Magic Johnson loves what teenagers LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony have accomplished as rookies and is disappointed they weren't picked to play in the NBA All-Star Game.
"LeBron and Carmelo have brought so much interest, they should have made it," Johnson said Friday. "They backed it up with their game. You can't tell me they shouldn't be part of the game. I understand that they've got to earn their stripes, so to speak.
"They're good guys. And they've made the other guys work harder at their game."
James and Anthony, both 19, played in Johnson's charity game last summer.
"Both young men have brought a great freshness, a great smile back to the game," Johnson said. "Nobody wants to smile. We've got to get back to smiling, destroying their man at the same time."
The All-Star game will be played Feb. 15 at Staples Center -- its first time in the area since 1983 when the game was played at the Forum in Inglewood.
That was one of 11 All-Star games Johnson played in as a member of the Lakers.
James, averaging nearly 21 points for Cleveland, and Anthony, averaging 19 for Denver, will play with first-year players in the Rookie Challenge on Friday night of All-Star weekend against a team of second-year players.
Johnson left Michigan State University after his sophomore season and was 20 when he played his first NBA game in 1979. He was known for his engaging smile throughout a brilliant career that was suddenly halted in November 1991 when he tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS.
He returned to play half a season for the Lakers in 1996 before retiring for good.
Johnson recalled his most memorable All-Star game -- the 1992 contest in Orlando when he played despite having retired for the first time. He had 25 points and nine assists in a 153-113 victory by the West and won MVP honors.
"That was the best All-Star game for me," Johnson said, recalling the hugs he received from players on both teams. "So much has changed. You have to remember, that was 12 years ago. A few players were against me at that time [because of the virus]. A lot of people thought I wouldn't be here. Here I am."
Of the last 12 years, Johnson said: "It's almost been like a blur."
Now 44, Johnson said he works out five times a week between his business endeavors and public appearances, and feels great.
"I'm happy two times -- when I'm working out and when I'm working," he said. "I'm always thinking about my next thing."
A minority owner and vice president with the Lakers, Johnson has been very successful in the business world. He also established the Magic Johnson Foundation, which has worked to raise funds for community-based organizations dealing with HIV/AIDS education and provide programs to meet the educational needs of urban residents.
A bronze statue of Johnson standing more than 4 meters tall and weighing 1,260kg will be unveiled Wednesday outside Staples Center near a statue of hockey great Wayne Gretzky.
Hawks 100, Celtics 96
The Atlanta Hawks won consecutive games for the first time this season, getting 23 points from Shareef Adbur-Rahim and 22 from Stephen Jackson in a 100-96 victory over the Boston Celtics on Friday night.
"We hurt ourselves with turnovers but it was a win and a win on the road, so we'll take it," said Adbur-Rahim.
It was the Celtics' sixth straight loss and their fifth in a row under interim head coach John Carroll, who took over on Jan. 27 when Jim O'Brien resigned.
The Hawks held a 15-point lead at halftime but watched it disappear in the fourth quarter. After Jackson hit a 3-pointer with 54 seconds left to give the Hawks a 97-92 lead, Paul Pierce hit four throws to cut the Hawks' lead to 97-96 with 17 seconds remaining.
"Anytime you make them turn the ball over 29 times, you should expect to come away with a win," said Pierce, who had 28 points and 10 rebounds.
Pacers 83, Raptors 77
In Toronto, Ron Artest scored 27 points, Jermaine O'Neal added 20 and Al Harrington 19 as the Eastern Conference-leading Indiana Pacers beat Toronto.
Donyell Marshall had 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Raptors.
Wizards 112, Clippers 110
In Washington, Gilbert Arenas scored 25 points and Jerry Stackhouse added 23 as Washington scored 25 of the game's first 28 points to end the Los Angeles Clippers' three-game road winning streak.
Kwame Brown added 22 points and Larry Hughes had 21 points and 12 rebounds.
Los Angeles, bidding for its first four-game road winning streak since March, 1982, got 24 points from Quentin Richardson and 22 from Corey Maggette. The Clippers are 3-2 on a nine-game road trip -- the longest in the NBA this season.
Timberwolves 103, Cavaliers 92
In Minneapolis, Kevin Garnett had 35 points and 12 rebounds, including a huge fourth quarter as Minnesota beat Cleveland.
Latrell Sprewell added 24 points, seven assists and a hand in LeBron James' face most of the night for Minnesota, which won its 14th straight at home and is an NBA-best 26-6 since Dec. 1.
Jeff McInnis scored 21 points and James added 14 for the Cavaliers, who dropped to 5-3 since acquiring McInnis in a trade with Portland.
Fred Hoiberg had eight of his 10 points in final eight minutes for the Timberwolves. He and Sprewell hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put Minnesota up 97-88 with less than four minutes remaining.
Nets 120, Magic 99
In East Rutherford, New Jersey, Jason Kidd had 18 points, 13 assists, six rebounds and a 3-pointer that cracked the 100-point mark at the end of third quarter as New Jersey downed Orlando.
The victory was the Nets' seventh straight, and their sixth in a row since Frank replaced Byron Scott less than two weeks ago for the two-time defending Eastern Conference champions.
Grizzlies 105, Bucks 85
In Memphis, Tennessee, Pau Gasol, booed in his last home game, scored 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Memphis beat Milwaukee to tie a franchise record for victories.
The win was the Grizzlies' third straight and matched their 28 victories from last season -- the most in franchise history.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier