, reversing plans that originally called for preserving the 25-year-old building.Cordish and arena owner Abe Pollin made the decision to raze the 19,000-seat venue because design schemes make the existing arena more of an obstacle than an amenity to the new 400,000-square-foot project that they intend to develop.It is expected to cost more than $2 million to demolish the former Capital Centre, which opened in December 1973 as the home of the National Basketball Association's Washington Bullets, although formal estimates to raze the structure have yet to be developed, Cordish officials said.

If you want to get Bob Kersee animated, just suggest to him that his venture into Winston Cup Racing should be designed for the pure benefit of minorities in a sport that is nearly snow white."

Twenty years after an effervescent young talent named Earvin Johnson led Michigan State to the NCAA championship, another young, charismatic point guard has delivered the Spartans to the Final Four.That's where all analogies and comparisons of Michigan State's past and present should end, however.Mateen Cleaves is no Magic Johnson, but his No. 2-ranked Spartans do possess some magic of their own going into Saturday's national semifinal against No. 1-ranked Duke in St. Petersburg, Fla.How else do you explain a team with no true scorer getting this far in the NCAA tournament?

NBA games lost yesterday: 8.Total games missed: 77.Earliest estimated date that season can start: Dec. 15.Negotiations: Nothing scheduled. Commissioner David Stern and union director Billy Hunter were supposed to speak by phone yesterday.Projected player salary losses (through Dec. 15): $250 million.Today's best canceled game: Lakers at Boston. Sure, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird are long-since retired, but it's always special when these teams meet.Pub Date: 11/13/98

Looking to establish a post-playing career teaching baseball, Cal Ripken is going to camp. Later this month, he will open the first in what he hopes will be an international chain of baseball schools for youth. And in January, he will convene a four-day fantasy camp for aspiring teammates willing to pay $8,000 for the experience.The enterprises could lead to a lucrative second career for the venerable Orioles infielder. He has one or two more seasons left on his contract, depending on whether the team exercises an option for 2000.

Magic Johnson didn't live up to his name Monday night, but he at least left open the possibility that he could."The Magic Hour," Johnson's syndicated entry into the evening talk-show wars, made its debut with two high-powered guests (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Whitney Houston), a guy who sets himself on fire (does the L.A. fire marshal know about this dude?), a sidekick who brought nothing to the party, a music director with enough wattage to light a small town and a host who's so effervescent and so likable, he may just be able to pull this off.But first, Johnson needs to work on some noticeable rough spots.

Magic Johnson Theatres will build a 16-screen, stadium-style movie megaplex as an anchor of the planned Capital Centre entertainment and retail complex on the site of US Airways Arena in Landover, the project's developers plan to announce today.Loews Cineplex Entertainment and Johnson Development Corp. formed the chain three years ago to bring upscale, first-run cinemas to minority neighborhoods in metropolitan areas, said a spokeswoman for Magic Johnson Theatres. The chain runs similar theaters in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Houston and plans to open three more next year in Cleveland, Harlem, N.Y., and Carson, Calif.

I doubt anyone remembers this because it was 16 years ago and just one of many offensive utterances that have spilled out of millions of radios from sea to shining sea, all across the fruited plain, for at least two decades. I remember it well, because it was the last time I listened to Rush Limbaugh for more than five seconds. It was spring, 1993, and the National Basketball Association playoffs were being televised by NBC. Marv Albert handled play-by-play. Magic Johnson, the former Los Angeles Lakers star, was a color commentator.

Jon Scheyer was falling out of bounds when he made a heady play to keep one loose ball alive. David McClure tipped another one to a teammate to deny Texas a last chance. Because Duke is doing all the little things right, some of the biggest things remain very real possibilities. The second-seeded Blue Devils made every clutch play in their 74-69 victory over the seventh-seed Longhorns last night in the East Regional in Greensboro, N.C., propelling them into the second weekend of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2006.

Celtics@Lakers 5 p.m. [chs. 2, 7] It's a rematch of last season's NBA Finals and pits the two teams with the league's richest histories. Coupled with the Spurs-Suns game at 2:30 p.m., the doubleheader marks the beginning of this season's NBA coverage on ABC. Magic Johnson will make his debut on the network's pre-game show at 2 p.m. Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy call the Celtics-Lakers game.

Bailing you out with sports media notes while thinking about how hearing about letting John McCain be John McCain makes me think of Manny being Manny: * Add me to the list of observers who have noted how TBS has emulated Fox's habit of cutting to close-ups of fans in order to accentuate the drama in the baseball postseason. However, given the way some of these games have gone, the close-ups could easily just be of people packing up to leave the ballpark before the ninth inning. * So not only does Baltimore really like to watch the debates (as ratings reflect)

"Ladies," said Cookie Johnson, looking straight into the camera, her husband's arm draped across her shoulders. "Have you been tested ... " " ... for HIV?" finished Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson. As the most prominent African-American face of HIV, Johnson, who is now a businessman and philanthropist, has long used his fame to raise public awareness of the virus that causes AIDS. But the appearance of his usually camera-shy wife in the public-service announcements that began airing in July on cable TV and YouTube is a sign of a growing outspokenness among African-Americans about the community's disproportionately high HIV rates.

We just watched the best U.S. men's basketball team to play in the Olympics since at least 1996. But is the Redeem Team better than the Dream Team? Come on. Here's a little exercise. I'm coaching the 1992 team. You tell me how you're going to beat me with the 2008 team. You probably want to create turnovers and run our older legs off the court. But I can start three guys - Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson - who bring the ball upcourt. They're all 6-foot-6 or taller, and they can all pass.

Cue up CBS's theme music from the 1980s and imagine Brent Musburger setting the scene. Yes, it's time for a Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers showdown in the NBA Finals, the first in 21 years. Instead of Bird, Magic, Kareem and the Chief, we have Kevin Garnett questing for his first ring and Kobe Bryant trying to prove he can do it without Shaquille O'Neal. But one thing remains the same. This matchup makes casual sports fans care about the NBA. So to get you ready, here's a little Celtics-Lakers nostalgia: Five best games 1. 1984 Finals, Game 4: One of the most intense games in NBA history.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Earvin "Magic" Johnson used to dominate the basketball court. Now, a team of restaurant developers is helping him own the food court, too. Sodexho USA's Retail Brand Group, an Allentown subsidiary of the Gaithersburg-based food services giant, is working with hoops legend Johnson to develop three restaurant concepts through his Magic John Enterprises that will trade on Johnson's sports and business success. Plans call for a sports bar, a sandwich shop and a Magic Johnson Marketplace food court, brand group officials said this week.

Like many others Tuesday night, sports marketing analyst Dean Bonham watched Kobe Bryant knock down a late three-pointer that might have saved the Los Angeles Lakers' season. The lack of a white American superstar in Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Lakers and the Detroit Pistons failed to register with Bonham, even as the issue was about to come front-and-center yesterday. Hall of Fame player and Indiana Pacers general manager Larry Bird prescribed more white stars in an interview scheduled to air tonight on an ESPN special.

Basketball legend Earvin Johnson is about to try to work his magic on NASCAR. So far, everything the former Los Angeles Laker has tried has turned golden. When he left basketball, he developed Magic Johnson Enterprises, taking businesses that avoided urban areas into ethnically diverse neighborhoods. Today, he has 70 Starbucks in 38 cities in 13 states, five movie theaters and two restaurants. He has 10,000 minority workers and 225 minority students on college scholarships. In a news conference yesterday, Johnson was introduced as the co-chairman of NASCAR's Executive Steering Committee for Diversity, a group that aims to increase involvement by minorities in the sport.