Byron Scott Pro Stars Basketball : Kids Benefit From Magic Moments

This Day in Sports, Aug. 18, 1989: The Orlando Magic outscored the World Champion Detroit Pistons.

The Orlando Magic s hut out the World Champion Detroit Pistons.

This, of course, is possible only in a rare clime. Say, perhaps, the Byron Scott Challenge for Children all-star game Friday at UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

No Pistons were in attendance.

Can’t trust the U.S. Mail to deliver an engraved invitation these days, Byron?

Bill Laimbeer previously engaged? We understand.

“It’s nothing personal,” Scott said.

Of course.

“The Pistons have two or three guys I’d like to have play--Rick Mahorn and Vinnie Johnson are two--but they were involved with camps,” Scott said, still considering Mahorn a Piston even though Minneapolis claimed him in the expansion draft.

Somehow, a good enough time was had by the sellout crowd of 4,800--despite the conspicuous absences.

The Magic--Orlando’s, not LA’s--scored 58 points Friday, 30 by Reggie Theus (until recently a Sacramento King), and 28 by Sidney Green (formerly a New York Knick).

They were opponents for the last time for some time Friday, Green playing for Scott’s White team, which defeated Theus’ and Michael Cooper’s Red team, 153-144.

Cliff Levingston of the Atlanta Hawks led all scorers with 36 points, playing for the White. Scott had three and Cooper had 17.

The reality of the Magic has not fully set in, with the public or with the players.

“Magic,” Green said to the officials’ table when he passed by after scoring in the first half. “Orlando Magic.”

His baskets had been credited to the Knicks.

Someone asked Theus what he thought of the Magic’s first showing.

“Who?” he responded. “Oh yeah. I get all the Mickey Mouse jokes. But I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. The only thing that will lack at first is the wins, but I think we had a better draft starting out than the other expansion teams (Miami and Charlotte in 1988), and Charlotte won a lot of games.”

There was some slapstick ballhandling along with the sharp passing. Much of the sharp stuff was by the Clippers’ Gary Grant, whose slinky drives helped him score 24 points for the White.

And there was some good judgment, such as that of Utah’s Darrell Griffith when he stopped short of chasing the ball into a television monitor.

“Ain’t the time of year for that,” said Griffith, who had 24 points.

“Good decision,” a teammate called.

But the evening, after all, was about children, a benefit performance for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, the Samaritan Medical Center of San Clemente and the South County Community Clinic.

And there were plenty of children in attendance, including a strong contingent of NBA heirs who cavorted on the court while their fathers stretched.

“It was a fun game, and that’s just what we wanted,” Scott said.